223 - Educating General Practice Residents to Care for Pediatric Dental Patients

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if basic pediatric dentistry knowledge lectures help recent dental school graduates to increase their knowledge and confidence in treating pediatric patients.

Methods: An anonymous pre-test was administered to the entering Bronxcare Health System GPR residents through Survey Monkey. Participants were given an hour didactic lecture reviewing key concepts in pediatric dentistry (stainless steel crowns, pulp therapy, infant oral health, nitrous oxide, space maintenance, and dental trauma) that previous studies have found inadequacies in recent predoctoral dental school graduates. Following the lecture, a post-test questionnaire was given to determine if the lecture resulted in improvement of knowledge and confidence of residents in treating pediatric dental patients.

Results: 11 out of 15 residents completed the pre-test with an average score of 57.3%. 10 out of 15 residents completed the post-test with an average score of 79%. The higher post-lecture scores suggest improvement in pediatric dentistry knowledge of GPR residents. There was no expected significant improvement in the reported confidence of the GPR residents in treating pediatric dental patients.

Conclusions: This study suggests that basic pediatric dentistry knowledge lectures may be beneficial in enhancing the understanding of recent dental school graduates. These results align with previous research indicating incompetencies in placing stainless steel crowns and performing pulp therapy procedures are consistently identified among general dentists. Additional research is necessary to evaluate methods for augmenting pediatric dentistry education for dental school graduates, thereby advancing the treatment and care of pediatric dental patients.