Attitude of dentistry students at clinical grades of Mashhad Medical University towards the application of basic sciences courses in 2019

By assessing the status of dentistry education at different stages, one can identify the program's weaknesses and make the necessary changes and modifications in the program. The aim of this study was to investigate Attitude of dentistry students at clinical sections of Mashhad Medical University towards the application of basic sciences courses.

This cross-sectional study was perfromed on 60 clinical dentistry students (fourth and fifth year) in 2018. The demographic and basic information, the level of applicability of the basic courses in the clinic, the overall view of the basic sciences and the way the basic science courses were presented in a validated questionnaire completed by self-report in five-point likert scale. Data were analyzed by SPSS ver. 18.

From the students' point of view, head and neck anatomy courses with a score of 4.62±0.54 and a specialized language with 4.12±0.68 points were the most used basic science courses in clinical practice. Biochemistry courses with 0.91±0.1 points and medical physics with 1.1±0.2 points were reported from the least-used basic science courses. The general outcomes of the basic science study showed that most students (52 cases, 86.6%) agree with the statement 'the basic science course is required, but its length is long'. Concerning the students' view of how the courses were presented, the highest agreement with 21 cases (35%) was related to the statement 'Practical lessons were useful in understanding the concepts of theoretical lessons', and the most disagreement with 57 cases (95%) was related to the statement 'The design of basic science courses was based on problem-solving skills'.

It seems that the dental education system has relatively good performance and capabilities, but deficiencies in some of the educational programs for some students cannot be forgotten. Academic Dental Organizations need to change educational requirements to improve the quality of their education.