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Dental Hygiene and Dental Assistant Students' Simulated DVI Radiographic Match Accuracy: A pilot study
Samantha C Vest1, Brenda T Bradshaw2, Marsha A Voelker3,4
1Gene W. Hirschfeld School of Dental Hygiene, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA svest@odu.edu.
Journal of Dental Hygiene : JDH
|April 17, 2023
Summary
Dental hygiene and dental assistant students demonstrated strong skills in disaster victim identification (DVI) by accurately matching simulated radiographs. This highlights the potential for allied dental professionals in DVI efforts.
Area of Science:
- Forensic Odontology
- Dental Radiology
Background:
- Allied dental professionals have contributed to disaster victim identification (DVI) teams.
- Existing literature lacks statistical data on transferable skills and disaster preparedness among these professionals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the match accuracy of simulated DVI radiographs by dental hygiene and dental assistant students.
- To compare the radiographic matching performance between dental hygiene and dental assistant students.
Main Methods:
- Utilized five randomly selected patient cases with retrospective digital bitewing radiographs (simulated antemortem and postmortem).
- Recruited second-year dental hygiene and dental assistant students (n=48) for an IRB-exempt descriptive observational study.
- Participants visually compared mismatched AM and PM radiographs using an electronic survey with a drag-and-drop feature.
Main Results:
- A response rate of 85.4% (41 participants) was achieved.
- 85% of students accurately matched all five radiographic sets; 15% matched three out of five.
- 80% of participants correctly matched at least four out of five sets (p<0.001), with dental hygiene students showing superior performance (p=0.013).
Conclusions:
- Dental hygiene and dental assistant students possess transferable skills for accurate DVI radiographic matching.
- Further research with larger samples is recommended to develop and assess DVI training for allied dental professionals.
