Flow chart for the prescription of imaging examinations by dental students

• Autor(a) principal: de Carvalho, Pedro Luiz
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Ferreira de Medeiros, João Marcelo, Camargo Antoniazzi, Mônica Cristina, Pires Clemente, Rosana Giovanni
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista da ABENO (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revabeno.emnuvens.com.br/revabeno/article/view/1386
• topic: Education; dental. Students; dental. Radiography. Radiography; dental; Educação em odontologia. Estudantes de odontologia. Radiografia. Radiografia dentária.

The purpose of this work was to present a flow chart that could guide undergraduate dental students in prescribing imaging examinations for specific situations, beginning with the simpler examinations and then moving to the more complex ones. The flow chart consists of the following imaging examinations: periapical, bite-wing, occlusal, localization technique, panoramic, extraoral, conventional tomography, and the sophisticated ones, involving computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography, and nuclear medicine examinations. In order to test the effectiveness of the flow chart, we used 21 second-year students, during one of the bimonthly evaluations in the year 2005, from the Dentistry Department, University of Taubaté. It was observed that periapical examinations were the most suggested, 239 times, and the second most indicated was panoramic radiography, 120 times. The effect of the examinations on diagnosing the clinical condition was: 325 examinations (59.52%) produced a positive impact; 146 (26.74%) examinations only detected the clinical condition, but did not allow the establishment of a diagnosis; and 75 (13.74%) did not produce an image of the clinical condition. Based on the applied methodology and on the obtained results, it could be concluded that: the presented flow chart helped students to prescribe imaging examinations in specific dental cases; the flow chart reduced the possibility of errors while prescribing examinations; and the flow chart had a positive impact, i.e., it aided in the recording of the clinical conditions.