Curricula for the teaching of complete dentures in Spanish and Portuguese dental schools

Objectives: Given the need to ensure that dentists are sufficiently skilled to offer the best possible care to their patients, this study aims to evaluate the teaching methods and clinical experience achieved by undergraduate dental students in Spain and Portugal as regards complete dentures. Study design: In February 2011, a questionnaire seeking information about the preclinical and clinical teaching of complete dentures was e-mailed to all Spanish and Portuguese dental schools with fully developed undergraduate degree dental programs. Results: A response rate of 82.6% was obtained. The distribution of lectures and hours spent at the laboratory and in clinical activities revealed that teaching complete dentures is eminently a practical issue, this being mostly performed by full-time prosthodontists. All surveyed schools teach the design of the record base, and most of them instruct students in the mounting of teeth in wax. Most schools (94.7%) used a semiadjustable articulator, alginate for primary impressions (73.7%) and elastomeric materials in border-molded custom trays for final impressions (68.4%). In most schools, within the clinical setting students work in pairs, the mean student/professional staff member ratio being 2.3 +/- 0.7. Most schools perform a competence-based assessment (83.3%), although innovative techniques such as problem-based learning are still rarely applied. On average, the students emplaced 1.8 +/- 1.2 complete dentures during their clinical training, ranging from 0 to 4, although no clear trend was seen as regards the minimum number of dentures to be made for graduating. Conclusions: Variations in teaching programs and clinical experience concerning complete denture curricula among Spanish and Portuguese dental schools are evident, but all the schools base their teaching mainly on preclinical and clinical practice. However, the low number of dentures made by student per year seems insufficient to ensure clinical skills and cope with social needs.