Home Print this page Email this page Small font sizeDefault font sizeIncrease font size
Users Online: 59

 

Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Contacts Login 
     
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2013  |  Volume : 3  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 66-70

Factors affecting the right and left discrimination ability among dental students


1 Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
2 Manipal, Manipal University, Karnataka, India

Correspondence Address:
Manuel Sebastian Thomas
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, Manipal University, Light House Hill Road, Mangalore - 575 001, Karnataka
India
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/0974-7761.136047

Rights and Permissions

Background: Right-left confusion in dental practice may lead to iatrogenic mishaps and thus can be of serious concern with respect to the patient care. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the right-left discrimination (RLD) ability among dental students. The study aims to determine the relation of various factors that can affect the students' discriminating ability. Materials and Methods: All consented dental students from first year to fourth year were asked to mention their gender, course year, and handedness. They were also asked to record their perceived discriminatory ability on a five-point Likert scale and to mention the use of any method to aid in right-left discrimination. Modified Bergen test was used to determine the ability of the participants to differentiate right from left. The test had three subsections - all figures viewed from front, from back, and alternating views from back and front. The values obtained were statistically analysed. Results: There was no significant difference in the RLD ability between males (43.25 ± 4.52) and females (42.12 ± 4.53). Even the discriminatory ability had no significant association with students' clinical exposure. Students who used learnt technique for differentiation had significantly lower scores (41.95 ± 4.58) than those without any technique (43.40 ± 4.30). Conclusion: There was no significant association between gender and clinical exposure in the right-left discrimination ability among the dental students. Students who did not use any technique to aid them in differentiating right and left performed better than those who used some technique. Right-left confusion was more in situations where mental rotation was required.


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed4138    
    Printed167    
    Emailed2    
    PDF Downloaded327    
    Comments [Add]    

Recommend this journal