Knowledge about Pediatric Oral Health and Treatment in a University Setting

Hypothesis and Objective: Faculty and residents will score higher than the dental students having more education and experience. Pediatric dental residents and faculty will have more pediatric oral health knowledge than those not affiliated with the program. Those with children will have better scores than those without children. The purpose was to determine whether dental students, residents and their educational faculty are knowledgeable about basic preventative and treatment recommendations based on the AAPD guidelines. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to current D3 and D4 dental students, 95 residents among the 6 specialties and current part-time and full-time clinical faculty. The questionnaire consisted of 13 questions regarding preventative practices, dietary recommendations and treatment standards that have been cited within the AAPD guidelines. The scale of correct answers was calculated by summing the dichotomized responses of correct/incorrect into an overall total score as well as 3 subdomains of preventative practices, diet and habits, and treatment-related questions. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze the ordinal outcome variables of the total answers correct as well as outcomes in the subdomains. All significant correlates with the summary score were entered into a multiple logistic regression equation. Non-significant predictors were dropped from the initial model and a final model was estimated with only significant predictors. Results: 58 fully completed surveys were analyzed. These included 22 dental students, 14 residents (71% pediatrics) and 22 faculty members. Statistically significant differences in the overall scores were observed as pediatric residents/faculty scored higher than non-pediatric students/residents/faculty. Females consistently and significantly outperformed the average non-pediatric performance. Those without children scored significantly higher in the mean overall score and preventative scores (p=0.023, p<0.001). Conclusions: Our data identifies potential areas of pediatric dentistry knowledge that could be improved in both dental student and faculty education.