Dental Students' Perception and Preference to Pediatric Dentistry Training

Pedodontics, or pediatric dentistry, is recognized as one of the most stressful fields within the health professions. Dentists need to create an environment that effectively manages children's behaviors during dental treatments. This study aims to evaluate how undergraduate dental students perceive their training in pediatric dentistry and the challenges they face. To achieve this aim, a self-designed questionnaire focusing on students' attitudes toward pediatric dentistry was administered to final-year students at seven universities in Iraq. The results indicated that students generally find pediatric dentistry to be quite challenging. According to their feedback, this difficulty stems primarily from behavior management issues, particularly related to children's cooperation and their reluctance to accept local anesthesia. Despite these challenges, approximately one-quarter of the respondents still expressed an interest in pursuing pediatric dentistry as their speciality in the future, with a notably higher number of female students showing this inclination compared to their male counterparts. Overall, the study concluded that pediatric dentistry is a demanding clinical practice, therefore, creating a proactive clinical environment that reduces stress and fosters positivity could lead to better treatment outcomes.