Final Year BDS Student’s Perception and Feedback Regarding Prosthodontics and its Teaching Methodologies

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Teaching and learning methodologies have been a topic of concern for everyone for a decade. Dental education involves both academic and clinical understanding of subjects included in the curriculum. The study aims to determine the success of a system that could achieve the desired learning outcomes. METHODOLOGY: In this cross-sectional study 229 BDS students at five different dental colleges affiliated with the University of Health Sciences, Lahore responded to a predesigned structured questionnaire regarding the prosthodontic subject. Feedback on the Perception of students regarding prosthodontics as a subject was asked from BDS final year regular batch, before their university final exam. RESULTS: Most students found prosthodontics an interesting subject (82%). On enquiring about the level of difficulty of prosthodontics compared to other dental clinical subjects, 56.9% of students responded negatively. The majority were satisfied with the content (79.1%), delivery, and pace of the lectures (78.2%).85.4% of students reported lecture material was easy to follow and satisfactory. The highly reported useful method for learning and understanding prosthodontics was PowerPoint slides 69%, followed by group discussion 52.70%.MCQs as the mode of assessment reported positive by 75.70%, whereas 77.4% of students want to have an integrated teaching method. CONCLUSION: The majority of the students found the subject interesting but considered it difficult to understand. Further teaching methodologies must be improved to enhance the student's understanding of the subject. Better comprehension will also help in flourishing prosthodontics as a specialty. KEYWORDS: Teaching methodology, Prosthodontics, Effective learning, Assessment, Feedback