Objective criteria for assessment of the quality of dental restorations improve student’s critics towards the treatment assignment: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Introduction Objective parameters may help the decision of how to manage existing dental restorations in patients. Objective This study tested the following hypotheses: i) teaching objective criteria to dental students enhances their criticism toward the indication for replacement of dental restorations; and ii) a complementary practical approach enhances the proportion of correctly indicated treatments compared with a strictly theoretical approach. Method This block-randomized controlled trial involved dental students from a Brazilian university who were randomized to either a didactic/theoretical class group (A, control) or a didactic/theoretical class followed by practical training (group B); both conditions were applied in a moodle-based environment. The proportion of correctly indicated interventions before and after teaching the criteria was compared with using Mann–Whitney U-test (p