Enhancing Dental Students’ Understanding of Behavior Management in Pediatric Dentistry: A Comparison of Two Teaching Methods

Abstract

Aim Communication, behavioral, and attitudinal skills are an integral part of teaching behavior management to dental undergraduate students. Due to the complexity of these skills, clinical teaching through the didactic method imparts minimal capacity for adopting a deep approach to learning. The implications of role play and group discussion could be an opportunity to facilitate such learning outcomes. The objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare the efficacy of role play and group discussion as teaching-learning methods for behavior management in pediatric dentistry. Material and methods The study was carried out with 92 final-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) undergraduate students at Sharad Pawar Dental College and Hospital, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, India. The Tell-Show-Do and non-pharmacological behavior management techniques were taught to the intervention and control groups by the role-play and group discussion methods, respectively. To assess knowledge gain, a pre-test and post-test were conducted. To evaluate the acquisition of communication, behavioral, and attitudinal skills, students were made to perform a clinical procedure, i.e. placement of pit and fissure sealant in primary molars. Each student was evaluated by direct observation using a checklist. Results The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the post-test scores of the role-play and group discussion methods, with average values of 8.57±0.98 and 6.97±0.12, respectively ( p= 0.020). The average scores of communication and attitudinal skills among the intervention and control groups were 19.70±0.87 and 13.98±1.51, respectively ( p =0.027). Hence, the role-play method was found to be a highly effective method. Conclusion Role-play as a teaching tool was highly effective in instilling behavior management skills among students to deal with young patients in clinical situations as compared to the group discussion method. The difference is depicted in higher scores in the intervention group.