An investigation into the oral surgery curriculum and undergraduate experience in a sample of DFT's in the UK

Abstract

Aim There is conflicting evidence concerning the ability of recent graduates to meet the standards required in exodontia to be independent practitioners. In particular, there is a lack of confidence in surgical extractions. This study evaluated Foundation Trainee's confidence levels in their oral surgery experience and the teaching of oral surgery in UK dental schools. Materials and Methods Two separate studies were carried out, and the first was a survey to all foundation trainees in the Yorkshire and Humber Deanary in 2019 which analysed their oral surgery experience and confidence levels. The second study surveyed all Dental Schools in the UK with regard to their contact hours, assessment methods, instruments taught and number of extractions in oral surgery for their undergraduate programmes. Results There was a response rate of 52% for the foundation trainees which showed that they were confident in performing non‐surgical extractions but lacked confidence with surgical extractions. There was a positive correlation between the amount of undergraduate experience and confidence levels in exodontia. The second survey which had a response rate of 71% showed variations in the numbers of hours taught for oral surgery, instruments taught and assessment methods, with the structured clinical operative test used more commonly. On average, 41 non‐surgical extractions were performed by students before graduation and two surgical extractions. Conclusion There is a need to identify how oral surgery teaching can be improved in UK dental schools to ensure that foundation trainees are more confident and competent in both surgical and non‐surgical exodontia. In addition, teaching and assessment methods need to be developed to reflect such requirements.

Perceived confidence of dental students and new graduates in performing tooth extractions—An exploratory study

“…The results of this study show that increased clinical exposure improves the confidence of students and new graduates in dealing with increasingly complex cases of tooth extractions. These findings are consistent with a recent study on foundation dentists in the United Kingdom 19 . However, the confidence tends to plateau indicating that further experience as an independent practitioner is required to deal with complicated cases.…”

“…In addition, the challenges of managing patient anxiety and achieving adequate pain control when undertaking tooth extractions under local anaesthesia may impact student confidence adversely. The findings of this study reiterate the need to improve the training of dental students and new graduates to improve their confidence in tooth extractions 19,22 …”

Students' experience and perceptions of undergraduate endodontic education in New Zealand

“…This study highlights graduating dental students' clinical experiences and perceptions of knowledge, confidence and anxiety related to endodontic teaching and supervised clinical practice. The response rate above 70% was high for an online survey and better than some other surveys in NZ and internationally [4, 10, 12, 13]. Surveys are time and context‐specific and while students graduating in 2020 were impacted by the emerging COVID‐19 pandemic, the perceptions of both cohorts of students were similar reflecting the findings of others [4, 10].…”

An evaluation of referrer factors for 98,671 referrals made to the West Yorkshire oral surgery managed clinical network over a three-year period

“…There is a body of published work that explores the self-reported confidence of registrants and included reports that new foundation trainees have low confidence levels with regards to OS. 12,13 There has been a related focus on the undergraduate and dental foundation training in OS and whether this is sufficient. It might be expected that referral numbers would peak in the years immediately following completion of foundation training, one year after first GDC registration for UK graduates.…”