Dental education in the institution whereby future dental health professionals become equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the oral health needs of the patients. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, most of the graduating dentists find themselves working as general practitioners. Similar findings were reported in the United Kingdom. In a previous study, it has been shown that a majority of dental graduates in the United Kingdom would be practicing general dentistry 1.

Dental students have several objectives after their graduation. Previous study has shown that students applying to dental schools are looking for a better lifestyle through good income 2,3,4 . Certain earlier studies have also investigated the future plans of senior dental students in several countries 5,6,2,3 7.

In Saudi Arabia, workforce and postgraduate planning is criticized in the dental profession. Most of the graduated dentists are working in major cities. Similarly, although there is an intention towards a post graduate degree or diploma training, this may not be possible. This could possibly be owing to the fact that the right kind of motivation or direction was not given during their undergraduate years. To compound this, there are not enough postgraduate education centers that can accommodate the many applicants that exist. This is particularly important as the need for specialists in different disciplines of dentistry is growing within the Kingdom and this requirement needs to be met by an increase in the number of postgraduate dentists available.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the future plans of the soon-to-be graduating students of the Riyadh Elm University (REU). Results may help the college to revise its undergraduate curriculum and program to suit a more career guided training for its graduates.

Students at REU were invited to participate in this study. Participation was voluntary and their identity was left anonymous. The students who served as subjects were, at the time, studying in their final year and Intern, the questionnaires were administered during the 2^nd semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

Study proposal was submitted to the research center of Riyadh Elm University and ethical approval (Institutional Review Board IRB) was obtained. The study was registered under the registration number: FRP/2019/51

Information was derived from a self-administrated questionnaire which covered the following five areas: vision of dentistry (why they had chosen it as a career), short-term career aspirations, long-term career aspirations, influential factors on their career and personal details.

The questionnaire contained ninteen multiple choice questions that involved a mix of options with factors known to influence future professional career choices which the students rated.

The 1^st part of the questionnaire included demographic details such as age, nationality, marital status, educational level and GPA. Part II focused on examining the students’ 'vision' of dentistry, students were asked to identify how much they considered each of the factors to have influenced their choice of dentistry. The 'vision' section of the questionnaire explored why students perceived they had chosen dentistry as their profession.

In the latter part of the questions of Part II, there were questions pertaining to the students’ intentions in joining a postgraduate program. The students who chose to join postgraduate program moved to choose onto the 3^rd part of the questionnaire that involved exploring the variable factors affecting their future plan of pursuing postgraduate studies. Several details were stressed upon such as whether they had been given adequate information during their study at REU, economical factors, the field for the postgraduate program and why they had chosen it, and which country they would choose for postgraduate study and after getting their postgraduate degree whether they would become academician or clinician.

The final part of the questionnaire involved asking the students about their long term plans for their future career and the factors that would affect their decisions.

Statistical Analysis:

The questionnaires were collected. The data were entered, and a descriptive analysis was performed using SPSS program.

Table 3

Question			%
For PG choice, factors affecting your plan	Occupational flexibility	86	55.4
	Income	44	28.3
	Interest and other factors	25	16.1
Specialty of interest	Prosthodontics	37	23.8
	Restorative Dentistry	37	23.8
	Orthodontics	24	15.4
	Oral surgery	21	13.5
	Endodontics	17	10.9
	Pediatric Dentistry	12	7.4
	Oral medicine/Community Dentistry	7	4.5
What makes you choose the specialty	Career advice (friends, dentists..)	43	27.7
	Influence of family/income	18	11.6
	Other reasons	94	60.6
Information during undergraduate study makes your decision?	Yes	81	52.2
	No	49	31.6
	Do not know	25	16.1
Country you plan to pursue PG study in	USA	90	58
	Saudi Arabia	29	18.7
	United Kingdom	21	13.5
	Arabian or other countries	15	9.6
Plan after PG Study	Clinician	82	52.9
	Academician and Clinician	66	42.5
	Not yet decided	7	4.5

Table 4

Question			%
Which area of Saudi Arabia you plan to practice in?	Central Region	81	52.2
	Eastern Region	25	16.1
	Western region	13	8.3
	Southern region/not yet decided	36	23.2
Reason for choosing the region?	Family reason	86	55.4
	High need region	34	21.9
	Better work opportunity	27	17.4
	Friends in the area/career opportunity	8	5.1
Future plan working time	Full-time	58	37.4
	Part-Time	61	39.3
	Not yet decided	36	23.2
Plan to have private clinic	Yes	75	48.3
	No	38	24.5
	Not yet decided	42	27.0
How much marriage will affect your future plan?	Dramatically	21	13.5
	Moderately	55	35.4
	Slightly	32	20.6
	No answer/not at all	47	31.3

A total of 155 questionnaires were completed by all participants. Summary of the participants’ characteristics is shown in Table 1. Most of the respondents are single (77.4%), Saudi (86.4%). Approximately one third have a very good GPA.

Table 2 shows the opinion of participants about their dental study. More than half entered dental school because it is their interest (59.3%) and most of them think it is a good choice (83.8%). The excellent experience in REU was reported by 27.1% of the participants while very good and good experiences were reported by 39.3% and 28.4% respectively. Most of the respondents chose to join postgraduate studies after they graduate (50.9) while 25.8% chose to work as general dentist in a governmental or private practice.

Occupational flexibility (55.4%) was the reason for choosing pursuing postgraduate studies (Table 3). When asked about the specialty of interest, prosthodontics and restorative dentistry specialties were chosen equally (23.8%). Beside career advice (27.7%) and family influence (11.6%), most of the respondents chose other reasons (60.6%) for choosing the specialty of interest. United states and Saudi Arabia were the two countries mostly selected for postgraduate studies (58% and 18.4% respectively). After the completion of PG studies, most of the respondents will work as clinicians (52.9%) while 42.5% will join clinical and academician post.

The features of plans to practice dentistry in the future are shown in Table 4. Most of the participants will practice in the central region of Saudi Arabia (52.2%) because of family reasons (55.4%). Full-time or part-time work was chosen by 37.4% and 39.3% of the participants respectively. Approximately half of the respondents plan to have their own private practice. Marriage is thought to moderately affect the future plan of the respondents (35.4%).

For better plans in dental education, it is important to investigate some factors that may play a role in the future dental education. In this study, we aimed to investigate senior dental students about their future plans after they graduate from REU. The results of this study cannot be generalized to the whole dental students in Saudi Arabia. A wider study investigating senior dental students in all dental colleges in Saudi Arabia may show more reliable results.

In this study, data showed that majority of senior dental students chose to study dentistry because of personal interest. Similar findings were reported by 8 2 who reported that most of dental students investigated choose dental career. In addition, majority of participants think they made a good choice to study dentistry. This is reflected on the participants’ General Point Average. Dental schools should assess the interest of students to ensure that their studies will end successfully. Similar to previous study9 3 10 low number of the students regretted their choice of career.

Most of senior dental students investigated chose to join a postgraduate program after their graduation. This is in contrast to previous study11 12 13 3 which reported that most of the dental students choose to work a general dentist after graduation. This might be attributed to the facts that dental students in western countries take loans to study dentistry and they want to pay these loans. USA and Saudi Arabia were chosen by majority of respondents to study the postgraduate programs. Further studies should be conducted to investigate the reasons behind this choice. Prosthodontics and restorative dentistry were chosen the specialties mostly selected by participants to pursue postgraduate education. This disagrees with previous study by 14 who reported that orthodontics and oral surgery were the two mostly specialties selected by senior dental students. It is only possible to speculate the reasons for this difference which is the exposure of students to courses and patients in these two specialties. This speculation is shown in the participants’ response when asked about what makes them to choose the specialty. In agreement with previous study14, low number of senior dental students investigated will join academic career. Previous study had shown that academic career is related to the presence of one parent who is academician13 7.

Family reason was the factor mostly cited by participants to choose the region where they plan to practice. This is not seen in previous studies 15 16. Less than half of the respondents plan to work as full time which disagrees with previous studies 17 14. It is speculated that at this may be related to the facts that participants need more time and experience as shown by the high percentage of participants who answered “I do not know”. It is suggested that senior dental students should receive more seminars in dental practice. It may be beneficial to question participants the same questions after them finish their internship program. Furthermore, family influence on future plans of senior dental students has been investigated in several studies 14 3 18. In agreement with these studies, data from this study showed that marriage may affect the future plan of participants.

Conclusions:

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that: Most of senior dental students in REU will pursue PG studies after their graduation. Prosthodontics and restorative dentistry are the most specialties selected for PG education. Family influence plays a role in the future plans of senior dental students in REU.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that: REU should conduct seminars about future career planning of its graduates. More studies including other dental colleges should be conducted. More studies to investigate possible reasons for the findings should conducted.

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