Undergraduate orthodontic teaching in the new millennium--the Newcastle model

Clinical audit of orthodontic chart documentation by dental undergraduates

INTRODUCTION

Clinical audit is a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through the systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change. The objective of this audit was to evaluate the quality of orthodontic chart documentation by dental undergraduates against established guidelines.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An audit checklist with 13 criteria for good documentation was adapted from guidelines proposed by the American Association of Orthodontists and British Orthodontic Society. Orthodontic chart documentation in 103 removable appliance therapy patients under 4th and 5th year dental undergraduates' care was retrieved from the electronic record of the University dental clinic and audited. The audit exercise explored in detail the thirteen criteria for good documentation and eight assessment attributes of the first criterion, namely, basic orthodontic examination. The level of compliance was measured as the percentage records meeting the criteria. The data were statistically analysed using SPSS 26.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

RESULTS

There was no complete compliance for any of the criteria. Thirty-five (33.9%) patient charts reported basic orthodontic examination documentation adequately. Compliance was the highest for documentation of treatment modality (77.6%), appliance delivery encounters (77.6%), and appliance adjustment appointments (83.5%). About 51.4% of the 68 patient charts (treatment of 35 patients of the total 103 were in the progress stage) stated adequately the outcome of treatment. Only 22% of the 68 patient charts had the details for retention protocol. There was statistically significant difference in chart documentation between male and female students for basic orthodontic assessment and appliance delivery and patient instructions attributes.

CONCLUSION

The clinical audit demonstrated poor compliance with the criteria for orthodontic chart documentation. The audit should be repeated after the provision of learning opportunities and self-critical analysis.

Orthodontic curriculum in Saudi Arabia: Faculty members' perception of clinical learning outcomes

OBJECTIVES:

This study aimed to assess the perception of orthodontic staff members around clinical learning outcomes (LOs) of the undergraduate orthodontic curriculum with a focus on dental schools in Saudi Arabia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Twenty-three LOs were formulated, all of which were associated with skills required in the undergraduate orthodontics course. Orthodontic staff members were invited to provide their opinion regarding the curriculum using a Likert scale, whereby participants could answer each question on a scale from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.”

RESULTS:

Sixty-one teaching staff members agreed to partake in this study. The highest level of agreement among the participants pertained to conducting systematic orthodontic intraoral and extraoral examinations (100%), followed by explaining causes for space loss (98.3%). The lowest level of agreement was regarding executing a treatment plan for non-skeletal cases (62.2%) followed by skills of fabrication and activation of removable appliances (77%). Around 67.1% of the academics refused to allow dental students to select and bond orthodontic brackets.

CONCLUSION:

It is time to amalgamate the objectives and create a unified national list of LOs for all orthodontic curriculums across the country without any distinction of knowledge or skills required at the undergraduate level.

'What has been your experience of providing short-term orthodontics?'--A pilot survey of GDPs in East Sussex

Short-term orthodontics (STO) aims to enhance a patient's smile by aligning their anterior teeth. It is considered a quicker alternative to conventional orthodontics and less destructive than veneers. As such, it has recently gained much popularity in cosmetic dentistry worldwide. STO is provided almost exclusively by general dental practitioners (GDPs), however, the current literature on this subject focuses largely on the opinions of orthodontists and cosmetic dentists, respectively. The aim of this paper, on the other hand, is to examine the opinions of GDPs and what experience they have had of providing STO. It concludes that GDPs performing STO in East Sussex have expressed a wish to receive more teaching and support from their local orthodontists. It also suggests a need for orthodontic professional bodies to issue guidelines on case selection for STO in order to assist GDPs in recognising which malocclusions are beyond their scope of practice.

Interprofessional Education in an Orthodontic Outreach Training Centre

Interprofessional education (IPE) describes those occasions when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. In the UK, orthodontic treatment is now delivered by a highly skilled team. Historically, education and training for orthodontic team members has been delivered 'uniprofessionally' in secondary care hospital settings, despite 96% of dental care, including orthodontics, being delivered in primary care. This paper describes an evaluation of IPE in Leamington Spa Orthodontics (LSO), a University-approved, primary care outreach training centre, where all members of the orthodontic team deliver patient care and are educated together in an IPE environment. The study methodology is realist evaluation, which aims to describe and understand the educational environment and identify how stakeholders perceive their experiences. This study describes a quality assured, primary care model of integrated education and patient care, which enhances interprofessionality and offers an alternative strategy for the future for commissioning of education and clinical care.