Archives

Introduction: Dental anatomy is a basic course in Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) curriculum that is fundamental for establishing a solid dentistry background and the necessary knowledge to all aspects of dental practice.Tooth carving is an integral part of teaching oral anatomy.

Objective: To assess undergraduate students’ perception regarding tooth carving exercise.

Materials and Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted during March-April 2020 among 116 undergraduate dental students at College of Dental Surgery, BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. Convenience sampling method was used. A semi-structured proforma consisting of sociodemographic data and questions on perception of tooth carving and the feedback was prepared. The questions were closed-ended having five-point Likert scale. Google form was prepared and the link was emailed to the participants. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Committee. Descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation, percentage and frequency were calculatedusing Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 22.0).

Result: Out of 116 students, 82 (70.7%) strongly agreed that the carving exercise helped a lot to understand tooth morphology. Seventy-two (62.1%) students strongly agreed that the carving exercise helped better in tooth identification in clinics. Few students commented on incorporation of carving tutorial videos in carving session.

Conclusion: Tooth carving exercise is unrivalled for teaching tooth anatomy to undergraduate students. This module appears to help BDS students to learn dental anatomy efficiently. Further introducing new methods or teaching technique is required to make it more interesting to the students.

Dental; feedback; students.