Mobile application as a learning tool for improving dental students' knowledge regarding dental trauma

Introduction Current evidence suggests an important knowledge gain of health sciences' students and professionals with mobile devices (m‐learning). This study aimed to verify whether different strategies of teaching (traditional lecture classroom, m‐learning and association of both methods) would present greater efficacy in knowledge improvement regarding dental trauma in primary dentition. Materials and Methods An action research study using a participatory approach was conducted with 36 undergraduate Brazilian dental students. A structured questionnaire composed of six clinical cases of traumatic injuries was initially applied to all students (pre‐test). Participants were then randomly distributed into three experimental groups: TC—students who had access exclusively to traditional lecture classroom; APP—access exclusively to the mobile application; and TC‐APP—access to both approaches. The traditional and technological methods had evidence‐based content and visual resources of the subject. After interventions, all students responded to the same previous questionnaire (post‐test). Wilcoxon and Kruskal‐Wallis tests were performed for statistical analysis. Results All tested groups obtained statistically significant improvement between their pre‐test and post‐test scores, for both diagnosis and treatment of dental trauma (p