Attitudes towards a New Teaching Aid in Dental Education: A Preliminary Investigation - Part II

Abstract

Local anaesthesia is a vital skill and a requirement for most dental procedures. One of the widely used techniques in local anaesthesia is the inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB). Appropriate training is essential for dental undergraduates to mitigate risks and develop the ability of students to learn skills of local administration prior to the care of patients. Due to this issue, an innovative local anaesthesia simulator kit has been developed as a considered new teaching aid in pre-clinical IANB training. Hence, the main objective of this study is to explain students’ attitudes towards the new teaching aid using simulator kit called Local Anaesthesia Simulator Kit (LASK). Dental undergraduates from Year 3 were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The perceived attitudes of students towards the intention to use LASK were reported in this study using descriptive statistics. Overall, the majority of students have a positive attitude towards LASK. More than 75% of the respondents had positive attitudes towards the intention to continue using LASK because its benefits offered and ease of use of LASK. In conclusion, effective and efficient techniques for the administration of IANB in dental procedures, particularly at the undergraduate level, remain crucial.