Knowledge and Awareness of Digital Dentistry among the Dental Students of Karachi, Pakistan: Cross-Sectional Study

Aim: To evaluate Knowledge and Awareness of Digital Dentistry among the Dental Students of Karachi, Pakistan. Study Design: Descriptive Cross-Sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Different dental colleges in Karachi from 15-06-2021 to 1-07-2021. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted among dental students from 15-06-2021 to 1-07-2021. The survey instrument was a self-administered anonymous questionnaire in the English language. The questionnaire was made up of two parts: Part I focused on the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, including age, gender, education level, name of college, and study year. Part 2 comprises 17 multiple choice questions regarding the knowledge and awareness of digital dentistry. 192 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents via Messenger and WhatsApp groups through Google form by non-probability convenience sampling to the participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Google form was available only for two weeks and repeated. Results: A total of 192 questionnaires were given to undergraduate students through email and WhatsApp groups, 180 were counted authentic. Among them 117 (65%) were male and 63 (35%) were female as shown in Fig. 1. The frequency and percentage title of government and private undergraduate students is shown in Table 1. Among all participants, 156 respondents were from government dental colleges and 24 were from private dental colleges. Among all the government college students 145 (80.6%) and private college students 21(11.6%) have not used any form of CAD/CAM in their workplace. About 27 (15%) students know the difference between stained and layered crowns. Among all undergraduate students think that waxes 8(4.3%), metals 21 (11.6%), zirconia 61 (33.8%) and about 90 (50%) respondents think that all of the above materials are used in CAD/CAM. Only 19 (10.6%) government students and 3 (1.6%) private students have ever seen a CAD/CAM machine and the remaining students have not seen or don’t know about a CAD/CAM machine. About 90 students (50%) think that digital dentistry plays an important role in future dentistry and only 9 students think that optical spray is used for making a digital impression. The knowledge of CAD/CAM was limited among pre-clinical years of dental students. Although About 50% of the student think that digital dentistry plays an important role in future dentistry.