2008 Volume 46 Issue 5 Pages 517-523
To survey the current state of the education of Pediatric Dentistry in our country, a questionnaire investigation was done to all Dental Colleges and School of Dentistry in Universities. The questionnaire consisted of three fields, such as lecture of Pediatric Dentistry, basic laboratory practice and basic clinical practice. According to the questionnaire, the following things were confirmed. All Universities still have the syllabus concerning Pediatric Dentistry, except for one University. The average hours of lecture was 55 hours. The University with the longest course hours was 6 times higher than the shortest University. The average hours of basic laboratory practice was 35 hours. The private Universities were significantly longer than national and public Universities. While, the period of basic clinical practice was similar in all Universities, however it started 6 months earlier in private Universities compared with national and public Universities. Moreover, there were differences in intervention levels of students to the treatment of the patients and evaluation procedures of basic clinical practice in Universities.
In the present study, it was confirmed that the education of Pediatric Dentistry varied considerably between Universities. Especially, the average hours of lecture and basic laboratory practice were longer in private Universities compared to national and public Universities. Furthermore, basic clinical practice starts significantly earlier in private Universities.
