Does a mobile interactive web application improve dental students' panoramic radiograph interpretation skills? A pre-post educational study.
4 affiliations
- 1Kahramanmaraş Oral and Dental Health Hospital, Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye. [email protected].
- 2Faculty of Dentistry, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Türkiye. [email protected].
- 3Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Türkiye.
- 4Faculty of Dentistry, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Türkiye.
Abstract
Background
This study aims to evaluate the impact of a newly developed, mobile-compatible web application on the learning process of dental interns, specifically focusing on its effectiveness in the interpretation of panoramic radiographs.Methods
The study included 60 third-year dental students. For educational purposes, a total of 61 anatomical regions and landmarks in both jaws, 20 intraosseous pathologies, and 26 dental materials with distinct radiographic appearances were identified. The educational intervention consisted of a self-paced, two consecutive 30-min interactive session in which students accessed the application via their mobile devices. During this session, participants navigated high-resolution radiographic images featuring interactive labels and descriptive annotations. Two 15-question surveys were developed in accordance with the learning content-one administered before and the other after the intervention. These surveys were delivered through the PanYoda platform. The normality of paired differences was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test. As normality assumptions were not met, pre- and post-training scores were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Learning gain, normalized learning gain (Hake g) was calculated to quantify the magnitude of educational improvement. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results
The mean pre-training score increased from 65.92 ± 2.13 and 80.33 ± 2.21 after the educational intervention, yielding an average learning gain of 14.01 percentage points. The normalized learning gain indicated moderate improvement (g = 0.41). The Wilcoxon effect size was large (r = 0.87), suggesting a substantial difference between pre- and post-training scores. The improvement was statistically significant (p < 0.01).Conclusions
The findings suggest that the mobile-based educational application was associated with improved short-term radiographic interpretation performance. By providing interactive and immediate access to reference data at the point of care, the platform addresses some limitations of conventional analog and desktop-based resources and may serve as an effective and accessible supplement to contemporary dental education.Trial registration
Not applicable.
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BibTeX
@article{pınarbası2026does,
title = {{Does a mobile interactive web application improve dental students' panoramic radiograph interpretation skills? A pre-post educational study.}},
author = {Beyza Yalvaç Pınarbaşı and Kemal Selçuk Yücel and Deniz Ezgi Şakalakoğlu and Emin Murat Canger},
journal = {BMC medical education},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1186/s12909-026-09973-3},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907889},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Does a mobile interactive web application improve dental students' panoramic radiograph interpretation skills? A pre-post educational study.
AU - Beyza Yalvaç Pınarbaşı
AU - Kemal Selçuk Yücel
AU - Deniz Ezgi Şakalakoğlu
AU - Emin Murat Canger
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/01
JO - BMC medical education
DO - 10.1186/s12909-026-09973-3
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907889
AB - Background This study aims to evaluate the impact of a newly developed, mobile-compatible web application on the learning process of dental interns, specifically focusing on its effectiveness in the interpretation of panoramic radiographs.Methods The study included 60 third-year dental students. For educational purposes, a total of 61 anatomical regions and landmarks in both jaws, 20 intraosseous pathologies, and 26 dental materials with distinct radiographic appearances were identified. The educational intervention consisted of a self-paced, two consecutive 30-min interactive session in which students accessed the application via their mobile devices. During this session, participants navigated high-resolution radiographic images featuring interactive labels and descriptive annotations. Two 15-question surveys were developed in accordance with the learning content-one administered before and the other after the intervention. These surveys were delivered through the PanYoda platform. The normality of paired differences was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test. As normality assumptions were not met, pre- and post-training scores were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Learning gain, normalized learning gain (Hake g) was calculated to quantify the magnitude of educational improvement. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results The mean pre-training score increased from 65.92 ± 2.13 and 80.33 ± 2.21 after the educational intervention, yielding an average learning gain of 14.01 percentage points. The normalized learning gain indicated moderate improvement (g = 0.41). The Wilcoxon effect size was large (r = 0.87), suggesting a substantial difference between pre- and post-training scores. The improvement was statistically significant (p < 0.01).Conclusions The findings suggest that the mobile-based educational application was associated with improved short-term radiographic interpretation performance. By providing interactive and immediate access to reference data at the point of care, the platform addresses some limitations of conventional analog and desktop-based resources and may serve as an effective and accessible supplement to contemporary dental education.Trial registration Not applicable.
SN - 1472-6920
ER -