Student Evaluation of Tangible and Intangible Components of Oral Medicine Education: A Cross-Sectional Survey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22317/jcms.v12i3.2186Keywords:
Oral Medicine, Education, Dental, Curriculum, Students, DentalAbstract
Objective: To evaluate the oral medicine knowledge, readiness, and attitudes of final-year undergraduate dental students at the Faculty of Dental Sciences.
Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted using Google Forms and included 261 fifth-year dental students. The questionnaire items were based on a Likert scale. The student-based assessment of their level of knowledge regarding different oral medicine topics was validated for internal consistency. For further assessment, oral medicine topics were categorized as tangible and intangible.
Results: Almost 78% of respondents considered oral medicine essential to the undergraduate dental curriculum. Nearly half of the participants (47.9%) concluded that oral medicine knowledge is extremely important to their professional expertise. Low to moderate ratings regarding the importance of oral medicine were reported by less than 22% of the respondents. A significant relationship was found between the perceived importance of oral medicine in undergraduate education and its clinical usefulness (P < 0.001). The vast majority of students (229; 87.7%) believed that oral medicine is primarily related to oral pathology, whereas only 32 (12.3%) believed that it is related to other clinical specialties. Students considered ulcerative vesiculobullous lesions to be the most difficult topic, followed by the oral manifestations of systemic disease. Their self-assessment of learning in ulcerative vesiculobullous lesions and orofacial pain reflected poor knowledge of these topics.
Conclusions: From an educational perspective, although ulcerative vesiculobullous lesions and oral manifestations of systemic disease are practically tangible topics, students evaluated them as complex issues comparable to intangible disorders such as orofacial pain. These topics require greater emphasis during undergraduate clinical training through a multifaceted educational approach. In addition, integration of the educational and clinical aspects of the dental curriculum appears to be a crucial factor in enhancing students' knowledge.
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