Journal of dental education
-
The aim of this study was to determine whether Thiel-embalmed cadavers would provide a useful anatomy teaching tool for topics that cannot be approached using formalin-fixed cadavers such as oral cavity examination and maxillary anesthesia. The suitability of Thiel-embalmed bodies for performing oral examinations was assessed by asking first-year dental and dental hygiene students at a dental school in Ireland to identify oral structures on a classmate and on a Thiel-embalmed body. The study was conducted in 2016. ⋯ Importantly, the puncture marks appeared to reduce over time, suggesting that the gingival tissue maintains some elasticity following Thiel fixation. These findings suggest that Thiel-embalmed cadavers may be a useful tool to provide students more time to localize and study aspects of the oral cavity. Likewise, the recoiling capacity of gingival tissue suggests that Thiel-embalmed cadavers may provide an ideal tool for teaching injection technique of local anesthetics.
-
Attitudes of dental students regarding the provision of treatment tend to be dentist-centered; however, facilitating mixed student group formation could change such perceptions. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived scope of practice of dental and dental hygiene students and whether their perceptions of task distribution between dentists and dental hygienists would change following an educational intervention consisting of feedback, intergroup comparison, and competition between mixed-group teams. The study employed a pretest-posttest single group design. ⋯ This study found that these dental and dental hygiene students had different opinions regarding the scope of practice for dentistry and dental hygiene. The number of redistributed tasks after the intervention was especially substantial among the dental students, although the amount of change per task was minimal. Half of all tasks were perceived as less dentist-centered as a result of the intervention.