Abstract
Abstract Denture adjustments using fit-checking materials are a basic dental treatment that is frequently performed. However, an effective education method has not been established, because the acquisition of skills depends on the daily clinical experience of each learner. This study aimed to verify methods for teaching the ability to judge locations under excessive pressure on the inner surface of dentures for inexperienced student or trainee dentists.
Thirty-nine trainee dentists working at Niigata University Medical & Dental Hospital in 2020 or 2021 and five of their instructors participated. Complete dentures equipped with small convex parts for an edentulous mandibular jaw model were fabricated and a tissue conditioner was applied. The subjects identified the locations under excessive pressure of the complete dentures.
Then, three teaching methods, 1) feedback after procedure, 2) explanation by instructor, and 3) self-learning with visual texts produced by photographs, were prepared to investigate their effectiveness for learning how to adjust dentures, and one of the methods was given to the subjects. Seven or more days after the teaching, the subjects identified the locations under excessive pressure of the same complete dentures again. The correct answer ratio of locations under excessive pressure and individual correct answer ratio were analyzed by teaching method and before and after teaching by using analysis of variance or multiple comparison.
As a result, the ratio of correct answers after teaching was higher than before teaching. The individual ratio after teaching was higher than before teaching for each teaching method. These results suggest that the combination of these teaching methods was effective for teaching how to check the fit of dentures.
