competency is defined as the essential ability to perform a procedure safely and successfully without supervision . for a qualified dentist , competency is the summary of knowledge , attitude , professionalism , critical thinking and problem - solving skills , ethical values , and technical and procedural skills . the universidad peruana cayetano heredi , faculty of stomatology ( lima , peru ) was the first to address the issues of competencies . an exercise to evaluate the content and structure of its curriculum by assessment of the dental practice of their students was carried out . as a result , a new term called  competency - based dental curricula  was developed and then distributed internationally to the educational and scientific world . given that , a competency in public health dentistry is designed by the interface between the community health care requirements and the provided dental treatments . this interaction has impacted the curricular design in a two - mode matrix . to establish competent skills to handle periodontal disease , for example , a disease of oral tissues , student need to perform all related functions regarding diagnosis , promotion , prevention , treatment , rehabilitation , and administration . there are twelve competencies in our terminology and ranked second in complexity scale . similarly , the competency of public health dentistry has six types of patient care delivered by a qualified dentists to tackle the community needs of oral health care primarily . testing the competencies of student 's performance is an essential step to ensure safeguarding practices , maintaining accreditation certificates , and ultimately evaluating the curriculum and revising accordingly . survey - based questionnaire is a standard method for measuring the competency of freshly qualified dentists to define their apparent expertise in particular areas of dentistry . however , the scope of these studies focused on assessing the competency of the practical procedures of the profession rather than addressing the competencies of public health dentistry . this paper aimed to examine the level of self - perceived proficiency in the dental public health of dentists at the time of their graduation . specifically , the objectives of this article were : 
 to compare the levels of self - perceived competency in public health dentistry among male and female dental graduatesto grade the various components of self - perceived public health dentistry competency as reported by newly qualified dentists . to compare the levels of self - perceived competency in public health dentistry among male and female dental graduates to grade the various components of self - perceived public health dentistry competency as reported by newly qualified dentists . this is a cross - sectional survey - based study which was undertaken in a dental institution in india . all dental interns ( 133 ) from the klevk institute of dental sciences , belgaum , india participated in the study . the survey comprised questions in english that is the teaching language of dental colleges in india . it included 21 close - ended randomly ordered items representing the functions and tasks that are crucial to accomplishing competency in public health dentistry . the authors ( rbg , pb ) revisited the questions to adopt the study objectives . five dental interns working at the klevk institute of dental sciences were randomly selected to participate in the pilot study . all the newly graduates ( 133 ) were requested to assemble in a hall on a predetermined day , and questionnaire with an informed consent and brief outline of the research protocol were distributed . a full detail of the study was introduced , and all relevant questions were addressed . all graduates agreed to participate in the study and sufficient time to write their responses was given . graduates were asked to rate how proficient they perceive themselves on each dental public health function by the using a 3-point likert scale with 0 indicating  not at all competent ,  1 indicating  competent ,  and 2 indicating  very competent . the overall score was then subdivided into three equal - length categories : from 0 to 13 indicating  not at all competent ,  from 14 to 28 indicating  competent ,  and from 29 to 42 specifying  very competent .  by using the likert - type scale methodology , the respondents were stratified into three subgroups based on their competency equivalence . descriptive frequencies were obtained , and the variables were statistically analyzed by using chi - square test . mann scores for the tasks concerning  to motivate health and oral health through health education ,   to develop activities to motivate the community development ,   to motivate health and oral health through training of community agents ,   to motivate health and oral health through creation of healthy settings ,  and  to design , develop and evaluate community preventive interventions were significantly lower in males than in females ( p = 0.00 , 0.00 , 0.006 , 0.00 , 0.002 , respectively ) while the male students reported greater competency for the function  to adjust the dental practice to situations of restriction that limits it the perception 's scores of participants on the assessed public health functions the sum and mean scores of the 21 items have been calculated to give a total rating , which was 22.61  10.94 indicating that the fresh alumni sensed themselves to be capable of handling the community needs of oral health . based on the findings mentioned above , dental tasks were ranked in ascending order from the lowest to highest scores . the four lowest scores were for the tasks  to augment the socio  economic  cultural diagnosis of a community ,   to design , develop and evaluate community restorative interventions ,   to manage health care systems to groups ,  and  to adjust the dental practice to situations of restriction that limits it ,  whereas the four top marks were achieved for the services regarding  to motivate health and oral health through health education   to augment the oral health diagnosis of a community ,   to motivate health and oral health through creation of healthy settings ,  and  to motivate health and oral health through training of community agents . the model of community - based dental education is a learning process derived from simulating real - time experience by giving the students the prospect of training in the community setting . by doing this , students will learn through community exposure , a wider vision regarding the various social , economic , and cultural elements of the dental and oral health workload that influence the provision of this service on a community scale . integrating the students into community practices empowered them with additional clinical and professional skills to a better understanding of their patients within varied social contexts and settings than they usually get in a traditional dental school clinical encounter . in india , the subject of public health dentistry is taught in the third or final year of undergraduate curriculum with the allotment of 40 - 60 hours of theoretical and 150 hours of practical coaching . this research aimed to assess the competency grade of the klevk institute of dental sciences graduates ( a premiere dental institute in the state with a well - established department of public health dentistry ) perceive themselves to be for solving oral health needs in the community . this paper , to the best of our knowledge , is the first study in india for measuring the self - perception of dental public health competency in a cohort of new dental graduates . dental education is a continuous cycle and starts at dental schools ; students should progress from the beginner stage through the novice stage to the competent stage by the time they graduate . it is important , therefore , to comprehend the assessed competencies as an integral process rather than individual items . for example , a student at the dental college could have the competency of performing a restorative procedure technically . he or she lacks the skills to apply this method in a clinical setting and has limited professional responsibilities associated with this practice . the advanced beginner level is achieved based on considerable experience and being mentored by a supervisor . the competent dentist clinically starts to set goals or plans based on hierarchical procedure for making decisions . proficient dentists comprehend a condition as a whole because they recognize its meaning with regards to long - term objectives . finally , an expert acts from a profound understanding of the entire situation utilizing the large background of experience and highly skilled analytic ability for occasions with no previous experience . final examinations , clinical case presentations , and supervisor evaluations , in addition to satisfaction survey of patients , students , and alumni are examples of the applied methods to assess the efficiency of a dental curriculum . in this study , a questionnaire was used to assess the level of competency which is a reasonable standard to measure the efficacy of dental curriculum . the self - administered questionnaire is a widely used methodology to assess the self - perceived dental competencies ; however , the risk of bias can not be excluded in this type of studies . several reports highlighted that students feedback might be affected by the passionate obligation and appreciation to their college for receiving their professional qualification . our findings indicate that fresh dental graduates assumed themselves competent in resolving the community level oral health needs . however , they ranked themselves as more experienced in carrying out specific tasks of public health dentistry . for example , promoting general and oral health through health education scored the highest in self - perception . this finding is consistent with the results from the study conducted among dental graduates at the universidad peruana cayetano heredia , faculty of stomatology . it could be due to the design of undergraduate training program that includes oral health education aids ( poster , model ) , tobacco counselling , and school health education programs . tasks such as  to augment the oral health diagnosis of a community ,   to motivate health and oral health through creation of healthy settings ,   to motivate health and oral health through training of community agents ,   to apply basic maintenance to dental equipment and instruments ,  also were scored highly ; this could be due to the fact that the learning experiences of public health dentistry weighted higher on these activities with a thorough coaching in recording the major indices of oral diseases . the functions with the lowest scores were  to augment the socio - economic - cultural diagnosis of a community ,   to design , develop and evaluate community restorative interventions ,   to manage health care systems to groups ,   to adjust the dental practice to situations of restriction that limits it ,  and  to participate in the epidemiological surveillance system . special consideration should be given to these lower score functions when planning of curricular changes in dental education is determined . the approaches of reflective teaching have been proven to be valuable tools to improve the impact of the community learning experiences . there are several approaches and tools that have shown capability in enhancing the dental education on the basis of community - based learning experiences such as  photographic documentation , written narratives , critical incident reports , and mentored post - experiential small group discussions , in addition to fieldwork . the male brain is characterized by systemizing tendencies ( to use baron - cohen 's term ) and mechanistic thinking ( to use crespi and badcock 's term ) . systemizing  is the motivation to analyze , explore , and construct a system . in contrast , the female brain is characterized by empathizing tendencies ( to use baron - cohen 's term ) or mentalistic thinking ( to use crespi and badcock 's term ) . empathizing  is the ambition to identify another person 's emotions and thoughts and to respond to them with an appropriate emotion . this study aimed to understand another person , to predict his or her behavior , and to connect or reverberate with him / her emotionally . in our study , males reported greater competency for the function  to adjust the dental practice to situations of restriction that limits it .  while the females reported greater competency for the tasks concerning  to develop activities to motivate the community development ,   to motivate health and oral health through health education ,  and  to motivate health and oral health through the creation of healthy settings . competency - based surveys yield useful information for curriculum review , however , neither they nor any single method of reviewing the curriculum should be used alone . advances in educational and dental research and the changing dental needs of the population should be factored into the curriculum alongside information from traditional sources such as internal surveys and accreditation reviews . blunt tools such as competency - based evaluations should be clarified and amplified by focus group interviews to tease out the precise reason for perceived lack of competence in any particular area . more interestingly , implementing the e - learning assessment has proved to provide a fair evaluation of specific learning domains such as dental public health . competency - based surveys yield useful information for curriculum review , however , neither they nor any single method of reviewing the curriculum should be used alone . advances in educational and dental research and the changing dental needs of the population should be factored into the curriculum alongside information from traditional sources such as internal surveys and accreditation reviews . blunt tools such as competency - based evaluations should be clarified and amplified by focus group interviews to tease out the precise reason for perceived lack of competence in any particular area . more interestingly , implementing the e - learning assessment has proved to provide a fair evaluation of specific learning domains such as dental public health . there is a need for additional countrywide data regarding public health dentistry education to enable propagation , exchange , and evaluation of knowledge and skills . thus , this study is an initial attempt that should be taken further on a larger scale to determine the overall dental public health curriculum competencies .