Comparison of Visuospatial Skill Development Between Preclinical and Clinical Undergraduate Students Using Dentinal Pin Placement Exercise

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare visuospatial and psychomotor skills of second year pre-clinical dental students with final year dental students using an exercise in dentinal pin placement. METHODOLOGY:A total of 120 BDS undergraduate students who had completed second or final year Operative dentistry rotation were included. While students from second and final year who had not consented to participate or had missed the practical demonstration or whose dentinal pins were misplaced after becoming loose from the tooth were excluded. Participating students placed the dentinal pins, following which Adobe Photoshop (version CC 2014) was used to analyze the photographs of the taken radiographs in two dimensions. Parameters assessed were pulpal perforations, periodontal perforations and pin angulation. Independent sample t-test was used to compare continuous variables while chi-square test was used for testing association for categorical variables. RESULTS: Final year students fared better in all categories of pin placement except periodontal perforation which was the same for both years. Statistically significant difference in the angulation for pin placement were observed between the two student groups in mesiodistal direction (p value =0.001) and in buccolingual direction (p value <.001). CONCLUSION: There is a significant difference in the psychomotor and visuospatial skill of second year pre-clinical when compared with the final year clinical undergraduate students. KEYWORDS: curriculum, dental, learning, operative, students.