• Chanin Taechaprasertwittaya
• Orawan Charatkulangkun

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate learning and teaching system of undergraduate periodontal clinic concerning clinical management, patient compliance, student competencies and learning and teaching quality.

Material and Methods Questionnaires consisting of general information, clinical management, patient compliance, student competencies and learning and teaching quality were distributed to 202 subjects. One hundred dentists with the first two digit student ID no. of 40 and 102 students with the first two digit student ID No. of 41 were two subject groups. Both groups used the same periodontal clinical practice system in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th academic year. Questionnaires were collected for descriptive data analysis by using SPSS-PC package.

Results Taken together, a total of 156 questionnaires were returned. In the 5^th and 6^th academic year, approximately 40% of the respondents reported that they often and very often had clinical management problems concerning inability to complete hygienic phase of periodontal treatment and easy damage of disposable prophy-head. Patient compliance problem in terms of using toothbrush and dental floss, were often and very often reported by 22.43%, 42.9% and 31.4% of the respondents in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th academic year, respectively. After completion of the 6^th academic year, 80.13% of the respondents reported that they were competent and highly competent in treating periodontal patients with pocket depth < 5mm. by scaling and root planning, detecting subgingival calculus and oral hygiene instruction and motivation. For learning and teaching quality, 69.01% of the full-time periodontal staffs gave dental ethics while teaching. Part-time periodontal staffs were able to answer and clear the students’ question the most (71.19%). Only 8.60% and 2.92% of the full-time and part-time periodontal staffs, respectively, were noted on never explaining the quality of clinical work.

Conclusions The information from questionnaires showed important problem in clinical practice system of undergraduate periodontal clinic, as follow. Moderate periodontitis patients were in short supply for the students. Patients did not satisfy for too many and too long period of treatment, while some reported of painful treatment. Some patients did not concern on their diseases and treatment also reported as another problem. However, high level of dental competency in treatment of gingivitis and mild to moderate periodontitis patients was noted in this study. Other comments and suggestions were also given. Therefore the results from this study may be used as a guideline to set competency statement of periodontal treatment for the upcoming dental educational curriculum.

(CU Dent J 2004;27:87-97)