DOI: https://doi.org/10.

53350/pjmhs211571623
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Attitude of Final Year Students towards Dental Specialty, Subject

ABSTRACT
Aim: To find whether final year dental students want to do post- graduation and factors that governs their
decision for specialization.
Method: A cross-sectional survey was carried out on final year dental student with the help of a questionnaire.
Results: The results showed that 40.8% of the students want to specialize in maxilla-facial surgery followed by
orthodontics by 12.4%. 37.2% of the students want to specialize for internal satisfaction. 41. 6% student thought
doing specialization would be too much time consuming.
Conclusion: It was concluded that orthodontics is the second preference for specialization as subject and the
most common reason for specialization was talent in the field. The most discouraging factor was specialization is
too much time consuming.
Keywords: Attitude, dental specialty, specialization

INTRODUCTION There are the multiple factors that can assess the
choice of an undergraduate student in planning whether
Each year hundreds of dental students graduate from they are going to pursue the postgraduate studies and
dental schools across Pakistan1. Among general which specialty they are going to choose as major subject.
population, dentistry itself was considered as a separate These factors as shown by studies include income, status,
entity. But in recent years, dentistry has grown as a field social interaction, artistic nature, self-satisfaction and
which offers specialization in further programs, thus personal interest in the field15-20. Even it was shown that
preference for specialization has become major concerns regional characteristics influence decision for choosing
among dental graduates2,3. specialty.20, 21-23
Specialization preference had been observed to vary A study by puryer J et al24 also found orthodontics to
from region to region according to cultural norms4. A study be one of the most preferred subjects for specialization and
by American dental education association (ADEA) found it was also concluded that age, parental occupation and
that 38.6% of dental school graduate prefer to enroll in ethnicity did not had any influence on students for their
dental specialization programs5. specialization preference. To provide better services to
As it had been shown by the student either lack of community and to make skillful specialist it is important to
career counseling or inadequate knowledge of the field can recognize general trend in dental student about how they
be a factor for choosing specialty. So much emphasis has perceive orthodontics as a career specialty and what factor
been placed on guidance for specialty preference 6. can influence on student behavior for specialty preference.
Dental treatment has gained popularity in general The aim of the study is to find whether undergraduate
population and people are becoming more and more aware students have enough knowledge of post graduate
about their smile, hence people are interested in getting specialization and how they perceive orthodontics as their
braces treatment.7 So orthodontics has made its space for specialization career
specialization preference among students. Orthodontics
had been the most popular specialty worldwide and is one MATERIAL AND METHOD
of the most common programs offered for specialization in
a survey conducted from 1995-20048. The study was conducted after the approval of IRB
According to 26th Asia pacific dental congress, committee, Multan medical and Dental College Multan No:
orthodontics was the preferred choice for specialization 0418 after permission from Ethical Committee. The study is
followed by prosthodontics and implantology. 9 A study a cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire filled in by
conducted on Saudi dental practitioner’s also concluded that the undergraduate students, studying at Multan dental
the preferred subject for specialization was orthodontics college Multan and Nishtar institute of dentistry Multan. The
followed by endodontic and operative dentistry10. questionnaire was designed using questions regarding their
A study conducted in USA found that orthodontics is preference for specialization and factors influencing their
the most preferred specialty for pursuing as post-graduate decision for specialization. A closed-style of questions was
training. It also concluded that gender does not play role in used with tick box responses to facilitate student’s
deter mining student preference3, 4, 11-14. convenience.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The students were a given a lecture over career
Received on 17-02-2021
counseling and informed about the nature of the study.
Accepted on 15-06-2021

P J M H S Vol. 15, NO. 7, JUL 2021 1623

Participation was not compulsory.Data was entered and community dentistry 3.2% and dental material by 2.8%
analyzed using SPSS for windows Version 20.0 Chicago (Table 2).
Inc. USA Reason for choosing specific subject: 37.2% of the
students want to specialize because of internal satisfaction.
RESULTS 22.8% of the students want to specialize because they
want to gain skill in specific field. 12% wants to specialize
First preference as subject for specialization: The because they just want to study further. 10% of the
results of our study showed that 40.8% of the participants students want to specialize because of recommendation
want to specialize in oral and maxilla-facial surgery from their families and friends,8.4% of the students wants
followed by orthodontics 12.4%, community dentistry 12%, specialization for financial issues, 6% of the students wants
operative dentistry 9.2%, prosthodontics 7.2%, to specialize for recognition, 3.6% wants to specialize for
periodontology by 6.8%, oral pathology by 5.6% and dental some reward (Table 3).
material by 3.6% (Table 1). Factors discouraging from doing specialization: The
factors that might discourage students from specialization
Table 1: Subject Preference No 1
would be 41.6% of the students thought it would be too
Frequency % Valid% Cumulative%
much time consuming. 27.6% of the students thought there
Dental material 9 3.6 3.6 3.6
is too much competition. 16% of the students thought there
Orthodontics 31 12.4 12.4 16.0
Prosthodontics 18 7.2 7.2 23.2
is no need for specialization, 14.8% of the students thought
Oral medicine 6 2.4 2.4 25.6 it doing specialization is too expensive (Table 4).
Community dentistry 30 12.0 12.0 37.6
Oral surgery 102 40.8 40.8 78.4 DISCUSSION
Operative dentistry 23 9.2 9.2 87.6
Periodontology 17 6.8 6.8 94.4
This study aims to define factors that are most likely going
Oral pathology 14 5.6 5.6 100.0 to affect student’s decision for post-graduation and factors
Total 250 100.0 100.0 that can discourage them from post-graduation. It also
helps to know subject preference for specialization. This
Table 2: Subject Preference No 2 can provide future direction how students should be
Frequency % Valid% Cumulative% counseled for post-graduation and should be counseled for
Dental material 7 2.8 2.8 2.8 post-graduation. For many years, dentistry itself had been
Orthodontics 56 22.4 22.4 25.2 considered as a single entity and the dental graduates
Prosthodontics 11 4.4 4.4 29.6 were thought to deal all type of dental procedure. With
Oral medicine 12 4.8 4.8 34.4 advances in dentistry and awareness among population,
Community dentistry 8 3.2 3.2 37.6 different programs are offered for specialization. Dental
Oral surgery 53 21.2 21.2 58.8 graduates are now pursuing for specialization in different
Operative dentistry 68 27.2 27.2 86.0 fields. But as new programs being offered for specialization
Periodontology 26 10.4 10.4 96.4 not only in basics and clinical dentistry, the decision for
Oral pathology 9 3.6 3.6 100.0 students as to pursue which specialty have created
Total 250 100.0 100.0 confusion. So this study also aims to find factors that can
encourage or discourage any student’s decision for subject
Table 3: Factors Affecting Decision
preference and decision to continue post-graduate studies.
Frequency % Valid% Cumulative%
According to Fidele et al25 the motivation for pursuing
Family and friends 25 10.0 10.0 10.0
specialization as career includes financial reasons followed
Talent in field 57 22.8 22.8 32.8
Finacial issues 21 8.4 8.4 41.2
by social status among public. Similarly study by Al-Bitar 26
Internal satisfaction 93 37.2 37.2 78.4 showed that talent in a particular field is the main factor that
Recognition 15 6.0 6.0 84.4 can influence a student’s decision for specialization. A
Reward 9 3.6 3.6 88.0 study conducted by Halawany H at Saudi university found
Further studying 30 12.0 12.0 100.0 that the most encouraging factor for pursing any specific
Total 250 100.0 100.0 career can be influence by family and variety of non-clinical
duties.27 Gender is also ranked as one of the factor that
Table 4: Discouraging Factor For Specialization influence one’s decision for specialization with mean of
Frequency % Valid% Cumulative% 2.05%with SD of 0.8%. A study conducted in U.K also
Too time consuming 104 41.6 41.6 41.6 concluded that the most encouraging factor for
Too expensive 37 14.8 14.8 56.4 specialization was talent in the field by 31.9% 24
Too competitive 69 27.6 27.6 84.0 Our study also showed that the most important factor
No need 40 16.0 16.0 100.0
for specialization was internal satisfaction by 37.2% and
Total 250 100.0 100.0
talent or skill in the specific field by 22.8%. A study by
puryer J24 also concluded that the main discouraging
Second preference as subject for specialization: The
reason for not pursing specialization is it is too much time
student selected second subject for their specialization consuming 41.1%. a study by kazi et al 1 also find that 40.4
would be operative dentistry by 27.2%, followed by % of students found specialization to be too much time
orthodontics by 22.4%, periodontology 10.4%, oral consuming our study also found that 41.6% of the students
medicine 4.8, prosthodontics by 4.4%, oral pathology 3.6%,

1624 P J M H S Vol. 15, NO. 7, JUL 2021

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