Intention & knowledge of fresh dental graduates of FMH College of dentistry Lahore related to dental practice management

Abstract

Background: Dental practice is getting complex day by day, whereas dentistry graduates are oblivious of the world they would face after house job. Dental practice management is a subject that is neglected in the curriculum of baccalaureate of dental surgery.

Aims: To explore the aspiration of fresh dental graduate’s intention related to future dental practice and to determine their knowledge related to dental practice management.

Methods: This quantitative, descriptive study was conducted at FMH College of medicine & dentistry, Shadman, Lahore. All fresh graduates were asked to fill a proforma devised to investigate intention, teaching and knowledge related to practice management. The questionnaire was divided into three blocks, first block was related to fresh graduate intention related to future dental practice, second block was about teaching of practice management and third section tested knowledge of fresh graduate related to dental practice management

Result: The questionnaire was distributed to sixty-two fresh graduates. The response rate was 79% (n=49). 42 (85.7%) respondents said they wish to join clinical fields, 31 (63.3%) said they were interested in starting full time practice (n=31, 63.3%) and 22 (44.9%) respondents said they wanted to start practice immediately after house job. More than half (n=21, 42.8%) thought they were not ready to run a dental practice. Teaching of dental practice management was a neglected aspect according to majority of respondents (n=28, 57.1%) and almost all fresh graduates (n=44, 89.8%) agreed that more time should be allocated for teaching of dental practice management. The knowledge related to various aspect of dental practice management varies among fresh graduates, the legal and financial aspect were major weakness.

Conclusion: Fresh graduates have not been taught dental practice management. There is no statistically significant difference in knowledge of graduates who think they are ready for private practice from those who think they are unprepared for private practice.

Key Words: dental practice management, curriculum, teaching