A cross-sectional study of confidence in minor surgical skills amongst junior dentists.
Eur J Dent Educ
; 22(3): e379-e385, 2018 Aug.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29316092
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
To work in the National Health Service (NHS) as a dentist, the practitioner needs to be on the UK dental "performer's list". To apply for access to this list and work as a General Dental Practitioner (GDP), dentists must be qualified from the European Economic Area (EEA) or, those trained in the UK, must undertake Dental Foundation Training (DFT). Dentists interested in further taught learning or pursuing specialist training must continue working as "Dental Core Trainees" (DCTs). Most of these jobs are available in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) Units and require dentists to undertake unsupervised surgical procedures. It is currently estimated that over 400 "junior dentists" undertake DCT a year. It is the aim of this study to ascertain whether confidence in simple surgical procedures improves when compared to GDPs of similar experience.METHODS:
One hundred and two junior dentists, 34 DFTs, 20 DCT1s, 21 DCT2s and 27 second and third year post-DFT GDPs all working across the Midlands, UK, had Likert scale responses about confidence in 14 minor surgical skills assessed. Results were analysed to ascertain whether gender, year group and number of extractions had any effect on confidence.CONCLUSIONS:
We conclude that confidence in minor surgical procedures improves significantly when undertaking DCT OMFS posts, with the most significant improvement in confidence occurring within the first 6 months. Dental Core Trainees become significantly more confident in their surgical ability within the first 6 months when compared to GDPs with longer postgraduate experience.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Minor Surgical Procedures
/
Surgery, Oral
/
Clinical Competence
/
Dentists
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Eur J Dent Educ
Journal subject:
EDUCACAO
/
ODONTOLOGIA
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United kingdom