How Undergraduate Students Perceive Postgraduate Training and Continuing Education: A French Survey

The practice of Continuing Dental Education (CDE) serves as a fundamental requirement for lifelong learning but there is limited knowledge about how dental students handle CDE during their final educational period. This study examined how final-year French dental students perceive CDE through their expectations, motivation and their decision-making methods.

In 2024 and 2025, an online questionnaire was distributed to final year students from all French dental faculties. The survey contained 45 questions categorized into three sections that assessed: (1) self-evaluation of participants' knowledge across all dental fields, (2) participants' objectives regarding future clinical practice and (3) awareness of existing CDE.

One hundred and seventy one students responded to the survey which represented a response rate of 13.5%. Only 36.2% of the respondents were fully satisfied with undergraduate training, and the disciplines most often perceived as insufficient (implantology, oral surgery, fixed prosthodontics) were also those most desired for CDE or specialization. Students demonstrated trust in university-based programs while selecting diploma-granting courses but only 10.5% of them had selected a specific educational path. Students primarily used the Internet for information retrieval, but they prefer in-person interactive and clinical training courses over digital courses.

For French dental students, CDE is seen both as lifelong learning and a way to fill training gaps, highlighting the need for clearer guidance and practice-oriented, evidence-based courses.