Impact of a tutored theoretical-practical training to development of undergraduate students’ skills for the detection of caries lesions a study protocol for a multicenter controlled randomized study

Objective: To assess the impact of a tutored theoretical-practical training for teaching undergraduate students to detect caries lesions as compared to theoretical teaching activities. The impact of these teaching/learning activities will be assessed in terms of efficacy, cost/efficacy, retention of knowledge/acquired competences and student’s acceptability.

Methods: Sixteen centers (7 centers from Brazil and 9 centers from other countries throughout the world) are involved in the inclusion of subjects for this protocol. A randomized controlled study with parallel groups will be conducted. One group (control) will be exposed to a 60-90 min conventional theoretical class and the other group (test) will be exposed to the same theoretical class and also a 90 min laboratory class, including exercises and discussions based on the evaluation of a pool of images and extracted teeth. The mentioned outcomes will be evaluated immediately after the teaching activities and also in medium and long-term analyses. To compare the long-term outcomes, students who enrolled in the university before these students will be interviewed for data collection and these data will be used as a control and compared to the trained group. This stage will be a non-randomized phase of this study, nested in the main study. Appropriate statistical analysis will be performed according to the aims of this study. Variables related to the centers will be also analyzed and used to model adjustment as possible sources of variability among results.

Discussion: Our hypothesis is that tutored theoretical-practical training is more cost-efficacious option for teaching undergraduate students to detect caries lesions. If our hypothesis is confirmed, the use of laboratory training in conjunction with theoretical classes could be used as an educational strategy in Cariology to improve the development of undergraduate students skills in the detection of caries lesions and clinical decision-making.