Misconceptions about Oral Diagnosis and Radiology among Dental Students: A Questionnaire Study.

BACKGROUND: Misconceptions are learning deficits that may cause clinical judgments in a dental practice to be made incorrectly. AIM: This study aimed to identify and look into students' misconceptions regarding Oral Diagnosis and Radiology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The fourth and fifth-grade students at the Altinbas University Faculty of Dentistry were given a self-administered questionnaire that included multiple-choice questions about Oral Diagnosis/Medicine and Radiology. 106 students participated in the questionnaire and 50.9% of the participants were fourth-grade students, 49.1% of them were fifth-grade students. The questions were classified into two parts: five scenario-based questions and ten knowledge-based questions. Students' replies were evaluated for accuracy and confidence, and when a student was certain of giving an inaccurate response, misconceptions were noted. Two groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney-U test (P = 0.05). RESULTS: A total of 1590 responses were collected. Regarding the question type, scenario-based questions had more misconceptions (19.6%) than knowledge-based questions (18.4%). Depending on the question, the majority of misconceptions were seen in the questions about denture stomatitis (46.2%) and radiographic contrast (38.7%). CONCLUSIONS: To prevent misdiagnosis, it is essential to recognize and overcome misconceptions in Oral Diagnosis/Medicine and Radiology. Therefore this study assists students and lecturers in defining misconceptions and organizing precautions to avoid and fix them.

Evaluation of the maxillary third molars and maxillary sinus using cone-beam computed tomography.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of the maxillary third molars to the maxillary sinus using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in a Turkish population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 right and 307 left maxillary third molars were examined using CBCT images obtained from 394 patients. Data including the age, gender, the angulation type, depth of the third molars, and horizontal and vertical positions of the maxillary sinus relative to the third molars were examined. RESULTS: Among 394 patients, 215 (54.6%) were male and 179 (45.4%) were female. The most common angulation of impaction was vertical (80.2%). Based on the depth of the third molars in relation to the adjacent second molar, Class A was the most common. Regarding the relationships of the third molars with the maxillary sinus, vertical Type I (43.5%) and horizontal Type II (59.3%) were seen most frequently. There was a significant difference between the vertical and horizontal relationships (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of the anatomical relationship between the maxillary sinus floor and maxillary third molar roots is important for removing a maxillary third molar. CBCT evaluation could be valuable when performing dental procedures involving the maxillary third molars.