Undergraduate Dental Students' Perceptions of Teaching Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine in Latin America:...

To evaluate the perceptions of undergraduate dental students regarding the teaching of Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine (OP/OM) in Latin American countries.

This study included 364 undergraduate dental students from seven Latin American countries. Data were collected through a questionnaire about the teaching of OP/OM in relation to the participants' perception and satisfaction. Comparisons between disciplines and between countries were performed using Pearson's chi-square, Wilcoxon, and Kruskal-Wallis tests, with post hoc pairwise comparisons conducted using the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction. A significance level of 5% was adopted.

Significant differences between countries were observed in most OM domains (p < 0.05), with Argentina presenting higher overall satisfaction compared to all other countries, while differences in OP were limited to teaching quality and availability of materials and resources, with no significant difference in overall satisfaction across countries (p < 0.05). OM was associated with higher evaluations than OP in teaching quality, clinical usefulness, availability of resources, motivation, and overall satisfaction (p < 0.05).

Perceptions of OP/OM teaching among Latin American dental students were generally positive, with OM receiving more favorable evaluations than OP across select domains. Satisfaction with OM varied significantly between countries, while OP showed greater homogeneity across the region.