Introduction to Early Clinical Exposure of Second Year Undergraduate Dental Students in Classroom-Based Settings

Introduction: Dentistry by its very nature is hands-on. A lack of patient exposure/ interaction in the first two years of the undergraduate course can lead to dissociation between the applied aspects and theoretical aspects of the subject. The major objectives of the study were to develop an ECE module and execute it and to check if it made any difference in the applied part of the topic and in intermediate term retention of the topic. Method: Two topics of equivalent difficulty were chosen for the study. An ECE module consisting of a patient treatment video and handout was prepared for the control topic. A pre-test consisting of equal number of application- and recall-based MCQ's was taken followed by the intervention. This was followed by a post-test and feedback from the students about ECE. The same test was repeated after 90 days to check for intermediate-term retention. Results: A statistically significant difference was observed in the application-based MCQ scores between the study topic and control topic. Though there was no difference in total scores between the study and the control topic in the test taken after 90 days, but the difference in the application-based MCQ's persisted. The students liked the teaching methodology and wanted it to be used for other topics. Conclusion: ECE in the classroom setting has a positive impact on the application-based component of the topic and make the topic more interesting for the students. Keywords: Dental education, dental materials, early clinical exposure