The perception of the scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery and differentiation from similar specialities among dental students, medical students, trainee interns and pre-vocational junior doctors

Robert Mane; William Fox Sharpe-Davidson; Harsha De Silva; Joanne Jung Eun Choi

doi:10.1007/s10006-024-01261-y

The perception of the scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery and differentiation from similar specialities among dental students, medical students, trainee interns and pre-vocational junior doctors

Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2024 May 27. doi: 10.1007/s10006-024-01261-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Robert Mane¹, William Fox Sharpe-Davidson¹, Harsha De Silva², Joanne Jung Eun Choi³

Affiliations

¹ Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand, New Zealand.
² Sir John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, 310 Great King Street, Dunedin, New Zealand.
³ Sir John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, 310 Great King Street, Dunedin, New Zealand. joanne.choi@otago.ac.nz.

PMID: 38797786
DOI: 10.1007/s10006-024-01261-y

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the ability of Dental Students (DS), Medical Students (MS), Trainee Interns (TI) and Pre-vocational Junior Doctors (JD) in identifying procedures performed by Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS), the scope of practice (SOP) of OMS and ability to differentiate OMS from similar specialities.

Methods: The study included 282 complete responses to a survey consisting of: 9 demographic questions, 11 OMS awareness, professional ambition, teaching and exposure, confidence in identifying and referring questions and 70 procedural/scenario questions across four domains. Collected data was qualitatively and statistically analysed using SPSS V29.

Results: OMS awareness was limited. 92.2% reported None to Small amount of OMS teaching and exposure during university, with 66.0% preferring to have had a Fair to Significant amount. DS experienced more than medical respondents (2.1 vs. 1.5, p < 0.001). Most respondents reported No to Low confidence in identifying the SOP and procedures performed by OMS (67.7%) and referring to OMS (62.4%) compared to similar specialities (32.4% and 33.2%, respectively). 52.9% of procedures performed by OMS were correctly identified as being performed by OMS. The ability to identify the OMS SOP (8.7%) and differentiate OMS from similar specialities (5.0%) was low, however better among DS than medical respondents (14.9% vs. 6.3%, p = 0.002 and 12.2% vs. 2.2%, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The study has highlighted a deficit in the understanding of OMS with potential implications in the public and private healthcare sector. Identification of procedures, OMS SOP and ability to differentiate OMS from similar specialities is limited however slightly better among DS.

Keywords: Awareness; Dental and Medical students; Differentiation; Oral and maxillofacial surgery; Perception; Recognition.