An Evaluation on Full Coverage Crown Preparation: An Institutional Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Undergraduate (UG) dental students are trained for fixed prosthodontics course clinically in teaching institutions during the clinical years. However, there is a lack of objective data on the quality of fixed prostheses preparations done by UG students on their patients for academic and clinical staff. Aim: To evaluate the full-coverage crown preparations performed by UG dental students in the university clinical teaching programme. Materials and Methods: This study was a clinical audit done in the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Sains Islam, Malaysia (USIM) from April to July 2018. The demographic and clinical data were collected from the patients’ notes and included relevant information of patients such as age, gender and others. Full-coverage crowns were analysed and crown preparation assessments were done using specific criteria and standards. The descriptive data were measured in frequency and percentage for categorical variables and mean and standard deviation for continuous data. Results: A total of 31 patients fitted with 45 units of full-coverage crowns were analysed. The mean age of patients treated by fifth year dental students was 40.5 (±14.16) years. A 51% Porcelain Fused to Metal (PFM) crown provided to the patients. On the whole, UG undergoing the dentistry programme in the institution scored the lowest (51%) on proximal reduction and the highest (97.7%) on producing smooth and continuous preparation. Conclusion: Majority of the crowns prepared by students have acceptable preparation except in proximal reduction and cervical margin preparation that can be improved upon and emphasised further during the teaching and learning sessions.