Misconceptions about Oral Diagnosis and Radiology among Dental Students: A Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Background: Misconceptions are learning deficits that may cause clinical judgments in a dental practice to be made incorrectly.

Aim: This  study aimed to identify and look into students’ misconceptions regarding Oral Diagnosis and Radiology.

Materials and Methods: The fourth and fifth‑grade students at the Altınbaş University Faculty of Dentistry were given a self- administered questionnaire that included multiple-choice questions about Oral Diagnosis/Medicine and Radiology. 106 students  participated in the questionnaire and 50.9% of the participants were fourth‑grade students, 49.1% of them were fifth‑grade students. The  questions were classified into two parts: five scenario‑based questions and ten knowledge‑based questions. Students’ replies were  evaluated for accuracy and confidence, and when a student was certain of giving an inaccurate response, misconceptions were noted.  Two groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney-U test (P = 0.05). 

Results: A total of 1590 responses were collected. Regarding the  question type, scenario-based questions had more misconceptions (19.6%) than knowledge-based questions (18.4%). Depending on the  question, the majority of misconceptions were seen in the questions about denture stomatitis (46.2%) and radiographic contrast (38.7%).   

Conclusions: To prevent misdiagnosis, it is essential to recognize and overcome misconceptions in Oral Diagnosis/Medicine  and Radiology. Therefore this study assists students and lecturers in defining misconceptions and organizing precautions to avoid and fix  them.