Medical courses need to be tailored for dental students

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of medical education at the dental schools from the perspective of dental students. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to the fourth and final year students at five different dental schools from different geographical regions in Turkey. The satisfaction of 443 dental students with the quality of medical education together with students’ perspectives on the ways to enhance the quality of curriculum was ascertained. Results: Of the students, 17.4% hold an opinion that they received satisfactory overall biomedical science education. Over half disagreed that biomedical science topics were not integrated with clinical cases. Around one in every three students felt that lecturers were not focused on oral/dental related topics and were underrating dental students. The highest satisfaction was gained on the head and neck anatomy; the least satisfaction was obtained by biochemistry (scores of 5.3 and 3.3 on a 10 point scale, respectively). Over half of the students disagree that the education on the other medical disciplines and on the management of possible emergency conditions were good quality. The most common suggestion given by students for a better education was biomedical science and medicine teaching given in a more relevant way to clinical setting. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that biomedical science teaching should be more ‘tailored’ to the needs of dental students who appear to appreciate a curriculum placed in a clinical perspective with an emphasis given to oral health needs.