Student Perception and Performance in Using Digital Surveying for Removable Partial Denture Design: A Pilot Study.

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Prosthodontics
• Digital Dentistry

Background:

• Traditional removable partial denture (RPD) design methods persist in undergraduate dental education.
• This limits student preparedness for emerging digital workflows in clinical practice.
• A pilot study evaluated digital surveying tools for RPD design education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess dental students' learning experience with digital surveying for RPD design.
• To compare student performance in RPD design using digital versus conventional surveying methods.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involved fourth-year dental students using either digital or conventional surveying for RPD design.
• Blinded assessors evaluated the resulting RPD designs.
• Student perceptions were gathered via questionnaires, and performance was analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.

Main Results:

• Most students found digital surveying initially challenging but easier for identifying undercuts and determining the path of insertion.
• RPD designs from both digital and conventional methods were clinically acceptable for a similar percentage of students (68.0% vs. 64.0%).
• No statistically significant difference in design performance was found between the two methods.

Conclusions:

• Digital surveying is a viable alternative to conventional methods in dental education.
• It offers comparable educational benefits and familiarizes students with crucial digital tools.
• Digital and conventional surveying methods yield similar RPD design outcomes in student learning.