Evaluation of a pilot hands-on course in surgical dentistry for primary care dental practitioners in Oxfordshire.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a course in surgical dentistry on the confidence of 32 general dental practitioners, each of whom attended a one-day hands-on course.

Design: Questionnaire survey.

Setting: General dental practitioners attending a course on surgical dentistry, which was run over a day, for eight participants per day.

Results: The course was rated highly by participants. The hands-on component was particularly well received. Confidence scores increased for several surgical procedures, particularly for removal of impacted teeth and for apicectomies of single-rooted teeth. There were concomitant decreases in the proportion of participants who said that they would refer patients requiring these surgical procedures. Confidence scores remained low for complex procedures such as molar apicectomies. However, it would be appropriate to refer these cases for specialist care.

Conclusions: The results of this pilot study indicated that a course in surgical dentistry was successful in increasing the confidence of a small group of general dental practitioners. More research is needed to determine whether this is the most effective way of helping practitioners maintain and improve skills and confidence in surgical dentistry.