Students have unique preferences when it comes to knowledge acquisition, information processing, retention in memory, and recall. This study is aimed at examining the preferred learning styles of medical and dental undergraduate students of Pakistan. It is also aimed at investigating the influence of gender, preclinical or clinical academic year, and academic record on the preferred learning style. A descriptive cross‐sectional study was conducted in Pakistan. The learning styles of undergraduate students were identified using visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire. Students were also asked about their satisfaction towards teaching style of their teachers in institute. Descriptive statistics were done to characterize the learning styles of the students. The Fisher test and chi‐square test were used to compare the learning preferences between genders and public/private sector students and among preclinical/clinical years. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. A total of 1473 students participated in the study. Among the students, 39.37% preferred unimodal learning style whereas 60.62% preferred multimodal style. Kinesthetic (K) and visual (V) were the most preferred unimodal styles. The preferred learning styles of female students are aural (A), visual (V), and kinesthetic (K), whereas male students preferred visual (V) and kinesthetic more (K). Students with lower academic record chose unimodal styles in comparison to high achievers that chose multimodal styles. Students of clinical year preferred multimodal and quadmodal styles in comparison to preclinical year students. An alarming 78% of students were dissatisfied with their teacher’s instructional style. Majority of students prefer multimodal learning styles over unimodal style. Gender, public/private sector, and academic record have influence on the preference of learning styles. Majority of the students are dissatisfied with their teacher’s instructional style and rely on social media platforms for understanding. Academics need to adapt their teaching methods according to student preferences in order to get better graduates.

More than a year ago, Pakistan like the rest of the word, was hit by a global pandemic, due to which students of higher education had to accept the new era and adapt to the electronic learning environment for the very first time. This study aims to analyze the perceptions of medical, dental, and allied health students about e-learning in Pakistan. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted throughout the country. A pre-validated, anonymous online questionnaire regarding demographics, past-experience of e-learning, advantages disadvantages of e-learning, and general perception of students towards e-learning was distributed. Descriptive statistics were computed for all demographics. Chi-square test was used to compare the differences of perceptions between pre-clinical year and clinical years students. Chi-square was used to compare overall category-wise positive and negative responses of students. The association between participant demographics and their perception towards e-learning was also calculated using chi square. A total of 1200 students participated in the study of which 797 (66.4%) were from pre-clinical years and 403 (33.6%) were from clinical years. The major advantage identified by all students was the ‘comfortable environment’ (70%) and ‘technical problems with IT equipment’ was listed as the biggest disadvantage (89%) of e-learning. For preclinical year students, ‘anxiety due to social isolation’ was selected as the biggest issue (p < 0.05) whereas, for clinical year students, it was ‘lack of patient interaction’ (p < 0.05). Overall, 72% of students had a negative perception of e-learning. After more than a year of online studying, medical and allied students of Pakistan have expressed dissatisfaction towards e-learning. Student-teacher training, student counselling sessions, and innovative techniques need to be introduced to enhance student engagement and reduce pandemic stress.

Dentists face difficult situations and challenges every day, but undergraduate dental students in Pakistan are not formally taught leadership skills or assessed for these skills. This study aims to explore the perception of undergraduate dental students on various leadership competencies. A multi-institutional cross-sectional observational study was conducted on undergraduate students in five institutions by using universal sampling technique. Students were asked to self-assess various leadership competencies for dentists based on 15 competencies using a validated questionnaire utilizing Likert scale response format. Responses to these items were presented as frequency and percentage. The overall scores were presented in mean and standard deviation and median and interquartile range. The differences in median scores of all items of the questionnaire between male and female students were determined with Mann Whitney U tests. The year-wise differences in the median of all response items of the questionnaire were determined using Kruskal Wallis H test. A total of 750 students, of which 570 (76%) were females and 180 (24%) were males, participated in the study. Most of the students (n = 708, 94.4%) did not attended any leadership course or workshop in the last five years. Majority of the students perceived that their leadership competencies were fair to excellent. Empathy was perceived as ‘excellent’ by the majority of the students (n = 294, 39.2%). Majority of the students (n = 319, 42.5%) perceived that their ‘authenticity’ skills were ‘good’. Statistically significant differences were reported between male and female students in most of the leadership skills including ‘compassion’, ‘advocacy skills’, ‘inquiry skills’, ‘empathy’, ‘integrity’, ‘ability to build trust with others’, ‘managing conflict’, ‘leading groups/teams’, ‘dealing with difficult personalities’, and ‘likelihood to exercise leadership during a crisis’ (p < 0.05). There were also significant differences in the median item scores in 13 out of 15 leadership domains and the year of study (p < 0.05). The study identified the perceptions of students regarding different leadership competencies. It gives indications that which leadership competencies need to be incorporated, promoted, and enhanced in leadership curriculum to make them effective dental practitioners and leaders in future. Incorporating these targeted leadership courses into the curriculum can provide participants with the opportunity to refine their existing leadership strengths and develop a well-rounded set of competencies essential for making a significant contribution in their chosen fields.

BACKGROUND: Halitosis or oral malodor is characterized by unpleasant odor arising from the oral cavity. The prevalence of halitosis however is not studied extensively. METHODOLOGY: A structured questionnaire consisting of 15 questions was administered to 220 undergraduate students of Sharif Medical and Dental College, Lahore. RESULTS: Out of them 212(96.36%) students participated in the study. Among them 90(42.45%) were males and 122(57.55%) were females. Mean age of the students was 20.48±1.63 years. Average age of male was 21.41±1.66 years and of female was19.79±1.22 years. 89(42.0%) reported halitosis (95% C.I 35.3% to 48.9%), 90(42.5%) have no halitosis and 33(15.6%) did not know about It. Halitosis was reported among 30(33.3%) male and 59(48.4%) female. Present study showed that females have more awareness of malodor than the male students. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate higher prevalence and awareness of halitosis among this population consisting of dental students. The awareness of halitosis as an individual entity should be promoted to the general population and the therapeutic measures should be made available to all. KEY WORDS: Dental students, halitosis, oral hygiene, oral malodor. HOW TO CITE: Rana S, Shakoor A, Fahim A. Awareness of Halitosis and Oral Hygiene Among Undergraduate Dental Students. J Pak Dent Assoc 2017;26(4):141-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.264.141 Received: 07 September, 2017, Accepted: 19 December, 2017 Read More

Aim: The study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of dental caries and its association with oral health literacy among under privileged children of NGOs (Non-governmental organization). Methodology: The main target of our research was to collect data of children studying at different NGOs (Non-governmental organization). Out of 4756 registered NGOs (Non-governmental organization) of Punjab, 2 were selected; The Noor Project and SOS Village. A total of 382 NGO's (Non-governmental organization) children aged 5-11 years old were examined for dental caries and oral hygiene. The data was collected through a validated questionnaire and a standard method of dmft screening was used. Results: Exploratory analyses were performed to examine the distributions of the data and to identify outliers and missing data. Bivariate analyses were used to explore the associations between each of the covariates and OHL via Pearson's chi(2) statistics for categorical variables. The p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. There was significant association between oral health status and poor OHL amongst children.