Orthodontic curriculum in Saudi Arabia: Faculty members' perception of clinical learning outcomes

This study aimed to assess the perception of orthodontic staff members around clinical learning outcomes (LOs) of the undergraduate orthodontic curriculum with a focus on dental schools in Saudi Arabia.

Twenty-three LOs were formulated, all of which were associated with skills required in the undergraduate orthodontics course. Orthodontic staff members were invited to provide their opinion regarding the curriculum using a Likert scale, whereby participants could answer each question on a scale from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree."

Sixty-one teaching staff members agreed to partake in this study. The highest level of agreement among the participants pertained to conducting systematic orthodontic intraoral and extraoral examinations (100%), followed by explaining causes for space loss (98.3%). The lowest level of agreement was regarding executing a treatment plan for non-skeletal cases (62.2%) followed by skills of fabrication and activation of removable appliances (77%). Around 67.1% of the academics refused to allow dental students to select and bond orthodontic brackets.

It is time to amalgamate the objectives and create a unified national list of LOs for all orthodontic curriculums across the country without any distinction of knowledge or skills required at the undergraduate level.