Impact of Methods for Teaching Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block Anesthesia on Dental Students’ Efficiency
Khaled M Mohamed, Fatima M Jadu, Hala M Abdelalim, Amr M Bayoumi, Ahmed M Jan
Keywords :
Anesthesia, Dental, Oral surgery
Citation Information :
Mohamed KM, Jadu FM, Abdelalim HM, Bayoumi AM, Jan AM. Impact of Methods for Teaching Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block Anesthesia on Dental Students’ Efficiency. World J Dent 2019; 10 (5):374-378.
Aim: Several methods are available for teaching local anesthesia (LA) administration to dental students. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of two teaching methods [student-to-student learning and peer-assisted learning (PAL)] on third-year dental students’ efficiency in administering inferior alveolar nerve blocks (IANBs).
Materials and methods: After ethical approval, the study was conducted over three academic years (2016–2018). During the first year, the third-year dental students (control group) were taught IANB administration techniques using the student-to-student method. During the second year, a new group of third-year dental students (study group) were taught the IANB administration technique using two methods (student-to-student and PAL). All the students were assessed the following academic year (when the students became fourth-year students) by oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) faculty using six evaluation items.
Results: According to the six evaluation criteria, the study group that was taught IANB using the student-to-student and PAL teaching techniques performed superior to their peers in the control group. Three of the six evaluation criteria were statistically significantly different between the two groups of students: recording the dental and medical history (p = 0.018), recognizing the anatomy and the injection procedure (p = 0.004), and assessing the success of the anesthesia (p = 0.026).
Conclusion: Combining the student-to-student and PAL teaching techniques for IANB administration resulted in better student efficiency than using only the student-to-student technique.
Clinical significance: Peer-assisted learning is an effective teaching method that can be used to enhance the learning experience of dental students who are attempting to master IANB techniques.
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