Evaluation of Orthodontic Wire-Bending Performance of Dental Students Between Two Consecutive Academic Years

Aim: To compare orthodontic preclinical skills of same dental students that were trained using the same learning method in similar skills at an interval of one year Material and Methods: The retrospective study evaluated the archived wire-bending and wax models that had been submitted by the same undergraduates who were fourth-year undergraduates (T0) in 2019-2020 and were promoted to the fifth year in 2020-2021 (T1). Orthodontic performances were taught to a total of 45 dental students (21 males and 24 females) using the live demonstration method prior to their internship in both academic years. Labial arch, Adams clasp, eyelet clasp bending and base plate wax modeling skills at the end of internship were compared between the two periods and between the two genders. Results: A significant difference was found between the two genders with regard to T0 labial wire-bending (male: 9.90 ± 1.70, female: 10.66 ± 2.05) and T0 total skill score (male: 27.76 ± 2.94, female: 30.45 ± 3.00) (p<0.01). In female students, a significant increase was observed in the Adams clasp bending scores at T1 (11.33±1.27) compared to T0 (11.08±1.34), while in male students, a significant increase was detected in the eyelet clasp bending scores between T1 (3.28±0.56) and T0 (2.71±1.10) (p<0.05). However, no significant change was observed between T0 and T1 with regard to all parameters in the entire population (p>0.05). Conclusion: The difference between the initial scores of both genders disappeared in the long term and there was no significant change in total skill scores between the two academic years.