The Impact of Educational Intervention on Junior Dentists’ Capacity to Detect Oral Mucosal Lesions and Suspect Malignant Potential

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of Continuing Education (CE) activity on junior dentists' competency to identify oral mucosal abnormalities those suggestive of oral cancer or potentially malignant disorders. Materials and Methods: This multiphase study administered a pre-validated quiz to dental interns and junior dentists. The quiz was designed to assess the respondent's competency to recognize different oral lesions and stratify their potential for malignancy. Invited candidates attempted the quiz and then attended an informative half-day workshop focused on identifying oral mucosal changes, diagnosing various oral lesions, and recognizing the risk factors and features that suggest the malignant potential of oral lesions. The post-intervention survey was sent to the workshop attendees by 7 months. Results: 67 out of 110 invitees attended the workshop, with an overall response rate of 60.1%. In the initial quiz, the overall accuracy of diagnosis was 55.1±9.04%. The participants correctly identified most normal variations (80.60±5.05), but less than half of the benign lesions (40.96±8.30) and potentially malignant lesions (43.62±6.02). The malignant lesions were correctly diagnosed by 55.22±3.98% of the participants. The CE intervention has improved the overall diagnostic accuracy (74.81±5.84% (p,0.015); benign to 70.18±6.68% (p,0.02), the potentially malignant lesions to 62.99±4.63% (p,0.01). Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of CE activity in improving the role of dentists in the detection of oral cancer. CE activity has remarkably enhanced the junior dentists' ability to accurately diagnose various oral lesions and effectively stratify their malignant potential.

Clinical competency of dental health professionals and students in diagnosing oral mucosal lesions

“…Concerning OPMDs, the scenario was more surprising, where no difference in diagnostic accuracy was reported between practising dental health professionals and final-year dental students. The trend of incompetency in detecting OPMDs is a historical issue in the literature, where previous studies reported diagnostic accuracies of up to 40% (Gaballah et al, 2021;Gaballah & Kujan, 2022).…”

“…Concerning OPMDs, the scenario was more surprising, where no difference in diagnostic accuracy was reported between practising dental health professionals and final‐year dental students. The trend of incompetency in detecting OPMDs is a historical issue in the literature, where previous studies reported diagnostic accuracies of up to 40% (Gaballah et al, 2021; Gaballah & Kujan, 2022). Likewise, a previous comparative study that used clinical images for diagnosis found low and comparable results between dental students and general dental practitioners regarding OPMD diagnostic accuracy, ranging between 32% and 35% (Gaballah et al, 2021).…”

“…Nonetheless, they may need more clinical skills to apply this knowledge in real clinical settings, especially because attending CPD modules in oral medicine did not improve their diagnostic skills. It has been reported that educational intervention based on real clinical scenarios significantly improves general dental practitioners' ability to recognise OPMDs (Brailo et al, 2022; Gaballah & Kujan, 2022). This is consistent with our findings, where the capability of the dental students in diagnosing OPMDs and oral malignant lesions improved significantly after exposure to clinical cases in oral medicine clinics.…”

“…Recently, several adjunctive aids to detect OPMDs have been proposed and validated (Idrees, Farah, et al, 2022; Idrees, Shearston, et al, 2022; Walsh et al, 2021). Although these tools are yet to be adapted to daily clinical use, the operator's knowledge and training are still indispensable in appropriate case selection especially when taking into account findings that the ability of general dental practitioners to correctly triage oral lesions does not exceed 60% (Gaballah et al, 2021; Gaballah & Kujan, 2022; Seoane et al, 2006).…”