Factors that affect dental students’ interest in Prosthodontics at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry

This study investigated factors that affected dental student interest in the dental specialty of prosthodontics. The students were surveyed with a five-part survey which included: 1. Demographics 2. Knowledge and Perceptions of Prosthodontics 3. Factors that affect interest in prosthodontics, 4. Main reasons for not being interested in prosthodontics, 5. Main reasons for being interested in prosthodontics. The survey was emailed to students via REDCap software to student’s emails.

With a response rate of 70%, results showed that males were more likely than females to be interested in prosthodontics. All other demographics were not statistically significant related to students’ interests in the specialty of prosthodontics. Students that were seriously considering going into the specialty of prosthodontics felt that preclinical and clinical courses, mentorship and lab work had a positive impact. However, this group also stated that lab work was also a main reason they were not interested in prosthodontics. For students that were not interested in specializing in Prosthodontics, the potential amount of lab work, preclinical courses, simulation clinic exercises and no interest in specializing were all main reasons they were not interested in specializing. When the factors were ranked from most positive to most negative, the removable partial denture course and the anterior fixed prosthodontics course were the most positive factors with lab work as the most negative factor.