Knowledge of Traumatic Dental Injury Management Among Senior Medical Students: A Pre-Post Cohort Study

To assess knowledge of initial management of traumatic dental injuries among senior medical students and to compare knowledge at cohort level before and after implementation of structured teaching on traumatic dental injury management within an emergency medicine module.

This single-center study was conducted at a German medical faculty. An anonymous structured questionnaire covering common first-aid scenarios for traumatic dental injuries, including avulsion, luxation, and fracture management, was administered to two independent cohorts of senior medical students before and after implementation of a dental trauma lecture. The questionnaire comprised 16 multiple-choice items regarding knowledge of traumatic dental injury management. Total knowledge scores and item-level results were compared between cohorts using unpaired statistical analyses.

A total of 117 students participated in the pre-implementation cohort and 92 in the post-implementation cohort. Mean knowledge scores were higher in the post-implementation cohort (10.0 vs. 6.6 points, p < 0.0001). The proportion of students classified with low knowledge decreased, whereas moderate and high knowledge categories increased at cohort level after structured teaching. Higher proportions of correct responses were observed in avulsion-related items, including replantation and appropriate timing of intervention. However, no significant differences were found in management of luxated primary teeth and recommended timing of dental referral after initial management.

Knowledge of traumatic dental injury management among senior medical students was predominantly low before lecture implementation and was higher at cohort level after structured teaching within an emergency medicine module. Given the anonymous unpaired design, these findings should be interpreted as cohort-level differences rather than direct within-subject learning effects. Clinically relevant gaps persisted in dentition-specific management and dental referral timing. These findings support structured integration of guideline-based dental trauma management into medical curricula while highlighting the need for future studies assessing practical skills and clinical performance.