Aligning clinical assessment with course elements in prosthodontic dentistry: a South African case

Clinical tests were introduced and implemented as an additional clinical assessment tool in the Prosthodontic curriculum of the fourth year undergraduate dentistry program at one South African university. This study compared the relationship between the students’ performance in the clinical tests and daily clinical grades on the one hand with their theoretical performance on the other. It also explored the perceptions of the academic staff on the validity of clinical tests as a clinical assessment tool. An analysis of the test results of fourth-year dental students showed insignificant relationships between students’ clinical daily grade assessment marks and their marks for assessing theory. However, clinical assessment via tests is well accepted by the course staff and they perceived them to be more reliable than daily clinical grade assessment methods. The findings of the study support other reported studies which concluded that the daily grade of Dentistry students poorly correlate with their competency exams module. The findings also relate well with the lecturers’ views that clinical tests were more reliable as a clinical assessment tool than students’ daily clinical mark.Web of Scienc

The way forward with dental student communication at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

Dental students are extensively trained to provide dental treatment to their patients during the undergraduate programme. However, no or little time is spent on the training of basic communication skills. Embedding a communication course in the curriculum would require support of the teaching staff and clinical teachers. To explore the perceptions of the clinical teachers with regard to the teaching and learning of dental student communication. The study had a two-phase, sequential, exploratory, mixed-methods research design. The first phase explored the lecturers' perceptions of dental student-patient communication by means of a focus group interview (n=5). Findings were used to develop the questionnaire for the second phase. The survey was distributed to 57 clinical teachers using the online SurveyMonkey system (USA). Sixty-three percent rated dental student-patient communication as good. All the respondents thought communication skills should be included in the dental curriculum. Of the total, 47% strongly agreed that students wish to continue with their work and not attend to communication. Of the clinical teachers, 47% strongly agreed that they need training on how to communicate and assess communication skills. Sixty-eight percent strongly agreed that developing and teaching a communication module should be shared among faculty staff. Clinical teachers agreed that communication skills training and clinical assessment in the dental curriculum are important. The study raised awareness among faculty members about the importance of communication skills and ensured initial buy-in for the development of such a course

The whitening effect of four different commercial denture cleansers on stained acrylic resin

Denture hygiene and denture cleansers are very important for their antimicrobial effect and also in removing stain from the dentures. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Steradent, Corega, Dentalmate and Fitty Dent in improving the colour of stained, polished-and unpolished, acrylic specimens and to determine which colour component should be the visual impression factor. Samples of stained acrylic specimens were severally exposed once to one or other of the denture cleansers. The colour components (L*, a* and b*) of the specimens were measured with a spectrophotometer before and after exposure to one of the four products. In general there was only a slight non-significant improvement (p>0.05) in the yellowness (a*) and redness (b*) of the acrylic samples as a result of a single treatment with any of the four stain removal products. However, the L* value was mainly negatively influenced. The differences (ΔE*ab; ΔL*; Δa* and Δb*) between before and after treatment for any one of the four products were also not statistically significant on a 5% level (Kruskal Wallis nonparametric test). Conclusion: A small improvement of the yellowness and redness could be seen even after a single treatment. This was found for all four commercially available denture cleansers on polished and on non-polished specimens. From the relative magnitudes of L*, a* and b* which contribute to the overall colour value (ΔE*ab) it was statistically confirmed that the brightness/lightness component (L*) should be the visual impression factor.Department of HE and Training approved lis