Education of Oral Implantology in Educational Institutions for Dental Technicians

Abstract

A questionnaire survey on oral implantology education was conducted for students learning at institutions for dental technicians.

The questionnaire was sent to 53 institutions for dental technicians registered with the Japan Society for Education of Dental Technology. The questions included the presence or absence of lectures of oral implantology, lecture hours, subjects being taught, lecturers, presence or absence of oral implant laboratory practice (types, defect forms, and methods of fixation), and presence or absence of a future plan for including oral implantology in the lecture schedule if there is no such curriculum available yet.

Responses were obtained from 37 out of 53 educational institutions for dental technicians. Of these, 33 institutions had been offering an oral implantology curriculum. One of the four institutions that did not have an oral implantology program was planning to include this subject in their curriculum. The number of lecture hours was 5.7±5.8 (range : 1-24 hours) among institutions offering lectures in regular courses or in the department. Although oral implantology lectures were often included in the study of prosthodontics, some institutions had a program for oral implantology or dental technology. Most of the lecturers were part-time dentists. Laboratory training for oral implant was offered by 13 institutions. Most of the implant laboratory training was the final implantsupported prosthesis for intermediate defect cases. There was also a comment in the free space that inexpensive implant replicas should be made commercially available for training purposes.

This questionnaire survey revealed that, although many institutions had an oral implantology curriculum, only a third of those institutions had been offering an actual laboratory training program for oral implants. In order to spread this training, the institutions should be provided with low-price implant replicas.