The Relation Between Students' Theoretical Knowledge and Practical Skills in Endodontics: Retrospective Analysis

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Operative Dentistry
• Medical Simulation

Background:

• Dental undergraduate students need practical skills for patient treatment, developed through preclinical courses.
• Assessment typically involves theoretical (multiple-choice) and practical skills tests.
• Practical skills assessment is time-consuming and subjective compared to objective theoretical exams.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the relationship between theoretical knowledge and practical skills in endodontics.
• To evaluate the predictive validity of theoretical knowledge assessment on practical skills.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 447 dental students from 2015-2022 in a German preclinical operative dentistry course.
• Statistical analysis included Pearson correlations, Wilcoxon rank sum tests, and linear regression.
• Fisher exact test identified an optimal pass mark for theoretical knowledge correlating with sufficient practical skills (≥60%).

Main Results:

• A significant association was found between theoretical knowledge and practical skills (P_adjusted=.02; r=0.13).
• The current 60% pass mark for theoretical knowledge differentiated between sufficient and insufficient practical skills (P=.02).
• An adapted pass mark of 58% demonstrated a more appropriate discrimination between sufficient and insufficient practical skills (P=.02).

Conclusions:

• Theoretical knowledge and practical skills in dental students are significantly correlated.
• Objective theoretical knowledge assessment can provide a reasonable estimation of practical skill levels.
• An adjusted pass mark may improve the accuracy of predicting students' practical competence.