Use of an interactive teaching modality in predoctoral oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Purpose: Although only a small percentage of any dental class will pursue oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) as a career, it is imperative that educators engender interest and foster knowledge of the specialty to the entire predoctoral class. We sought to enhance the educational experience in the predoctoral OMS rotation by employing an interactive teaching technique.

Materials And Methods: During 1 academic year, 108 predoctoral dental students rotated through the OMS clinical rotation at 1 institution. Clinical and didactic material was introduced to students, and was reinforced using a highly interactive technique. After all members of the class had completed the rotation, a survey of teaching methods was performed. Next, National Dental Examining Board, Part II (NDEB-II) scores from this graduating class were compared with aggregate scores from the previous 3 graduating classes, to evaluate improvements in the OMS subsection score. Groups scoring above, at, or below the national average were compared, using the chi(2) test.

Results: Survey results described a positive response to the teaching techniques instituted in the OMS rotation. In comparing scores from each of the 11 sections of NDEB-II between the New Curriculum (NC) class and the aggregate score of the 3 previous graduating classes, a significant improvement was noted in only 2 of 11 sections, OMS and Public Health Dentistry. In these sections, there were reductions in the numbers of students scoring below the national average, and increases in those scoring at or above the national average.

Conclusions: Implementation of a structured, interactive educational technique was associated with an improvement in OMS section board scores. With the exception of OMS and Public Health Dentistry, the other subsection scores remained unchanged, suggesting that our technique may have positively influenced NDEB-II board scores in OMS.