Short-Term Survival Analysis of Resin-Composite Restorations by Dental Students Using Real-World Data

The clinical skills of dental students with limited experience may be inferior to those of dentists. This study aimed to investigate the prognosis of resin-based composite (RC) restorations performed by dental students compared to those performed by dentists.

Data from patients who underwent RC restoration between April 2014 and March 2020 at a university hospital were analyzed. Because the database could not distinguish between re-restorations and new restorations on the same teeth, follow-up was initiated 6 months after the initial RC restoration. The follow-up period continued until re-restoration, censoring, or the end of a 2-year observation period. A parametric mixed-effects survival model was used, specifying hospital departments as the exposure variable. Hazard ratios (HRs) for re-restoration were estimated, adjusting for confounders.

Among 103,595 teeth, 7942 (prevalence of re-restoration = 7.7%, re-restoration rate/100 person-year = 5.3) were reconstructed during 2 years. In the student department, 1700 teeth were treated with a 3.2 re-restoration rate/100 person-year. After adjusting for confounding factors, the resident dentists department (HR = 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-1.88), pediatric dentistry (HR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.27-2.23), special needs department (HR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.12-2.85), dental caries department (HR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.19-1.87), and other clinical departments, which included all other outpatient departments (HR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.10-1.73), showed significantly higher HRs for re-restoration compared to the student department.

Despite limitations due to restricted information on the study population, our findings suggest that the 2-year survival rate of RC restorations performed by dental students during clinical training was higher than that of other clinical departments   .