Percepción de los costos de la práctica clínica de los estudiantes de odontología de la Universidad Santo Tomás Bucaramanga

Abstract

Introduction. Dentists, during their professional training must develop competences that are acquired through the practical exercise of dental procedures with human subjects. This implies that the teaching and learning process must be carried out in the clinical environment, along with the teacher and patients where real procedures involve costs due to the use of materials and supplies. Aim. To describe the perception of the costs for dental students of the University of Santo Tomás during the course of clinical practice. Methodology. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in dental students of the Santo Tomás University - Bucaramanga, who were studying VII, VIII, IX and X Semesters; they were selected by stratified sampling. The information was collected from a self-completed questionnaire and prior acceptance of participation by signing informed consent. Information regarding sociodemographic characteristics was collected in addition to the perception regarding the costs and expenses assumed by the participant during his clinical activities. The data collected were tabulated in the Microsoft Excel 2016 program, validated in Epidata program and later exported to the STATA 14.0 version, for the respective statistical analysis. The univariate analysis included the description of data by mean or median and range or standard deviation and absolute frequency and percentage. The frequency measurements are accompanied by the 95% confidence interval. The bivariate analysis presents the statistical associations between the perception of the costs of the procedures (output variable) and the independent variables; p≤0.05 values were considered significant. Results. A total of 194 participants contributed information for the study. Of these, the median age was 21.9 years (RIC 21-23 years), 75.8% women and 97.4% single. 75.2% of the respondents considered the costs exceed their expectations, and 66.5% said they had assumed the full cost of treating their patients. Among the reasons why they assume these costs are, meeting the requirements of the clinic (79.6%) or the economic condition of the patient (60.2%). The cost perception changed according to the academic semester studied (p = 0.0001). Conclusions. The perception of the costs of the dental procedures showed to have statistical significance depending to the semester; that is, the greater the complexity of the clinic, the higher the value that had to be paid for the procedures performed.