The role of workshop training in the quality of tooth color selection by senior dental students of Tabriz dental faculty in 2018-2019

Abstract

Background and objective: The aesthetics of shade selection is one of the important and complicated factors in dentistry. Understanding shades entails experience as well as knowledge and awareness. Since one of the most important steps in dentistry is color selection and color matching with restoration, there is a need to educate dental students on color selection. Therefore, the present research is an attempt to study the role of workshop training on the quality of tooth shade selection by the senior dental students in Tabriz Faculty of Dentistry in the 2018-2019 academic year. Materials and methods: In this project, the senior students in the Dentistry Faculty of Tabriz in the 2018-2019 academic year, who met the inclusion criteria, were included. Afterward, shade selection was carried out for the right maxillary central incisors of 3 patients using a vitapan classical shade guide. The first patient (A) was selected as a simple case. The second patient (B) was selected as an average case, and the third patient (C) was selected as a complicated case. The exact shade selection spot on the selected tooth was marked on a diagram of the given tooth to prevent the students from making mistakes. Shade selection was performed in a 3x4 room under equal lighting conditions from 11AM to 13PM. First, the students were randomly classified into the experimental and control groups using a random problem list. In the experimental group, the students received workshop training in shade selection using a vitapan classical shade guide following the initial shade selection phase. One week following the workshop training, shade selection was performed by these students. In the control group, shade selection was carried out by the students under exactly the same conditions as the experimental group without providing workshop training between the two shade selection sessions. The data obtained from the study was statistically analyzed using the descriptive statistics methods (mean, standard deviation, and frequency-percentage) and McNemar statistical test or Wilcoxon and ANCOVA tests in SPSS.16. In this study, a p value smaller than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Findings: The intervention group outperformed the control group in simple shade selection but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.18). In the average shade selection, the difference between the intervention and control groups was not statistically significant (p=0.72). In the complicated shade selection, the intervention group outperformed the control group but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.34). Conclusion: The results of our study mirrored the positive effect of training on the quality of shade selection by the students but the difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, training had a more drastic effect on complicated shade selection.