Dentistry undergraduates' knowledge of dental caries diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

This is a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional survey, carried out at a public university in 2018. It aims to evaluate the knowledge of undergraduate dentistry students about dental caries. A questionnaire was applied to 90 students from the 1^st; 3^rd and 5^th period. The Pedagogical Course Project was also analyzed. Descriptive and comparative analysis of proportions was performed using Fisher's exact test (p<0.05). Of those surveyed, 78.9% were female; 56.7% aged 21 to 24 years, 3.3% were 25 years or older. In the knowledge of dental caries, a statistically significant difference was found (p<0.05) when comparing the number of correct answers between the three years evaluated for five of the ten questions. The results show statistical differences for the questions that addressed the concept of dental caries (1^st year X 3^rd year and 3^rd year X 5^th year), the role of saliva in the development of the disease (1^st year X 3^rd year, 1^st year X 5^th year and 3^rd year X 5^th year), the diagnosis of active non-cavitated caries lesion (1^st year X 3^rd year and 1^st year X 5^th year), the diagnosis of active cavitated caries lesion (1^st year X 3^rd year) and the diagnosis of inactive cavitated caries lesion (1^st year X 5^th year and 3^rd year X 5^th year). It was found that the curricular structure makes it difficult to integrate basic contents related to Cariology and clinical dental practice throughout graduation, and it is necessary to adapt it so that the contents related to caries are approached longitudinally, integrating the axes of Science Basic, Dental Sciences and Dentistry in Public Health.