• Tim Hausdörfer, Philipp Kanzow, Claudia Tschammler, Manfred Herrmann, and Annette Wiegand.
• Tim Hausdörfer, Dr med dent, is Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Periodontology, and Cariology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany; Philipp Kanzow, Dr med dent, MBA, is Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Periodontology, and Cariology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany; Claudia Tschammler, Dr med dent, is Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Periodontology, and Cariology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany; Manfred Herrmann, Dr rer nat, is Assistant Professor, Division of Medical Education Research and Curriculum Development, Study Deanery of University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany; and Annette Wiegand, Prof Dr med dent, is Professor and Head, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Periodontology, and Cariology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany. tim.hausdoerfer@med.uni-goettingen.de.
• J Dent Educ. 2018 Sep 1; 82 (9): 943-948.

AbstractThe aim of this study was to evaluate dental students' retention of factual and procedural knowledge gained in a preclinical course in operative dentistry during a clinical dental curriculum. In 2017, all 157 seventh- to tenth-semester dental students at a dental school in Germany were asked to repeat the same written examination performed at the end of the preclinical course in the sixth semester. The examinations consisted of 30 multiple-choice questions covering factual and procedural knowledge. The percentage of correctly answered questions per exam and differences in correct answers between the original examination and the re-examination (per question) were analyzed. Students were also asked to self-rate their percentage of correctly answered questions and their knowledge in various disciplines of operative dentistry at the times of the original examination and the re-examination. After exclusions, data were analyzed for 129 students, for a participation rate of 82%. For the seventh- and tenth-semester students, the results on the original examination and the re-examination were not significantly different, while the eighth- and ninth-semester students performed significantly better on the original examination than the re-examination. In all semesters, procedural knowledge remained stable between the original examination and the re-examination, while factual knowledge decreased slightly. Their performance on the original examination was underestimated by the eighth- and ninth-semester students. All the students underestimated their performance on the re-examination. Students mostly rated their knowledge level significantly higher on the original examination than on the re-examination. Overall, this study found that factual and procedural knowledge gained in a preclinical course in operative dentistry was not increased during the clinical dental curriculum.

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