From dentistry students' points of view: do anatomy classes we took actually boost our learning during clinic?

The aim of medical education is to teach the essence of practical skills alongside with the theoretical knowledge. Teaching anatomy, as the center of medical education, should be leading to use this knowledge as a skill during clinical period. According to the rising numbers of dentistry faculties' experiences, inappropriate education results in misguidance during clinic. Thus, this study was conducted to find about the pre-clinical and clinical dentistry students' points of view on the helpfulness of anatomy classes in achieving clinical goals. Present descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated Guilan University of Medical Sciences' pre-clinical and clinical dentistry students' opinions on the effectiveness of anatomy classes during their clinical period in 2017. The sampling method used here was census via questionnaire and scoring was according to Likert scaling system. Analyses showed that anatomy of the nervous system was the most assistive course, which helped dentistry students during their clinical period (P<0.001). The least scored course was visceral organs and that means they did not use most of their learnings from classes with this topic (P<0.001). They also stated that other important factors such as using cadavers and moulages in practical sessions, teaching clinical skills theoretically before practical sessions and performing group activities are crucial for them to recall important details of the relevant courses during clinical period. Results of this study suggests that alongside with the various topics of anatomy courses, other factors like professors' characteristics and their teaching methods are also of important factors helping the dentistry students throughout clinic.