Using gamification in an obligatory course for first-year dental students was associated with an improvement in academic writing skills although students' satisfaction with game aspects was modest and their willingness to use gamification in future courses was minimal.

Exposing students to manage complex oral rehabilitation including procedures like sinus lifting and bone augmentation, through an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach during the undergraduate comprehensive clinical dentistry course enhances their confidence and clinical acumen as an independent practitioner.

Better knowledge is needed about the effectiveness of preparatory English language courses for the health professions. This study evaluated the scientific writing skills of students finishing their preparatory year of a bachelor of dentistry programme in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014-15 among first-year dental students at the University of Dammam. Students were asked to write a 150-word English language assignment that was analysed for writing statistics and problems using Microsoft Word and plagiarism detection software. Of the 89 respondents, female students used a significantly greater number of words than did male students and their assignments had significantly lower Flesch reading ease scores. Male students had significantly lower odds of using references (OR 0.04) and higher odds of making punctuation and grammar mistakes (OR 2.63 and 3.91 respectively). One course of scientific writing in the preparatory year may not be enough to develop adequate writing skills among undergraduate dental students. ‫الكلية‬ ‫دخوهلم‬ ‫وقت‬ ‫السعوديني‬ ‫األسنان‬ ‫طب‬ ‫طالب‬ ‫لدى‬ ‫اإلنجليزية‬ ‫باللغة‬ ‫العلمية‬ ‫الكتابة‬ ‫مهارات‬ ‫تقييم‬

Background and aimsMonitoring oral diseases is needed to allocate resources, plan health services and train dental workforce. Caries is one of the oral diseases most commonly included in oral health surveillance systems. The present study assessed (1) caries data availability in the administrative regions of Saudi Arabia and (2) factors associated with this availability.MethodsWe collected caries data in the period 2008–2018 in Saudi Arabia (outcome variable). The explanatory variables included region-level factors: (a) socio-economic indicators (percentage of individuals with university education, percentage of category A governorates, percentage of owned houses, households with computers, internet and smart phones) and, (b) oral health research potential indicators (number of Dental Public Health (DPH) specialists, Ministry of Health (MoH) dentist to population ratio and number of dental schools). ArcGIS was used for data visualization and logistic regression was used for analysis.ResultsTwenty-two studies provided caries data for 46.2% of the regions which were inhabited by 84.7% of the population. Region-level data availability was associated with the number of dental schools (OR = 1.63) with 61.5% of the regions correctly classified. More regions were correctly classified when population to MoH dentist ratio (76.9%) and the number of DPH specialists (92.3%) were included.ConclusionsCaries data were available for half of the administrative regions in Saudi Arabia and data availability was associated with higher number of dental schools. The presence of DPH specialist provided the critical mass to collect caries data.

Coordinated efforts and a stepwise approach towards item development, coupled with focused faculty development exercises, is a cost-effective means of developing a huge 'Question Data Bank' of valid and reliable test items which can serve as a National Resource for the Professional Regulatory Councils in the country for their Licensure Examination.