title: The efficacy of practical participation in undergraduate dental education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper investigates the efficacy of practical participation as a vehicle for conveying knowledge of the subject of dental occlusion.
  
  
  METHODS
  A fourth-year class of students was divided into two groups: one had benefited from a series of practicals focusing on the re-organized approach to occlusion, and the other had attended routine clinical sessions in conservative dentistry. Both had attended the same course of four lectures. Their knowledge was tested by means of a short answer question paper.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The group attending the focused practicals out-performed the control group at the 0.01 level of significance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Practical participation would appear to enhance students' understanding of the subject of dental occlusion.
authors.affiliation: School of Clinical Dentistry, Queen's University of Belfast, UK.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bill
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Orr
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D003071:Cognition; D003725:Dental Articulators; D003761:Dental Impression Technique; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D004497:Education, Dental; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D007574:Jaw Relation Record; D003765:Models, Dental; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*