Practical skills training influences knowledge and attitude of dental students towards emergency medical care

Background: Medical emergencies in dental practice are generally perceived as being rare. Nonetheless, recent studies have shown that incidents occur on a regular basis. Therefore, patients have the right to expect necessary skills to manage life‐threatening situations from every dentist. Objective: To observe students’ attitude and self‐assessment towards emergency medical care (EMC) and its practical appliance. Material and methods: Students of dentistry took part in small group sessions for adult and paediatric basic life support. Participants filled out pre–post questionnaires regarding knowledge and attitude towards EMC (6, respectively, 10‐point Likert scale). Additionally, feedback was asked for the quality of course and tutors. Results: Forty dental students in their last 2 years of study registered for the EMC courses. The majority had never attended any first‐aid course; the mean age was 25% and 75% were women. A comparison between pre‐ and post‐evaluation showed that the participation in practical training easily enhances the students’ awareness of EMC importance as well as self‐confidence in managing emergencies. After the course, 71% shared the opinion that retraining should be obligatory for all medical personnel. At the same time, students’ self‐assessment of confidence for specific tasks got significant upgrades in every aspect. Conclusion: The evaluation data clearly show the participants’ needs to deal with topics of EMC within the curriculum of dentistry. The proposed course is able to change participants’ attitudes towards EMC and its importance for their daily practice. The considerable enhancement of self‐confidence in performing EMC‐techniques might also lead to more willingness to manage emergency situations.     

Basic science knowledge of dental students on conventional and problem-based learning (PBL) courses at Liverpool

This cross-sectional study investigated performances of two consecutive cohorts of second year dental students on completion of a conventional didactic course and two succeeding cohorts of second year dental students on a recently introduced problem-based learning (PBL) course at The University of Liverpool School of Dentistry. A 40 part true/false questionnaire tested recall of factual knowledge in anatomy, biochemistry, oral biology and physiology. The results showed no significant difference in the total scores when negatively marked between the conventional and PBL course groups but higher total scores in the PBL groups when positively marked. Performances in anatomy, oral biology and physiology did not differ between the groups when negatively marked but the scores of the conventional course groups in biochemistry were significantly lower than the others. With positive marking biochemistry scores were not significantly different but all other subjects were significantly higher in the PBL course groups. The PBL course groups offered fewer blank responses than the conventional course groups but the ratio of correct to incorrect responses, for both definite and intelligent guess responses, were similar in these groups. The compositional profile of the study groups was similar with respect to educational background but the PBL course groups included more females and more older students. The results of this study show that the overall knowledge recall in the basic sciences by dental students on PBL or conventional didactic courses does not differ and may be helpful to those considering the introduction of PBL into the curriculum.     

Validity of self‐reported sleep bruxism among myofascial temporomandibular disorder patients and controls

Sleep bruxism (SB), primarily involving rhythmic grinding of the teeth during sleep, has been advanced as a causal or maintenance factor for a variety of oro‐facial problems, including temporomandibular disorders (TMD). As laboratory polysomnographic (PSG) assessment is extremely expensive and time‐consuming, most research testing this belief has relied on patient self‐report of SB. The current case–control study examined the accuracy of those self‐reports relative to laboratory‐based PSG assessment of SB in a large sample of women suffering from chronic myofascial TMD (n = 124) and a demographically matched control group without TMD (n = 46). A clinical research coordinator administered a structured questionnaire to assess self‐reported SB. Participants then spent two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory. Audiovisual and electromyographic data from the second night were scored to assess whether participants met criteria for the presence of 2 or more (2+) rhythmic masticatory muscle activity episodes accompanied by grinding sounds, moderate SB, or severe SB, using previously validated research scoring standards. Contingency tables were constructed to assess positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity and specificity, and 95% confidence intervals surrounding the point estimates. Results showed that self‐report significantly predicted 2+ grinding sounds during sleep for TMD cases. However, self‐reported SB failed to significantly predict the presence or absence of either moderate or severe SB as assessed by PSG, for both cases and controls. These data show that self‐report of tooth grinding awareness is highly unlikely to be a valid indicator of true SB. Studies relying on self‐report to assess SB must be viewed with extreme caution.