PREDOCTORAL EDUCATION IN CONE BEAM COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

Abstract

Background The introduction of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) into the dental field in 1998 has become increasingly essential to dental diagnosis and treatment. CBCT can be used for implant placement, orthodontics, endodontics, and pathology detection. Although it is a very useful imaging technology, the teaching and training of CBCT in most dental school curricula are still limited. It would be a tremendous benefit for dental students to graduate with the knowledge on how to utilize CBCT properly and understand the value of CBCT in dental practice. Objective(s) The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of predoctoral dental students through didactic and clinical courses pertaining to CBCT education and provide an accurate indication of the necessity of CBCT training in the future. Study Design A literature review was conducted using electronic databases from the year of 2007 to 2017 to fabricate the survey questions. The survey was given to the predoctoral dental students from the LECOM School of Dental Medicine and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dental Medicine via email through SurveyMonkey (n = 103). The preliminary data were collected and analyzed accordingly. Results One hundred and three survey responses were collected and analyzed. Even though 28.16% of the predoctoral dental students planned on specializing after dental school, almost half of the predoctoral students (50.49%) had not received CBCT training in dental school. 59.34% of predoctoral dental students strongly agreed that the utilization of CBCT can be essential in practicing dentistry; implant placement (93.10%) was the number one procedure that would need CBCT. Most predoctoral dental students (70.89%) strongly agreed that education about CBCT should be part of the dental school curriculum. The introduction of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) into the dental field in 1998 has become increasingly essential to dental diagnosis and treatment. CBCT can be used for implant placement, orthodontics, endodontics, and pathology detection. Although it is a very useful imaging technology, the teaching and training of CBCT in most dental school curricula are still limited. It would be a tremendous benefit for dental students to graduate with the knowledge on how to utilize CBCT properly and understand the value of CBCT in dental practice. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of predoctoral dental students through didactic and clinical courses pertaining to CBCT education and provide an accurate indication of the necessity of CBCT training in the future. A literature review was conducted using electronic databases from the year of 2007 to 2017 to fabricate the survey questions. The survey was given to the predoctoral dental students from the LECOM School of Dental Medicine and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dental Medicine via email through SurveyMonkey (n = 103). The preliminary data were collected and analyzed accordingly. One hundred and three survey responses were collected and analyzed. Even though 28.16% of the predoctoral dental students planned on specializing after dental school, almost half of the predoctoral students (50.49%) had not received CBCT training in dental school. 59.34% of predoctoral dental students strongly agreed that the utilization of CBCT can be essential in practicing dentistry; implant placement (93.10%) was the number one procedure that would need CBCT. Most predoctoral dental students (70.89%) strongly agreed that education about CBCT should be part of the dental school curriculum.