OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare visuospatial and psychomotor skills of second year pre-clinical
dental students with final year dental students using an exercise in dentinal pin placement.
METHODOLOGY:A total of 120 BDS undergraduate students who had completed second or final year Operative dentistry
rotation were included. While students from second and final year who had not consented to participate or had missed the
practical demonstration or whose dentinal pins were misplaced after becoming loose from the tooth were excluded.
Participating students placed the dentinal pins, following which Adobe Photoshop (version CC 2014) was used to analyze the
photographs of the taken radiographs in two dimensions. Parameters assessed were pulpal perforations, periodontal perforations
and pin angulation. Independent sample t-test was used to compare continuous variables while chi-square test was used for
testing association for categorical variables.
RESULTS: Final year students fared better in all categories of pin placement except periodontal perforation which was the
same for both years. Statistically significant difference in the angulation for pin placement were observed between the two
student groups in mesiodistal direction (p value =0.001) and in buccolingual direction (p value <.001).
CONCLUSION: There is a significant difference in the psychomotor and visuospatial skill of second year pre-clinical when
compared with the final year clinical undergraduate students.
KEYWORDS: curriculum, dental, learning, operative, students.
HOW TO CITE: Ahmed A, Bhatti UA. Comparison of visuospatial skill development between preclinical and clinical
undergraduate students using dentinal pin placement exercise. J Pak Dent Assoc 2021;30(3):147-151.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.303.147
Received: 23 November 2020, Accepted: 20 May 2021
Alia Ahmed BDS, FCPS
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