Choosing Public Health Dentistry as a career: A cross– sectional study

Dr. Sachendra Bharat; Dr. D.J. Bhaskar; Dr. Navpreet Kaur; Dr. Ankita Bansal; Dr. Amit

Volume : VII, Issue : X, October - 2018

Choosing Public Health Dentistry as a career: A cross– sectional study

Dr. Sachendra Bharat, Dr. D. J. Bhaskar, Dr. Navpreet Kaur, Dr. Ankita Bansal, Dr. Amit

Abstract :

Objective:Public Health Dentistry is considered as a knowledge based department and it is given less priority by the students as their choice in post–graduation, though it forms the basis of dental health care services and holds the key for developing awareness about the social aspects of the profession and the responsibility towards community. The aim of this study was to determine the factors that lead to the choice of public health dentistry as an occupation among the dental students in a private dental college.

Materials and Methods: The present cross‑sectional based study was conducted among 50BDS third year, 56 final year and 14 interns were taken as study subjects.Data was collected using a closed ended questionnaire. Statistical Analysis was performed using SPSS software for Windows, version 22and data was analyzed using the Pearson Chi‑square (χ2) test.

Results: Out of 120 study subjects who asked whether they wish to choose Public Health Dentistry as subject in MDS, 22% 3^rd year students responded no, 21% responded don�t know and 7% responded yes; 34% final year students responded no, 18% responded don�t know and 4% responded yes; 2% interns responded no, 4% responded don�t know and 8% responded yes. Results were found to be highly statistically significant (p=0.000).

Conclusion:The present study concluded that there was an average attitude of dental students, which showed that they had a considerable amount of interest in pursuing post graduation in public health dentistry.