Madiha Anwar, Beenish Fatima Alam, Syed Jaffar Abbas Zaidi.
Tooth carving as a teaching modality in the study of tooth morphology: students\' perception and performance.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;29(4):249-53.

OBJECTIVE: Dental wax carving exercise is a practical exercise to teach tooth morphology that develops psychomotor skills needed to practice clinical dentistry. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of dental wax carving as a teaching modality for tooth morphology and its assessment. METHODOLOGY: Forty-two first-year dental students were randomly divided into two groups participated in this study from February 2019 till September 2019 at Bahria University Medical & Dental College. Learning resources related to dental wax carving were provided to the first group of 21 students while the second group of 21 students received practical demonstration. The students self-evaluated their dental carving based on a standardized checklist and two examiners then evaluated the dental wax carvings randomly. A student satisfaction survey was performed at the end of this study to gain feedback regarding the dental wax carving as a teaching methodology. RESULTS: The mean scores given by self-assessment of students were significantly higher than those given by the examiners to both the groups. The group that was given a live demonstration of dental carving scored higher than the self-directed learners. Overall student feedback regarding dental carving was uniformly positive. CONCLUSION: Dental carving skills develop manual dexterity and psychomotor skills for practicing clinical dentistry and should be an integral component of preclinical dental curriculum so that clinically relevant cognitive & psychomotor skills are incorporated. Based on this study, a live demonstration of dental wax carving skills should be the preferred teaching modality.

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