EFFECTIVENESS OF INTRAORAL RADIOGRAPHY TRAINING KIT FOR DENTAL UNDERGRADUATES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY Insufficient intraoral radiography training among dental students may lead to an increased radiograph rejection rate at a dental institution which may require a corrective action plan as suggested by the Malaysian Dental Council. The number of trained staff to provide continuous training among dental students in radiographic taking is usually inadequate in most dental institutions, including UKM. To overcome this problem, the intraoral radiography training kit is potentially useful as a self-directed learning aid that students can access anytime for continuous training in intraoral radiography and hence reduce the rejection rate associated with radiographic taking among dental students. This study is aimed to determine the effectiveness of the intraoral radiography training kit and demonstration videos in radiographic taking among dental undergraduates. This type of study is an experimental (parallel group design) to compare the rejection rate between a group of students who are exposed to the radiography training kit (trial group) and a group of students who are not exposed to the intervention (control group). This study involved a convenient sampling of 10 students within the clinical year (Year 4 and Year 5) who had at least one rejected radiograph at undergraduates' polyclinics from March until July 2022. Results showed the mean rank of the radiograph rejection rate in the trial group was lesser than the control group, following the intervention period. In addition, there is a statistically significant difference between the means of radiograph rejection rate before and after exposure to the intraoral radiography training kit (p-value < 0.05). In conclusion, an intraoral radiography training kit is an efficient tool to facilitate dental undergraduates in improving their radiographic skills.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reject rate of periapical and bitewing radiographs among dental undergraduate students of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), identify the type of radiographic errors which are frequently encountered and compare reject rates between Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 dental undergraduates. 118 rejected periapical radiographs and 27 rejected bitewing radiographs were collected from the UKM dental undergraduates’ polyclinics for a duration of 10 months. These rejected radiographs were further evaluated to determine the type of radiographic error. A spiking increase in periapical radiographs reject rate from Year 3 (4%) to Year 4 (11%) was observed. This finding was consistent with the statistically significant difference in the periapical radiographs reject rates for Year 3 and Year 4 (p = 0.0475). In periapical radiographs, the most frequently committed radiographic error was apical cut, followed by high density film. Vice versa, high density film was accounted as the most common radiographic error in bitewing radiography. Analysis of periapical and bitewing radiographs’ reject rates among UKM dental undergraduate entails the necessity to supervise undergraduate students regardless of the year of their undergraduate training in all aspects of the radiographic procedures which include positioning radiographic armamentarium, the setting of radiographic exposure time and the film processing procedure.