Increasing Dental Students Awareness of Special Care Patients

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine whether use of the BDA case mix model increased dental student’s awareness of patients with special care needs during their early clinical training.

Methods: In 2009, at the end of their first clinical year, the whole year of 32 students were asked how many special care dental patients they had treated during the year. Many students failed to recognise that patients with sensory, learning or medical problems class as special needs. In 2010, the next cohort of students were divided into two groups. Group 1, working in Morecambe and Carlisle clinics, were asked to complete the BDA Case mix questionnaires for all their patients in addition to the routine medical and social history. Group 2, working in Accrington and Blackpool clinics completed only the medical and social history. At the end of the year both groups were asked how many special care patients they had treated. The numbers of patients recognised by the students was compared using a two sample T-test.

 Results:

~ not using case mix  # using case mix

There was a significant different (p=0.034) between the students using the case mix questionnaire in the 2010 student cohort whereas in previous year there was no significant difference.

Conclusions: Using the BDA case mix made students more aware of patients with special care needs.