Ali Jabbar Alsheakh, Najih Alaridhy, Saif Anmar Badran, Faaiz Alhamdani
General surgery enjoys a reasonable level of popularity among undergraduate senior dental students. This popularity seems to influence the willingness of undergraduate students to become oral and maxillofacial surgeons. This in turn made students prefer general surgery to be given by oral surgeon.
BACKGROUND: Different dental schools might adopt different educational approaches in relation to general surgery subject. In Iraqi dental schools' general surgery subject is usually given for the fourth academic year students. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous study tried to investigate undergraduate dental students' attitude toward different aspects of this subject.
METHODS: Google-form questionnaire of three main domains was circulated to fourth- and fifth-year dental students in 3 dental schools. These students are given lectures on general surgery by either a physician or oral surgeon.
RESULTS: Two hundred and sixty-five students participated in this study. most responses were positive toward general surgery subject. Chi-Square Test showed a highly significant relationship ( P=0.000) between the relevance of GS to OS and the extent that general surgery helps in understanding oral surgery. The same test showed a significant relationship ( P=0.021) between willingness to become OMF surgeon and the wish to be given GS subject by oral surgeon.
CONCLUSION: General surgery enjoys a reasonable level of popularity among undergraduate senior dental students. This popularity seems to influence the willingness of undergraduate students to become oral and maxillofacial surgeons. This in turn made students prefer general surgery to be given by oral surgeon.