Challenges of clinical dental education during the pandemic: A mixed-methods approach

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and its high prevalence greatly affected education, especially majors such as dentistry, which require patient encounters. The objective of the current study was to investigate dental students› and professors› perspectives on the effects of the pandemic on clinical dental education. Methods: This mixed-methods study had two phases: (1) in the qualitative phase, interviews were conducted with the heads of each clinical department and the students’ representatives. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and categorized to extract the main issues; (2) A self-administered questionnaire was designed based on the extracted themes. All the 4th–6th year dental students in the 2021–2022 academic year were invited to participate. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: Twelve main issues were extracted from the interviews, including a reduced number of patients, reduced self-esteem concerning clinical care among students, the need for isolated facilities, etc. In the quantitative phase, 76% of the students participated in this study, 86% of whom believed that the quality of clinical education during the pandemic had decreased. The lack of patients and, as a result, the decrease in the number of determined requirements were listed as the most important factors in this reduction. The students mostly preferred to have extra time to compensate for their lack of experience. Conclusion: The COVID-19 outbreak has negatively affected dental education. Despite the advances in e-learning, dental education cannot easily convert from patient-based education to theoretical or even virtual education. Providing proper clinical education always remains critical.