Year : 2022

Volume : Volume 13

Issue : Issue 2

Abstract

Background: The dental education is considered to be a much desirable and a demanding professional field. It requires the students to acquire a diverse collection of skills and related comprehensive theoretical knowledge within the given time span of graduation. There is a perceived need to prove to students, to the dental profession, and to the public at large that students graduating from the college are well equipped to
address the changing oral health-care needs of the community. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the standard of newly qualified dental graduates. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the standard of newly qualified dental graduates. The questionnaire was converted to an electronic version used to collect the outlook of the newly qualified dental graduates. The questionnaire
was closed ended with a value on a Likert-type scale in ten areas. The collected data were analyzed and descriptive statistics were done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 21.0v (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: A total of 150 respondents completed the survey. The most acute trend for a perception of declining standards is in behavior, with a score of 2.08. In contrast, professionalism enjoys a
score of 3.94 suggesting an improvement over time. Conclusion: The main weak points of the newly qualified dental graduates were found to be interpersonal relationships (student-teacher relationship) and the behavior issues.
Keywords: Dentists, Graduates, Perception, Standard.