Evaluation of diagnostic radiology acumen between 2 groups of clinical dental students

To evaluate and distinguish if an additional year of clinical experience increases the cognitive ability of dental students to accurately assess and interpret dental radiographs.

Radiological acuity was assessed between two groups of clinical dental students at Penn Dental Medicine (PDM). Group 1 was composed of 147 third-year dental students (D3), group 2 was composed of 145 fourth-year dental students (D4). A 65-question test comprising the length and breadth of radiographic anatomy and pathology was administered to both D3 and D4 students. The test was designed to test the participants' knowledge of radiographic technique, anatomy, and differential diagnosis. The null hypothesis was that there would be no significant differences between the two groups.

STATA 15 software (StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA) was used to statistically analyze the findings. Although, the mean correct score for group 1 was higher (60/65) than group 2 (59/65), there was no statistically significant difference between the performance of the groups. On average, group 1 outperformed the clinically more experienced group 2 on an individual question basis. The average overall number of correctly answered items compared to incorrectly answered items reflected this difference.

An additional year of clinical dental education does not appear to correlate with any higher radiographic acumen. This may be due to tapering exposure to unique pathology and findings, as more routine findings are encountered daily and classroom instruction during the fourth year of dental school is limited. Early incorporation of new radiographic education tools that are clinically oriented may be one method to increase retention of knowledge accumulated in the initial didactic years of dental education.