Trends in dental education in the Persian Gulf--an example from Iran: contemporary placement of posterior composites

In recent years, there has been expansion of dental education programmes from established European and North American schools into regions in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf States, and Asia. Accompanying this, there has been migration of dentists from these regions of the world to Europe and North America in the hope of finding employment or to pursue postgraduate education. Little awareness exists, however in western countries on the amount and level of clinical training provided in dental schools in which these dentists have trained. The aim of this paper is to investigate the teaching to undergraduate students in Iran of an important aspect of clinical dentistry which is showing continual development in western schools, namely the use of resin-based composites in the restoration of posterior teeth. In 2008, a questionnaire seeking information on the teaching of posterior resin-based composites was distributed by email to the person responsible for delivering teaching of operative dentistry in each of the 18 dental schools with undergraduate dental degree programmes in Iran. All 18 schools teach the placement of occlusal and occlusoproximal resin-based composite restorations in premolar and permanent molar teeth. Resin-based composites currently account for 42% of posterior direct restorations placed by undergraduates in Iran. Despite variations between dental schools being noted in the teaching of certain techniques for posterior resin-based composites, the overall extent and content of teaching of posterior resin-based composites in Iran could be described as comparable to that observed in western countries