Moral Skills Among a Group of Iranian Dental Students

Objective(s): The purpose of teaching professional ethics in dentistry is to cultivate dentists who adhere to ethical principles in their profession. The present study aimed to evaluate moral skills among a group of dental students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on dental students in Isfahan, Iran in 2024. Applying a stratified random sampling method, 396 volunteer dental students filled in Chambers Moral Skills Inventory including four domains of sensitivity, reasoning, integrity and moral courage. Independent t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) served for statistical analysis (p<0.05). Data was analyzed using SPSS version 27. Results: Among the participants (response rate=97%), with mean ± standard deviation (SD) age of 23.97±3.00 years (range: 19-39), 59.1% were women. Mean ± SD score of moral skills among the students was 15.79±3.08 (range: 8-26, scaled mean: 49.34%). A significant difference revealed between the domains (p<0.05). The highest score belonged to the domain of sensitivity (4.70) and the lowest score to the domain of reasoning (2.90). Moral skills showed no significant association with participants’ age (p=0.51) and gender (p=0.93), however, students with father's education lower than diploma showed significantly lower score of moral skills than those with higher father's education (p=0.02). In addition, moral skills among third year dental students was significantly lower than that of fourth- and fifth-year students (p=0.01). Conclusion: Moral skills among Iranian dental students was moderate. Given the importance of ethical competencies in dental profession, it is recommended to incorporate relevant topics in to curriculum. Moreover, early exposure to ethics education should be provided for students, alongside continuing professional development opportunities for graduated dentists.