Abstract

Abstract

Objective: To identify the various types of dental notation system preferred by students working within the dental hospital and to evaluate the tooth notation methods favored by the different clinical departments.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted within the dental hospital of Bahria University Medical and Dental College. The survey employed for this study was modified from the study lead by Al-Johany SS. All the qualitative variables are presented as frequency and percentages. Chi-square or Fischer exact test was applied to see the significance of P-value < 0.05 considered to be statistically significant.

Results: A total of 153 students participated in the study. FDI was a commonly understandable tooth Numbering system by 66% (n= 48) of the final year students while 49% (n=39)of the house officers preferred the Universal system. For coding primary teeth palmer system was identified, while for permanent dentition FDI was preferred.

Conclusion: This study clearly highlights that different methods for tooth numbering will be used continually by dental professionals. A realistic approach is to make sure that dental professionals have sufficient knowledge regarding the most commonly used numbering systems and are responsive to the pitfalls in each system.

Key words: Notation, tooth numbering system (TNS), FDI, Palmer, Universal system