Students’ Perceptions of Materials and Techniques Used at European Dental Schools in the Education of Fixed Prosthodontics

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the materials and procedures used by students in dental schools across Europe for teaching ixed prosthodontics. An online questionnaire, containing twenty-eight dichotomous, multiple-choice, and Likert scale rating questions, was sent to students in forty dental schools. After excluding dental schools in which less than 10 percent of the students responded, 775 questionnaires from ten schools remained for statistical analysis. Among these respondents, acrylic resin teeth were said to be the most commonly used material during preclinical practice (46-96 percent), and use of extracted teeth varied from 8 to 65 percent. At nine of the ten institutions, metal-ceramic was reported to be most commonly used for ixed dental prostheses. There was large variation in the type of inish line for a metal-ceramic ixed dental prosthesis: students at ive institutions reported using a shoulder inish line, three a chamfer inish line, and two a shoulder-bevel inish line. A similar variation was observed with regard to the inal cementation of metal-ceramic ixed dental prostheses: students at four institutions reporting most frequently using glass ionomer cement, with three using zinc phosphate cement and three using carboxylate cement. The responding European dental students varied considerably in their opinions about whether they were preclinically properly trained for the irst preparation on a patient and in their overall rating of their education in ixed prosthodontics. Responding students in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Nijmegen, The Netherlands, rated their ixed prosthodontics training overall the highest. Overall, this study found a wide variation amongst dental schools with regard to their education in ixed prosthodontics and their rating of this teaching.Dr. Brand is Assistant Professor,

Dental Students’ Perceived Clinical Competence in Prosthodontics: Comparison of Traditional and Problem‐Based Learning Methodologies

“…There are probably many valid and effective models for building competence in prosthodontics. If we used the clinical competence data regarding the fixed partial dentures as a proxy of the students’ global rating of their fixed prosthodontics education, using a 0–10 range, our results (6.6±1.5 for PBL students; 7.6±1.1 for traditional students) were within the average range of 5.6±2.2 reported by students at Ljubljana University (Slovenia) to 8.0±1.1 found among students at Nijmegen University (Netherlands) reported by Brand et al 20 Moreover, we did not find any significant differences regarding gender, which is in agreement with Walley et al's findings 18 …”

“…As pointed out by Scott, there is still large variability in the number of credits assigned to prosthodontics across Spanish dental schools (from 18 to 30 ECTS) 19 . Furthermore, Brand et al's study found considerable variation among ten European dental schools (from Finland, France, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and the UK) regarding the teaching of fixed prosthodontics, concluding that dental curricula varied in prosthodontics training with regard to the year in which teaching begins (from year 2 to 5) and in the materials and techniques used for fixed prosthodontics, as well as the compulsory number of treatments students must perform before graduating 20 …”

Subjective Assessment of Croatian Dental Medicine Students on Their Knowledge and Skills in Prosthodontics

“…Similar results were obtained by Brand et al who conducted research on students' assessment of materials and methods in learning of fixed prosthodontics among several dental medicine study programs in Europe. ( 19 ) The results show that dental medicine courses of study which start earlier with preclinical learning have higher ratings in terms of preparedness of students for clinical work, as well as a higher overall rating of courses in fixed prosthodontics. It is interesting to notice that assessment of preparedness of students for clinical work, as well as overall assessment of quality of learning did not correlate with the year of study of the students who participated in the study.…”

The Confidence of Undergraduate Dental Students When Undertaking Indirect Restorations

“…It has previously been reported that there is widespread variation in the number of indirect restorations that UK dental schools expect students to complete prior to qualification [15,31,32]. Some schools reported that they do not have a minimum number of fixed dental prostheses that their students have to complete because their program is competency-based.…”

“…Some schools reported that they do not have a minimum number of fixed dental prostheses that their students have to complete because their program is competency-based. Whether schools have minimum requirements or not, it is essential that students are clearly informed of any requirements with sufficient notice in order for them to be achieved [32]. Bristol Dental School is currently implementing a new curriculum and a major component of this will be to move all practical restorative manikin teaching to earlier within the curriculum.…”