Correlation between handwriting, drawing skills and dental skills of junior dental students

Learning fine motor skills is a pre-requisite for succeeding in dental practice and it is sometimes challenging for dental students. Most of the methods used in the selection process depend on evaluation of intellectual ability or structured interview while manual competence is not. However, no test on aptitude or manual dexterity is used as criteria. Objective: The purpose of the present study intended to evaluate the fine motor skills of beginning dental students which could in turn be used as a method of selection of students for the dental degree admission process. Materials and methods: A study was conducted among 71 second year dental students at College of Dentistry, King Saud University in Riyadh. A test composed of three parts, writing an answer for a question in four lines, drawing a picture of a smile and doing a class 1 amalgam preparation on a plastic molar tooth. The students were evaluated based on their handwriting, basic drawing skills and their skills in performing the tooth preparation by experts in each fields following certain criteria. Results: The results showed a significant correlation between writing and drawing skills and dental skills of the student with p < 0.001. Conclusions: The results of the current study support the use of the writing or drawing test as one of the test used for the applicants for dental school admission. However, the value given to such test in the selection of students needs further investigations and consensus.