SPECIALTY PREFERENCES AMONG UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS IN LAGOS STATE NIGERIA.

Background: In choosing Dentistry as a field of study and specialization, adequate information as well as the passion for the provision of oral health services should be taken into consideration. Objectives: To determine the recent trend in career choices, aspirations and the reasons for choice of area of specialization among dental students in Lagos State, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a cross sectional descriptive study that utilized a structured questionnaire to collect the demographic data, reasons for career choice, career aspirations, reasons for specialization, reasons for nonspecialization and practice preferences from dental students aged 18 to 32 years. The data was collected and analysed using SPSS version 23. Associations between categorical variables were assessed using Chi square and Fisher exact tests. P-value <0.05 was assumed to be significant at 95% CI. Results: A total of 139 students (males 38.8%, females 61.2%) with a mean (SD) age of 23.04±2.6 years were involved in this study. Interest in Dentistry was the major reason (74.8%) for choosing the profession by the students and 2.2% of them chose Dentistry due to peer pressure influence. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was the specialty of choice (34.1%) followed by Orthodontics (18.7%) and Conservative Dentistry (12.1%) respectively. Dental Radiology (1.1%) was the least popular specialty. Slightly more than half of the students, 46(50.5%) intend to practice outside Nigeria. Conclusion: Most of the students chose Dentistry based on their interest in the profession and about half of them intend to practice outside the country. The most sought after dental specialties were Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics and Conservative Dentistry respectively.