Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Measuring Maxillary Posterior Tooth Movement: A Model Assessment using Palatal and Dental Superimposition
Published on: February 23, 2024
A randomised controlled trial of the effect of outreach placement on treatment planning by dental students
M Smith1, M A Lennon, A H Brook
1Department of Oral Health and Development, School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield, Claremont Crescent, Sheffield, S10 2TA. michael.smith@sheffield.ac.uk
Unlabelled:
Undergraduate dental students' curricula are being supplemented with primary care placements.
Objective:
To compare the effect of outreach placement and traditional hospital-based training alone on students' treatment planning ability.
Design:
Randomised controlled trial.Setting Four existing primary care placements in England during 2004.
Subjects And Methods:
At follow-up the fourth-year students took a history from a standard 'patient' then recorded a treatment plan. Interview skill was scored. The history and plan were assessed by clinicians blind to the intervention.
Intervention:
Five-week block outreach placements for 25 of 49 students.
Main Outcome Measures:
Interviewing skill, quality of dental and social histories, the appropriateness of planned treatments and the consideration of wider issues.
Results:
The two groups were similar in the scores for interviewing and taking a dental history. The outreach group scored higher for capturing a social history (outreach mean 4.4, SD = 2.1, n = 22 and hospital 2.8, SD = 1.9, n = 23; p = 0.01) and for developing an appropriate treatment plan (5.6 [SD = 2.1] and 3.9 [SD = 2.3]; p = 0.01). There were no differences in scores relating to the wider issues.
Conclusion:
Dental outreach training was significantly more effective than traditional training alone in improving students' ability to capture relevant points of social history from a patient and to consider them when planning treatment.