Preclinical Dental Undergraduates’ Experience and Attitudes regarding Cadaver Dissections

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the experience and attitudes of preclinical dental undergraduates regarding cadaver dissection at the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Methodology: Two hundred and forty, first, second and third-year preclinical students participated. A structured and open-ended questionnaire containing 28 items was distributed after obtaining informed consent. Ethics approval from the Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya was obtained. Data was analysed using (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) SPSS version 29.
Results: In our study, 28.2% of the total student sample of 240 reported being emotionally shocked when observing dead bodies or cadavers for the first time. Of them, the majority were female (35.5%) in comparison with males (11.3%) and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.01). The commonest symptom was sweating (15.5%) followed by dizziness (13.8%) and nausea (12.6%). The smell (43.7%) was the most common reason for the symptoms, followed by sight (9.2%) and touch (6.9%). However, 47.7% of students reported no symptoms on first entry into the dissecting room. Most of the students used relaxation (25.3%) as the coping mechanism to counter the symptoms, followed by focusing on the task (20.7%).
Conclusion: Emotional shock and related symptoms experienced by the students during dissection vary according to gender and cultural background. The use of more than one coping mechanism is greatly helpful for students to counteract the situation.