Research Information System
Selcuk Dental Journal, vol.9, no.1, pp.21-29, 2022 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Background: The attitudes and behaviors of students after their
injuries in preclinical education in the faculties of dentistry are
very important in terms of blood-borne diseases and infection
risks. For this reason, this study aimed to determine the injuries
experienced by dentistry students in preclinical courses in detail
and to determine their post-injury behaviors.
Methods: The study was conducted on students who
completed their first and second education years. The surveys
we prepared were conducted anonymously by sending to the
volunteer participants via "Google Forms". In the surveys, we
questioned the types of injuries they experienced in the courses;
the materials that caused the injury; the number of injuries; the
time period of the course and in which preclinical training course
the injuries occurred; and their behaviors after injury and their
reasons. In the study, information (n) and (%) were given as
descriptive statistics of the data. In the analysis of the
relationship between two categorical variables, Pearson ChiSquare analysis was applied when the sample size assumption
was met, and Fisher's Exact test was applied when the sample
size assumption was not met. Analyzes were carried out in IBM
SPSS 25 program.
Results: 66% of the students (n=87) stated that they were
injured at least once in pre-clinical courses. The most common
injuries were cutting-penetrating (72.9%) due to the use of dental
spatula and injury from direct fire source (59.4%) in the first-year
students. Dental wires (96%) dental explorer (78%) and burning
injuries with hot dental wax (64%) resulted in high rates of
students who completed the second year. 87.5% of the students
who completed their second year stated that they were injured
mostly in the preclinical education courses of Prosthodontics.
It was found that only 24 % of the students reported all their
injuries.
Conclusion: The high injury rates in our study revealed the
inability of the students to use cutting-penetrating tools and
laboratory materials safely. In addition, their attitudes and
behaviors after injuries showed that blood-borne diseases and
cross-infection knowledge were insufficient. In order to take
precautions in these issues, students must be educated before
preclinical courses