Dental Trauma: Assessment of undergraduate dental students: theoretical knowledge and practical use of Smartphone Application ‘Injured Tooth’

Background: Few studies investigated the teaching of Dental Trauma at undergraduate levels, and explored the effectiveness of some teaching interventions on students. The last decade has seen an increasing use of advanced technology within the arena of dental educational intervention. The trend certainly anticipates the overall improvement towards reaching a precise diagnosis and appropriate management of traumatic dental injuries. Some Smartphone applications are examples of this educational technology.
Aim: It firstly aims to evaluate the knowledge of final year undergraduate students about dental trauma. Secondly, the study further assesses the ability of a selected group of the students to diagnose and propose treatment plan/s for different dental traumatic injuries using a Smartphone Application ‘Injured Tooth’.
Design: Dental undergraduate final year students were invited to complete a questionnaire on dental trauma after finishing all the lectures and relevant Case Studies’ Sessions. The same questionnaire was used to test changes in the knowledge level of sixty students selected to use Injured Tooth application.
Results: 274 students agreed to participate in the research. The mean percentage of correct answers for all the questions was 77.8% (SD 17.3). The mean values for the total score were 8.4 (SD 1.4) with a median of 8 and a range of 5 – 11. The mean percentage of correct answers of the selected students was 68.97(SD 20.2). The mean percentage of correct answers of the students using the application was 95.8(SD7.0).
Conclusions: Knowledge of the students regarding traumatic dental injuries is efficient in some areas while considered low in other parts. The use of the application was effective in providing accessible knowledge to the students to guide them in proposing the possible management protocols for the different traumatic dental injuries presented in this study.