The cross-sectional closed ended questionnaire based survey was carried out in the year 2015 which had approval of Research Advisory Committee (2015/004/RAC/04) and Institutional Ethical Clearance (2015/400/IEC/04) of People’s Dental Academy (PDA), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. The participants constituted students of second, third, final year and interns from the field of dentistry, PDA. First year and postgraduate students were excluded. A total of 292 students formed the study group. An informed consent was obtained from the participants. The students were not obliged to fill the questionnaire. The questionnaire was in the form of multiple choice questions [Table/Fig-1]. It was designed in such a way which would be simple to understand and answer. It was pre-tested for precision, validity, consistency and meaning of questions. The questions comprised of two, three or four alternatives and were divided into five parts. The first element covered demographic details. The second and third segments consisted of individual’s approach towards Oral Pathology and understanding Oral Pathology as a department respectively. The fourth part was focused to understand Oral Pathology as a subject. Finally, the fifth set of questions was directed towards the efforts and measures that can be initiated for improvement. There was not any kind of identification regarding the participant on the questionnaire. The data recorded was subjected to statistical analysis (chi-square test) using SPSS version 20.0 software.

All the 292 participants responded to the questionnaire. Out of these, 64 were males and 228 were females indicating predominance of females. A total of 88 were from second year, 78 were from third year, 73 were from final year and 53 were interns. The results showed that the 116 students (39.72%) spent 2 hours per week in practical class and the same number saw 4 slides per practical class. These results were highly significant. Most of the respondents were of the opinion that they need to attend lectures before the slides are shown [Table/Fig-2]. The participants were well aware of the histology techniques. These results were highly significant [Table/Fig-3]. A total of 176 students accepted that only sometimes they were able to identify slides after seeing it for the first time. The subjects confirmed that they made an effort to read the topic before they saw the slides. A 35.4% final year students felt that the main difficulty that they face is identification, whereas 40.9% third year students felt that remembering during exams is their greatest difficulty. A 41.5% and 35.8% second year and third year students respectively confessed that they practiced to draw diagrams just before exams. These results were statistically significant. All throughout, 229 students tried to understand hematoxylin and eosin stained structures, but the results were not significant. A total of 153 students felt that internet can be a good source for understanding Oral Pathology [Table/Fig-4]. Total 65.75% of students felt that more hours should be put in by the student to improve their performance. The result was significant. Total 84.58% students were of the opinion that there should be more interactive sessions and 89.38% opined that they would improve if they were motivated, although the results were not significant [Table/Fig-5].

Around 310 dental colleges are currently there in India [5,6]. This reflects that India is one of the largest producers of dental graduates. The sound base of a dental graduate is built on knowledge and understanding of pathological diseases at microscopic level. This makes it imperative that students develop interest in Oral Pathology. One of the primary roles of Oral Pathology branch is to expertise the student in direct patient care and also to prepare them for hospital and college jobs [7]. The dental institutes will have to reinforce this subject at the undergraduate level so that the students value it for the rest of their training and could be benefited to the fullest [8]. The purpose of our study was to estimate the problems/difficulties faced by undergraduates in recognizing pathological microscopic slides with a view to improve their understanding. This study had a reasonably decent sample size and the response was 100%. Our study showed that 34 third year students and almost 40 final year students had spent 2 hours per week in a practical class. In most of the international universities, the number of hours spent are more or less the same.

Most of the participants (92.80%) confirmed that it is beneficial for them to attend lectures, while 46.57% participants agreed that they faced difficulty and approached the teachers for the same. It was observed that 39.72% participants studied 4 slides per week, while only 10.27% studied 2 slides per week. Nearly all the participants answered ‘yes’ for making record books.

Most of the respondents were satisfied with light microscope for studying slides and they were aware of other microscopes also. There are advocates of virtual microscopy who prefer it over conventional light microscopy [9,10]. While, a little more than 50% participants said that they had some knowledge about histology technique. We believe that if the students take interest in histology technique or rather if they are given an exercise to prepare a microscopic slide of a tissue, it would further generate enthusiasm in them and they would get closer to Oral Pathology.

Total of 60.27% participants could “sometimes” identify the features on a slide after seeing it for the first time. More than half of the participants confirmed that they read the topic before seeing the slides; however, 32.87% participants felt that their main difficulty was identification of slide while 30.13% were having difficulty in remembering it for exam. The percentage of understanding of hematoxylin and eosin stained structures was 78.42%. A total of 52.39% said that the internet could be of help sometimes and was a good source for understanding Oral Pathology slides.

In response to the question, “What efforts and measures should be taken for improvement?” A total of 80.13% participants felt that more revision practical/theory classes should be arranged than the usual, 66.43% felt that it can be achieved by spending more hours to increase their understanding. Most of the students also felt the need for more interactive sessions with the faculty. A 48.63% said that they can improve if they are further motivated by the means of quiz competition, while 32.87% reported that the improvement can be done through awards. Sciubba JJ et al., also reported that students do get motivated if there is some kind of incentive. Students who combine their academic knowledge and clinical diagnosis can be rewarded. This is only possible if the students get posted to Oral Medicine and Oral Radiology department more often where they can sharpen their skills [11]. This study gave us an insight to the student’s difficulties and apprehensions. One novel idea to enhance performance is by having digitalization of slides. Few studies have shown that students find it easier and can relate well as compared to conventional slides [12,13]. Also, students can be asked to focus slides in revision classes. This will give them a chance to have an independent thinking and will be knowledge driven. The present study delineates that although, the curriculum is well planned and student learning oriented, it still has a scope for positive improvement. This study was performed in only one college, since it was a pilot study. But we assume the scenario of Oral Pathology subject to be more or less the same in other institutes. With this belief we wish to urge that the standards can be raised if the experts of other institutes all over the country can come together so as to share their valuable experiences and pool in their intellectual resources. Student exchange programs within India and with foreign countries can be fruitful [14]. Tamgadge S had made a novel suggestion to take a bold initiative so as to improve student learning by adding 3D animation technology in Oral Pathology. This student friendly approach may help in reviving Oral Pathology subject, thereby trying to make it one of the most sought after branch in dentistry [15].

The limitations of the present study were that the Postgraduate students of Oral Pathology department were not included mainly because of only one student in the department. This would have caused a bias. Further studies including students of other various colleges are already underway, so as to get the first hand information about their response.

Through the present study it was found out that the students were well oriented on the whole about Oral Pathology. They certainly encounter difficulties which are easy to handle if proper measures are taken. Through the present study we would like the readers to be aware of the changing trends in teaching and to incorporate them routinely.

Conflict of Interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.