Eur J Dent Educ. 2020;00:1–8. | 1 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/eje 1 | INTRODUCTION The high frequency of dental trauma is well documented, with a re- ported prevalence among children and adolescents of 20%-50%. 1-3 The search for solutions to dental trauma has been described as a public health priority by the World Health Organization (WHO) programme on Health Promotion at School. 4 The International Association of Dental Traumatology (IADT) and leading figures in the Received: 26 July 2019 | Revised: 21 July 2020 | Accepted: 4 August 2020 DOI: 10.1111/eje.12597 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Knowledge of dental trauma among dental students. Lecture intervention protocol and follow-up over four academic courses Javier Valdepeñas 1 | Alberto Adanero 2 | Eva María Martínez 1 | Paloma Planells 1 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 Department of Dental Clinical Specialties, School of Dentistry, Madrid Complutense University, Madrid, Spain 2 Department of Pediatric Prostheses and Odontology, School of Biomedical Sciences, European University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain Correspondence Javier Valdepeñas, Departamento de Especialidades Clínicas Odontológicas, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal, s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid 28040, Spain. Email: javald01@ucm.es Abstract Background and Aims: A study was made to evaluate knowledge of dental trauma among first-year dental students at the start of the career; assess the knowledge gained immediately after a lecture intervention; and evaluate persisting knowledge on an annual basis until the fourth year of the career. Material and Methods: The study involved 29 volunteers from the first year of den- tistry (School of Dentistry, Madrid Complutense University, Madrid, Spain). All the participants completed a previously validated questionnaire including questions re- ferred to the management of dental trauma at the site of the accident, and other related aspects. This was followed by a brief lecture on the subject, and then the same questionnaire was administered again. Completion of the original questionnaire was subsequently repeated on an annual basis up until the fourth year of the career. Repeated measures analysis was used to assess the evolution of student knowledge. Results: Knowledge of the subject was seen to be lacking at the start of the career, but increased significantly as a result of the lecture intervention (P < .001). Over the subsequent courses, although the notions referred to dental trauma were seen to de- crease with respect to the first evaluation, they remained high. All of the participants agreed on the need for informative campaigns referred to dental trauma targeted to students in the first courses of the health sciences. Conclusions: It is necessary to impart knowledge on the prevention and immediate management of dental traumatisms in order to improve their prognosis. This learning is especially relevant to students in the first courses of the health sciences. KEYWORDS dental trauma, education, emergency, knowledge, students