PERCEPTIONS OF DENTAL STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES OF A NIGERIAN DENTAL SCHOOL ON THE QUALITY OF UNDERGRADUATE TRAINING

Abstract

Undergraduate dental education is very demanding and rigorous for the dental students,
particularly in a country like Nigeria, where there are limited resources available to support
dental education. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to final year dental students'
and recently graduated dentists (house-officers) from the University of Lagos Dental School. The
questionnaires had three sections, each utilizing Likert scales to assess the respondents'
perceptions on different aspects of their undergraduate dental training Data analysis was carried
out using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software, (SPSS) version 17, Chicago III.
Seventy-seven students and recent graduates participated in the study. Oral medicine recorded the
highest level of satisfaction among the participants for both academic and clinical training. 1n
contrast, conservative dentistry recorded the least level of satisfaction for both academic and
clinical training, respectively. Electricity supply was rated as the factor most adversely affecting
clinical training while the quality of training received from faculty was rated as the least adverse
factor, affecting clinical training. Dental students and recent graduates of the University of Lagos
Dental School are not satisfied with the quality of undergraduate training received in some dental
specialties at the dental school. This dissatisfaction may be associated with infrastructural
limitations such as poor electricity supply and inadequate dental chairs and materials for
training.