Dental students’ and lecturers’ perception of the degree of difficulty of caries detection associated learning topics in Brazil

PURPOSE It aimed to explore the degree of difficulty of caries-detection-associated-topics perceived by dental students and lecturers as pedagogical step in the development of learning objects for e-learning. METHODS A convenience sample comprising ninety-eight subjects from different academic levels (undergraduate/graduate students and pediatric dentistry lecturers) participated. Two spreadsheets (isolated/relative) were created considering key topics in the caries detection process. The isolated evaluation intended to explore each topic in an isolated way, while the relative intended to classify, comparatively, the participants' perceived difficulty per topic. Afterwards, data were analyzed. All values on spreadsheets were combined obtaining the subject's final perception. Associations between the subjects' degree of the perceived difficulty and academic level were estimated. ANOVA was used to determine differences regarding the perception among evaluated topics in distinct groups. RESULTS Caries histopathology and detection of proximal carious lesions were the topics perceived as the most difficult in the process of caries detection by both students and lecturers. Differentiation between an extrinsic pigmentation and a brown-spot (caries lesion) as well as differential diagnosis between caries and enamel developmental defects or non-carious lesions were considered as more difficult by undergraduates in comparison to graduates/lecturers (regression-coefficient=14.54; Standard Error=3.34; P<0.001 and 8.40, 3.31, and 0.01 respectively). CONCLUSION Topics as histopathology and detection of proximal caries lesions were identified as the most difficult despite the academic level. However, some topics are differently perceived according to the group. These results are useful for developing pedagogical material, based on the students real learning needs/expectations.