Dental Students’ Ability to Assess Gingival Health Status with DAAGS Software

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of dental students at different levels of education (Basic, Preclinic, and Clinic groups) to assess the level of gingival health status by using the Development of Ability to Assess Gingival Status (DAAGS) computer software program designed according to the Oral Rating Index (ORI) criteria. Two hundred and thirteen dental students at three levels of dental education voluntarily participated in three DAAGS tests in which they judged twenty-four photos. The three groups were first-and second-year dental students (Basic), third-and fourth-year dental students who had not yet participated in the clinical periodontology course (Preclinic), and fifth-year dental students who had completed the clinical periodontology course (Clinic). A gold standard of each photo was shown after completing Test 1, and then Test 2 was conducted immediately. Two weeks later, the third test was performed. Analyses of differences among the groups and between the tests for each groups were carried out by using Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Sign Rank tests, respectively. Students were asked to evaluate the DAAGS by written survey. Most of the students had a positive opinion. There were significant differences among the groups for correct and irrelevant answers and overall ability (p<0.001). The Basic group showed a significant (p<0.01) improvement between Test 1 and Test 2. This improvement was greater than Preclinic students and almost equal to Clinic students. The findings from this study indicate that the DAAGS software can serve as a useful instructional tool for education.

Turkish Dental Students’ and Dentists’ Ability to Assess Gingival Health Status with DAAGS Software

“…The correct score according to the GS of each photo was shown after the participants completed test 1; then, test 2 was conducted immediately. The time for judgment was ten seconds for each photo in both tests 7. The OnTime method in VBA was used to run a procedure periodically 8.…”

“…DAAGS test results were evaluated as follows on four measures7: correct answers were the number of correct answers out of twenty‐four photos; for five pairs of identical oral pictures, reproducibility indicated the number of pairs in which the examinee's diagnosis was the same; irrelevant answers were the number of cases in which an examinee's absolute value of diagnosis differed from the correct score according to the GS by three or more points; finally, each examinee received an overall ability score for each test separately. The overall ability scores were calculated according to the following criteria: 1) if the correct answers were more than eight but less than twelve, the examinee received one point; if twelve or more, the examinee received two points; 2) if the reproducibility was two pairs out of five pairs, the examinee received one point; if the reproducibility was three pairs or more, the examinee received two points; and 3) if the number of irrelevant answers was zero or one, the examinee received one point.…”

“…Using the ORI criteria, Dr. Makoto Kawamura developed the Development of Ability to Assess Gingival Status (DAAGS) computer software. This software consists of two courses—group and private—and three subcourses: 1) the beginners’ course for youth, 2) the advanced course for oral health instructors, and 3) the superlative course for researchers 7…”

“…We previously tested the DAAGS among Turkish freshman (basic), preclinical, and clinical dental students 7. Two hundred and thirteen students at these three levels of dental education voluntarily participated in tests in which they judged twenty‐four photos.…”

Decision Support Systems and Technologies Used in Periodontology

“…Also important is the fact that Basic group showed a significant improvement which indicates that the DAAGS software can be considered an instructive tool for education. Authors concluded that DAAGS would be useful to dental students before clinical training and also an helpful tool for calibration of dental employees (Camgoz, M., et al, 2008). Other application used on periodontoly learning stage is the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), a web-based database application, divided into 6 sections (history taking, clinical examination, Xrays, diagnosis, treatment planning and prognosis, and log) where the learner uses free text communication on the screen to interact with patient data.…”