Keeping up with dental literature: A study on continuing professional development among dental practitioners in Hubli-Dharwad, India

Introduction: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. In India, very few studies have been documented to discover the patterns of information update by dental practitioners. Aim: To discover the educational tools that dentists of Hubli -Dharwad, Karnataka, India, prefer for updating their knowledge on new therapeutic methods and to assess the perceived usefulness of these CPD activities. Materials and Methods: Face to face interview was carried out using questionnaire comprising questions on various CPD activities among all the practicing dentists. Pearson’s chi-square test was used to evaluate any association between the frequency of information update and perceived usefulness with gender, qualification, practice types and academic attachments. Results: Out of 112 practicing dentists in Hubli-Dharwad, 104 consented for the study. Mean age group of the study population was 32.3±7.56 (SD) years. Discussion with colleagues and discussion with medical sales representatives were the most frequently utilized information sources. On the other hand, attending dental fairs was found to be the most rarely utilized method of information access. Discussion with colleagues, reading textbooks and accessing internet were rated as most useful CPD activities and discussion with sales representatives and attending dental fairs were rated as least useful CPD activities. Conclusion: Both conventional methods of information sources like discussions with colleagues and textbook reading as well as contemporary information sources like accessing internet were the preferred methods of information update by dental practitioners of Hubli-Dharwad.