Evaluation of anxiety-provoking situations related to clinical training in dental education

The aims of this study were to evaluate the situations that cause anxiety in clinical training and to discuss the precautions that can be taken to reduce clinical anxiety in dental education.

This multi-centred survey-based study was created through Google Docs, and 3rd, 4th and 5th grade dental students were included. The students were asked to rate their reactions on a 4-point Likert scale "not anxious" to "very anxious" for 27 questions related to academics, communication and interaction, diagnosis, dental treatments, deficiencies and mistakes in the treatments.

1332 students were reached, and 1320 students completed the questionnaire. Whilst extracting wrong tooth (3.53 ± 0.83), getting infected by patient (3.39 ± 0.85) and getting diagnosis wrong (3.31 ± 0.83) were identified as the 3 most anxiety-provoking situations, taking panoramic radiograph (1.48 ± 0.71) and communication with patients and dental assistants/nurses (1.76 ± 0.87; 1.64 ± 0.76) were identified as 3 situations that cause the least anxiety. Female students reported higher anxiety levels than male students in most of the questions (p < .05). A statistically significant difference was observed between the grades of the students (p < .05). 3^rd grade students showed statistically higher anxiety levels than higher grades in 16 out of 27 questions. No statistical significance was observed according to the status of the university (p > .05).

Questions related to diagnosis, delivery of the dental treatments, deficiencies and mistakes in the treatments caused higher anxiety levels amongst dentistry students. As experience and time in the clinical training increase, the anxiety level of the students decreases. Orientation programmes and establishing an effective communication between grades are recommended. Also, gender-based solutions must be taken into consideration.