Linking Perspectives: A Participatory Study of Instructor and Patient Scores in Dental Anatomy and Morphology

The transition from dental education to practice can be challenging for novice clinicians given the discrepancies between the curriculum and clinical practice. Dental anatomy is one area where such discrepancies are prominent, despite its significance in clinical restorative dentistry. These discrepancies are mostly understudied, and little is known about the alignment between the classic dental anatomy evaluation criteria and the patients' perspectives.

This study aims to bridge the gap between education and practice by exploring the relationship between the instructors' and patients' evaluations of students' anterior wax-ups in the context of dental anatomy education.

This study utilised a retrospective time-series design over the course of 13 academic years. Instructors and patients blindly evaluated patient-based anterior wax-ups produced by students during the dental anatomy course using a scale of 0-100. Data were analysed using t-tests and Pearson's correlations.

A total of 13 patients' scores were included. Instructor and patients evaluated a total of 566 students' anterior wax-ups. A statistically significant difference was observed between the overall instructors' and patients scores (p-value = 0.001), with instructors' demonstrating higher scores (mean = 85.79) than patients (mean = 67.78). A positive statistically significant correlation was observed between the instructors' and patients' scores (r = 0.42, p-value = 0.001).

The findings of this emphasise the importance of exposing students as early as their first year in dental education to a patient-care environment and activities, including patient-based models. The alignment between the academic criteria and the patients' perspectives indicates the relevance of dental anatomy education. Future studies can explore patients' and instructors' perspectives in other courses, including restorative and rehabilitation dentistry.