Typodont-based Surgical Experience Enhances Dental Students' Comprehension of Surgical Periodontal Procedures

To examine whether a typodont model-based periodontal surgical experience enhanced the dental students' comprehension of periodontal surgical procedures.

A hands-on session was developed to demonstrate esthetic and functional crown lengthening (ECL and FCL, respectively), free soft tissue autograft (FSTA), and extraction site preservation (ESP) procedures using a commercially available typodont which allows students to replicate the steps of these surgical procedures. Fourth-year dental students (DS4) completed pre- and post-module surveys to self-evaluate their knowledge of periodontal surgical procedures before and after the session. A summary of the pre- and post-survey responses was reported.

Forty-seven DS4 completed the pre-module survey and participated in the model-based hands-on exercise. Thirty-one DS4 completed the post-module survey. Following the session, 83.87%, 80.64%, 80.64%, and 78.12% of participants strongly agreed that the session improved their comprehension of ECL, FCL, FSTA, and ESP, respectively. With knowledge-based questions, the percentage of correct responses increased for ECL, FCL, and FSTA (65.22 vs. 93.55%, 41.30 vs. 100%, and 56.52 vs. 100% in pre- and post-module survey, respectively), but not for ESP. More participants strongly agreed that they felt more confident (i) to communicate with periodontists and (ii) to refer their prospective patients to periodontists than before the session (58.06 vs. 42.55%, respectively). Also, more students strongly agreed the session should be included in the dental school curriculum.

The typodont model-based hands-on session provided valuable experience to DS4 in various aspects of predoctoral periodontics training, highlighting the importance of such educational experience in the dental school curriculum.