Evaluation of CDs and chewing gum in teaching dental anatomy.

The purposes of this pilot study were: 1. to compare two methods of teaching dental anatomy-CD + lab vs. standard lecture + lab; and 2. to determine whether actively chewing gum during lecture, lab and studying would have an effect on learning. Only the written examination average scores for the gum vs. no gum chewing groups showed differences that appear to be educationally meaningful, though not statistically significant because of the limited number of subjects in this pilot study. This pilot study suggests that: 1. the cost-effective method of using a self-study CD is as educationally effective as a standard lecture; 2. gum chewing resulted in higher scores in the written examination; and 3. future, full-sized studies should be conducted to confirm these findings.