186 - Surveying Pediatric Medical Residents' Dental Knowledge: A Needs Assessment

Purpose: While primary care pediatricians acknowledge the importance of oral health, many face barriers to addressing dental issues, including limited education. This needs assessment aims to identify dental knowledge gaps in current pediatric medicine residents at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland to assist with curriculum development.

Methods: An electronic survey was sent to all pediatric medicine residents at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland. The survey included multiple-choice knowledge-based questions as well as open-ended questions to assess the current state of dental experiences during medical training and determine the level of confidence residents have managing or appropriately referring common dental conditions as pediatricians.

Results: 51 out of a total of 87 residents (58%) responded to the survey. Percentage of correct answers to knowledge-based questions did not differ based on post-graduate year (PGY) of the resident (P=.81). PGY1 residents reported experiencing fewer types of dental conditions or treatments during their training compared to PGY2 (P=.0001) and PGY3 (P=.0088). PGY1 residents also reported fewer dental treatments that they felt confident handling compared to PGY2 (P=.035) and PGY3 (P=.046). Qualitative results revealed working directly with pediatric dental residents as one of the most valuable training experiences.

Conclusions: The results suggest that implementing standardized dental didactics and more frequent opportunities for collaboration between pediatric medicine and dental residents may work synergistically to improve dental knowledge in pediatric medicine residents. Next steps will include dental curriculum development for pediatric medicine residents and further surveys to assess the effectiveness of the new curriculum.