Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this?
Abstract Background Teledentistry is a part of telemedicine and can be used for dental diagnosis, dental care, consultation, and dental education. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of undergraduate dental students toward teledentistry, as well as to in...
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BMC
2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-06758-y |
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| author | Gökçen Akçiçek Ezgi Katı Hatice Yağmur Zengin |
| author_facet | Gökçen Akçiçek Ezgi Katı Hatice Yağmur Zengin |
| author_sort | Gökçen Akçiçek |
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| description | Abstract Background Teledentistry is a part of telemedicine and can be used for dental diagnosis, dental care, consultation, and dental education. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of undergraduate dental students toward teledentistry, as well as to investigate the influence of enrolling in a teledentistry course on these variables. Methods A structured questionnaire-based online survey (Google Form) was used as the survey tool to evaluate the undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry. All undergraduate dental students during the 2022–2023 academic year, were invited to join this questionnaire. The questionnaire was posted to the students who agreed to answer the survey online. Associations between categorical variables were evaluated using the Pearson Chi-square test or Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact test. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare two independent groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare more than two independent groups. All analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2015, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). The significance level was set at p < 0.05 for all analyses. Explanatory factor analysis and item analysis were used for the evaluation of the validity of the questionnaire. Results There were 293 participants from five classes, with a 36.08% response rate; 190 (64.8%) were female and 103 (35.2%) were male, with a median age of 21 years (minimum 17 years, maximum 44 years). In this study, 37.9% of the participants had heard of teledentistry, 30.7% knew what teledentistry is, approximately one-third of the students were aware that there is a course called teledentistry in our faculty, and only 11.6% took the course. Undergraduate dental students had high levels of knowledge and awareness about the advantages and limitations of teledentistry. Dental students who had taken the course had a more positive attitude towards using teledentistry. Conclusions Enhancing dental students’ knowledge and awareness of teledentistry could beneficially influence their utilization of teledentistry in their future careers. Clinical trial number This study is not a clinical trial involving medicinal products or therapeutic interventions, so the clinical trial number is not applicable. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c728fad0114145dfbd222e0ba7f847ea |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1472-6920 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medical Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-c728fad0114145dfbd222e0ba7f847ea2025-02-02T12:29:48ZengBMCBMC Medical Education1472-69202025-01-0125111410.1186/s12909-025-06758-yEvaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this?Gökçen Akçiçek0Ezgi Katı1Hatice Yağmur Zengin2Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Hacettepe UniversityFaculty of Dentistry, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Hacettepe UniversityDepartment of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe UniversityAbstract Background Teledentistry is a part of telemedicine and can be used for dental diagnosis, dental care, consultation, and dental education. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of undergraduate dental students toward teledentistry, as well as to investigate the influence of enrolling in a teledentistry course on these variables. Methods A structured questionnaire-based online survey (Google Form) was used as the survey tool to evaluate the undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry. All undergraduate dental students during the 2022–2023 academic year, were invited to join this questionnaire. The questionnaire was posted to the students who agreed to answer the survey online. Associations between categorical variables were evaluated using the Pearson Chi-square test or Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact test. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare two independent groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare more than two independent groups. All analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2015, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). The significance level was set at p < 0.05 for all analyses. Explanatory factor analysis and item analysis were used for the evaluation of the validity of the questionnaire. Results There were 293 participants from five classes, with a 36.08% response rate; 190 (64.8%) were female and 103 (35.2%) were male, with a median age of 21 years (minimum 17 years, maximum 44 years). In this study, 37.9% of the participants had heard of teledentistry, 30.7% knew what teledentistry is, approximately one-third of the students were aware that there is a course called teledentistry in our faculty, and only 11.6% took the course. Undergraduate dental students had high levels of knowledge and awareness about the advantages and limitations of teledentistry. Dental students who had taken the course had a more positive attitude towards using teledentistry. Conclusions Enhancing dental students’ knowledge and awareness of teledentistry could beneficially influence their utilization of teledentistry in their future careers. Clinical trial number This study is not a clinical trial involving medicinal products or therapeutic interventions, so the clinical trial number is not applicable.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-06758-yDental educationDental studentsTelemedicine |
| spellingShingle | Gökçen Akçiçek Ezgi Katı Hatice Yağmur Zengin Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this? BMC Medical Education Dental education Dental students Telemedicine |
| title | Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this? |
| title_full | Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this? |
| title_fullStr | Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this? |
| title_short | Evaluation of undergraduate dental students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards teledentistry: does a course enhance this? |
| title_sort | evaluation of undergraduate dental students awareness knowledge and attitudes towards teledentistry does a course enhance this |
| topic | Dental education Dental students Telemedicine |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-06758-y |
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