Abstract
We have developed and applied a new electronic portfolio system to educate 65 dental residents for postgraduate clinical training in Okayama University Hospital of Medicine and Dentistry since the 2006 academic year. The purpose of this study was to examine the situation of postgraduate clinical training concerned with conservative dental treatment by using our electronic portfolio system in order to improve the postgraduate clinical training program at our hospital. At first, the number of patients whom the dental residents had treated was examined. Next, the records related to conservative dental treatment that the residents had put in the electronic portfolio system were exported and divided into three groups: restorative treatment, endodontic treatment and periodontal treatment, and the details were analyzed. The average number of patients for the period of their internship was 17.0±4.9 persons and the total number of records in the electronic portfolio system was 23,911. The records concerned with conservative dentistry accounted for 47.3% (11,316 records) of the total. The frequency of the restorative, endodontic, and periodontal treatments were 9.4% (2,239 records), 9.8% (2,335 records), and 28.2% (6,742 records), respectively. Detailed analysis demonstrated that residents experienced over 10 cases of "root canal filling" and "scaling and root planing", and over 20 cases of "resin filling", "root canal enlargement and/or application", "periodontal tissue examination", "tooth brushing instruction", "sonic scaling", and "supportive periodontal therapy". The results demonstrated that the dental residents experienced conservative dental treatment with a frequency of over 50% (almost 50% of all dental treatments) during their postgraduate clinical training program in Okayama University Hospital of Medicine and Dentistry, and that they experienced over 10 cases of basic treatment procedures of conservative dentistry.
