KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORKING OF THE DENTAL CHAIR AND THEIR ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT AMONG INDIAN DENTAL STUDENTS

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the knowledge of the working principles of the dental equipment among South Indian dental students. Methods: We conducted an online multi-centric survey among dental students through Whatsapp-based study groups from various dental colleges in south India using a 20-itemed questionnaire. Dental students who were in clinical postings were eligible. Results: A total of 772 dental students participated in this survey, majority of them were females (n=601). Almost 40% of the dental students were in 3rd year. Only 1/3rd of the students (33%) knew that dental chair works on direct current. Also, almost 2/3rd (64.8%) have responded that dental compressor works on alternating current. More than 2/3rds of the students knew that the movement of the dental chair is regulated through hydraulic motors (68.3%). More than half of the students responded that the water flow in the scaler is regulated by the Water-relay valve and Solenoid (52.8%) and distilled water is the preferred source of water for dental chairs (57.8%). Only 1/5th of the students responded that online UPS was the best failsafe for power fluctuations (19.9%). There was no significant difference in the mean total knowledge score among the age groups, sex, and academic year. Conclusions: Our results showed that the dental student’s overall knowledge was suboptimal irrespective of age, sex, or academic year.