Comparison of the perceived relevance of oral biology reported by students and interns of a Pakistani dental college I. Farooq 1 and S. Ali 2† 1 Department of Biomedical Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, 2 Department of Oral Biology, Sardar Begum Dental College, Peshawar, Pakistan keywords oral biology; dental students; perceived relevance; dental education. Correspondence Imran Farooq College of Dentistry University of Dammam Dammam Saudi Arabia Tel: +966 3 8574928 Ext: 113 Fax: +966 3 8572624 e-mail: drimranfarooq@gmail.com † Present address: Department of Oral Biology, Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar, Pakistan Accepted: 26 November 2013 doi: 10.1111/eje.12086 Abstract Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyse and compare the perceived rele- vance of oral biology with dentistry as reported by dental students and interns and to investigate the most popular teaching approach and learning resource. Methods: A questionnaire aiming to ask about the relevance of oral biology to den- tistry, most popular teaching method and learning resource was utilised in this study. Study groups encompassed second-year dental students who had completed their course and dental interns. The data were obtained and analysed statistically. Results: The overall response rate for both groups was 60%. Both groups reported high relevance of oral biology to dentistry. Perception of dental interns regarding the relevance of oral biology to dentistry was higher than that of students. Both groups identified student presentations as the most important teaching method. Amongst the most important learning resources, textbooks were considered most imperative by interns, whereas lecture handouts received the highest importance score by students. Conclusions: Dental students and interns considered oral biology to be relevant to dentistry, although greater relevance was reported by interns. Year-wise advancement in dental education and training improves the perception of the students about the rel- evance of oral biology to dentistry. Introduction Dental curriculum entails basic science and clinical science sub- jects, but the basic sciences have long been overlooked by den- tal educators (1). In 1995, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported that ‘basic and clinical science teachings do not stress the basic sciences as a relevant foundation for clinical practice’ (2). After almost two decades, these difficulties still exist in educating dental students. Clinical sciences teach the students to recognise and apply novel therapeutics (3). Correspondingly, the role of basic sciences is equally imperative as they improve the basic understanding of the students about oral structures and their functions (4). Oral biology has been defined by the American Association of Oral Biologists as a discipline that deals with the under- standing of the development, structure and functions of oral tissues in healthy and diseased conditions (5). Oral biology is an important subject that helps in bridging the gap between basic and clinical sciences (6). Oral biology has long been undervalued. The perception of professionals and students needs an enhancement to train more competent professionals. A questionnaire based on a Likert scale was developed by Scheven (7) in 2012 to analyse the relevance of oral biology perceived by the dental students and graduates and to evaluate the most effective teaching method and learning resource for oral biology. The same questionnaire was utilised for this study after a minor modification, according to different teaching approaches and learning resources utilised in the United King- dom and Pakistan. Limited data from all over the world and none from Paki- stan regarding the perceived relevance of oral biology to den- tistry as reported by dental students and graduates were present in the literature. Therefore, this study was carried out to com- pare the perception of dental students and house surgeons ª 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 European Journal of Dental Education ISSN 1396-5883