Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aims: Color is the most important and complicated part of aesthetic dentistry. The tooth color matching of restorations is considered as one of the most difficult tasks in the restorative dentistry. The aim of this study to evaluate the effect of two training methods on the dental students’ ability in determining tooth color matching.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 40 dentistry students participated which randomly allocated into two groups. The first group consisted of students who learned teeth color matching methods practically. In the second group, training booklet was used for learning. Using Vita Classic shade guide series, 4 color samples were chosen and the students of each group were asked to determine samples’ color, before, after and one month after the training.
Results: Booklet learning group was more successful in determining fourth color sample. However, in no studied group and no used samples, the results of one month after learning were not better than that of before learning. Also generally, no significant relationship was found between the color matching accuracy, using glasses, and sex of participants.
Conclusion: The use of booklet learning was more effective than practical learning in color matching accuracy for dental students. Also, using glasses and sex were not effective on their color matching accuracy.

Background and Aims: Use of computer and internet in our modern and digitalized society is an efficient tool to be up to date and fulfil the information gaps. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of computer and internet usage among dental students of Islamic Azad University, Tehran, in 2016.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study for evaluating access and usage of computer and internet by dental students was done using a researcher-made questionnaire on 401 dental students. Validity and reliability (Kappa: 0.82) of the questionnaire was confirmed. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS22 using descriptive and Logistic regression analyses.
Results: More than 95% of the students had access to the computer and Internet. 45.6% of students reported their skills were in the basic level. The major use of computer among the students was internet but only 13.2% of students used Microsoft Office program. The students used the internet for dental subjects even monthly (34.9%) or weekly (29.4%). Only 9.7% of the students had participated in educational workshop for learning methods of research. The most limitation was internet velocity. Positive correlation was found among prospering ownership status (P<0.001), economic status (P=0.05), level of education semester (P=0.038) and the computer & internet usage (what’s more in terms of access and also in terms of improve information and knowledge).
Conclusion: Based on the results, a higher economic level, higher level of education, and property ownership made better access to the computer and Internet. However, computer skills should be more concerned in educational program.

Background and Aims: Due to high mortality rate and cost of smoking, WHO has emphasized on the role of dentists in smoking cessation among patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the dental students, knowledge toward health consequences of smoking, their attitude towards smoking cessation activities, and their education programs in this field.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the target group was senior dental students at Tehran and Shahid Beheshti Universities of Medical Sciences, and Azad and Shahed Universities. A questionnaire was used to collect data in addition to background information, on the knowledge, attitudes, and education towards tobacco cessation counseling in dental practice was administered to the students. The sampling method was census. Data were analyzed using oneway Anova followed by Turkey HSD post-hoc test for pairwise comparison.
Results: Overall 138 students participated in this program (The response rate was 100%). Of the maximum achievable knowledge score (28), the average knowledge score in Tehran University was 22.8, in Shahid Beheshti University 20.31, in Azad University 22.31, and in Shahed University 22.16 (P=0.027) with significant statistical differences. However, But the average of attitude and education score of the students did not vary significantly (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Most of the students had sufficient knowledge about the risks of tobacco use and positive attitude toward tobacco cessation counseling. It was concluded that the students would only pay attention to the principals of smoking cessation counselling when they actually believe in them. Therefore, in order to improve the performance of students, training should be given on tobacco cessation techniques at the dental schools, thus, that students could play an effective role in tobacco cessation counseling for patients.