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Review Article

COVID-19 and Dental Education: A Malaysian Perspective

Mohamad Syahrizal Halim, Tahir Yusuf Noorani, Mohamad Isaqali Karobari, Noorshaida Kamaruddin
Conservative Dentistry Unit, School of Dental Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia

Abstract
Dental education in Malaysia has been struck badly by the novel SARS-CoV2 coronavirus (COVID-19). This has brought to a halt
all teaching and learning activities, aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19, forcing students and lecturers to shift to online
teaching and learning activities. However, dental education teaching and learning is unique in nature as it involves close contact with
patients and aerosol-related procedures. This article discusses the challenges faced by the lecturers and students during this pandemic
and offers some alternative strategies to bridge the gap in dental education during an unprecedented time. Although COVID-19 has
ceased all clinical teaching and learning activities in most universities, it is imperative for the delivery of dental education to continue
to ensure students are always engaged in learning activities. Although for many dental lecturers this change to online learning is a
steep learning curve, they need to be fast learners, embrace the incorporation of technology into learning programs, and adapt to the
new norms. They need to familiarize themselves with online learning to ensure that the course syllabus is covered comprehensively.
For students, they must have the right mindset that this change is bound to exist until COVID-19 has been brought under control and
lockdown is no more relevant.

Keywords: COVID-19, Dental Education, Educators Perspective, Malaysia Education, Students Perspective, University Students
Received: 15-01-2021, Revised: 25-03-2021, Accepted: 09-04-2021, Published: 18-06-2021.

Introduction the pandemic towards dental or medical education have

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-
CoV-2) or better known as coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) infection is caused by the novel coronaviridae
virus, originating from Wuhan Province, China. This has
led to a global COVID-19 pandemic,[1] forcing universities
to close their operations, thus sending students back to
their homes or locked down in their hostels. Hospitals
suspended all nonessential services, including dental
procedures, only to cater for emergency procedures.
Although in the last two decades alone, there have been
two cases of coronaviridae virus outbreak, Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2004, coronavirus has
still become an issue that cannot be contained. Special
attention should be given to dentistry as coronavirus tends
to infect the human lungs and is transmitted via aerosol
and droplets. This respiratory virus outbreak has affected
many sectors, particularly education and dentistry, which
is the prime interest of this article. The repercussions of
not been fully studied except in Hong Kong,[2] China,[3]
and South Korea.[4] Patil et al. advocates the restriction of
mass gathering of medical students in a lecture hall. The
use of information technology into teaching and learning
was encouraged.[2] This was further highlighted by Meng
et al., where they recommend adopting to online lectures,
case studies, and problem-based learning during outbreak
in China. Students are also encouraged to take part in
self-improving themselves by self-directed learning.[3] Park
et al. suggested more detail measures to ensure protection
to medical students by advocating the discontinuation of
bedside case clerking, self monitoring of health status,
closure of the medical school and adjusting the academic
calendar in affected teaching hospital, arranging schedule
Address for correspondence: Dr. Mohamad Syahrizal Halim,
Conservative Dentistry Unit, School of Dental Science, Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Health Campus, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia.
E-mail: drsyah@usm.my

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For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com

DOI: How to cite this article: Halim MS, Noorani TY, Karobari MI,
10.4103/jioh.jioh_8_21 Kamaruddin N.  COVID-19 and dental education: A  Malaysian
perspective. J Int Oral Health 2021;13:201-6.

      © 2021 Journal of International Oral Health | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‑ Medknow 201  
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Halim, et al.: Dental education during COVID-19
patient clerking at another teaching hospital, and remote
lectures and problem-based learning tutorials.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many normal
daily activities all around the world, including dental
education. Schools and universities across the globe have
suspended face-to-face teaching, learning activities and
are encouraged to resume lectures via online platform
to curb the spread of COVID-19.[1] Social gatherings,
including those in educational institutions, are banned
due to the threat of promoting the spread of COVID-
19. Some students were sent back to their hometown
until further notice. This is the scenario that was faced
by the Malaysian dental universities students when the
government imposed a strict Movement Control Order
(MCO) from 18 March to 17 May 2021, where all face-to-
face teaching and learning was halted.[5] Then on 27 April
2020, the Malaysian Higher Education Ministry started
the process of sending most of the universities student to
their hometown. All teaching and learning activities needs
to be continued via online distant learning including dental
students until 31 December 2020.[6] This has caught many
students and educators off guard with a drastic transition
to distant online teaching and learning (e-learning) to
ensure students are not left idle during this pandemic
lockdown. Even though we are already in the digital era,
most students are still comfortable with conventional
didactic lectures and face-to-face teaching and learning
activities, while they cope with online learning.[7] This was
made more difficult as the directive and information from
the Government keep changing from time to time due to
different phases of MCO in Malaysia.[8] There was a time
when that face-to-face teaching and learning was allowed
to be done with minimal attendance especially among
students that need practical session and final year students
after the CMCO was implemented.[9,10] But sudden spike
in cases in Malaysia led to a 2nd MCO which again
halted face-to-face teaching and learning.[11] This setback
imposed stress to students, lecturers, and administrators.
Dentistry has been categorized as a very-high risk
occupation for potential COVID-19 infection spread.[12]
This is due to the aerosol generating procedures associated
commonly with all patient treatments.[7] Dentistry deals
with the oral cavity of a patient which harbors millions
of bacteria and viruses. Furthermore, aerosols are created
when dental personnel use high speed hand pieces and
ultrasonic scalers in a patients’ mouth. This leads to
easier transmission of airborne diseases, particularly the
COVID-19 virus in dental clinics, potentially affecting
the dental practitioner, assisting staff and the patient
themselves. Thus, the nature of dentistry makes it even
more challenging in delivering dental education during
the COVID-19 pandemic. The balance between protection
of dental students, staffs, and patients while fulfilling the
requirements of nurturing a competent future dentist
is difficult. Social distancing in practising dentistry
202 202  Journal of International Oral Health ¦ Volume 13 ¦ Issue 3 ¦ May-June 2021
is almost impossible. A  dentist needs to be trained
with adequate knowledge together with good clinical
skills to be competent during undergraduate training.
Dental education is designed to cover specific cognitive
(knowledge) and psychomotor aspects (skills) to equip
dental students in treating patients effectively. These skills
cannot be taught through a video demonstration alone;
it requires a certified tutor or lecturer to show and guide
them to be competent in certain procedures. Students need
to be taught on the responsibility of treating patients,
following the standard operating protocol for specific
clinical procedures and observation of chairside etiquettes
in dealing with patients complaint and problems. This is
necessary especially in Malaysia because every dental
school is checked regularly by a governing body, that
is the Malaysian Qualifying Agency (MQA) and every
dental school is obliged to adhere to the criteria and
requirements that have been set by them. Many dental
schools in Malaysia still uphold the minimum clinical
experiences together with a competency-based assessment
in every discipline before a student can graduate as a
competent dentist.
What We Already Know
• COVID-19 is affecting every sector of daily life.
• COVID-19 has left the educational sector with
uncertainty future and instability.
• Dentistry is at high risk of spreading the COVID-19
disease
What this Article Adds
• Insight of dental students perspective towards COVID-
19 pandemic to their routine academic activites.
• Dental educators perspective towards online distance
learning in dentistry and the repercussions towards
resulting dental education standards.
The aim of this article is to provide an insight on the
challenges faced by the dental education system and
contains recommendations to dental schools and faculties
on alternative to fulfill the expected requirements to
nurture and help competent dental graduates.
Students’ Perspective
Tuition fees
There are two types of dental colleges in Malaysia currently,
one being government funded universities and the other is
private universities. The former has minimal fees ranging
between MYR 14,000 and the later may reach up to MYR
600,000 for 5 years course.[13] The impact of this COVID-
19 on students in public or government universities may
not be as hard as that of private institute dental students.
Nonetheless, students are still expected to pay their fees
in full, regardless of the class being postponed and halted
due to this pandemic. Online classes are still conducted,
but without practical or clinical session.
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Halim, et al.: Dental education during COVID-19
This leads to students’ acceptance towards online learning
beyond satisfactory. The online classes did not seem
equivalent to the amount of money they invested in the
tuition fees. They hoped online learning will not resume
after the pandemic is under control and the movement
control order (MCO) ends.[7] Some of them hoped they
can get reimbursed for their missed classes and clinical
sessions. But this is unlikely as the university has invested
a lot of money in human resources, equipment, and
facilities to ensure the classes can resume online and
students were not left idle during COVID-19 associated
MCO. This requires a forbearance from both sides.
Many students also feel overburdened with the current
COVID-19 pandemic. They are not allowed to go
to classes, meet their peers and lecturers. Pre-clinical
practical sessions cannot be done at the university and
clinical students cannot see patients. Some students
who are sponsored candidates feel stressed because they
are tied to a fixed timeline given by their sponsors to
finish their study. With MCO or lockdown, they cannot
complete their clinical requirements. Hence they cannot
fulfill the necessary requirements to appear for the
final exams. Students’ sponsors need to be aware of the
unforeseen circumstances faced by the students under
their sponsorship during these unprecedented times.
Some self-sponsored students have also had a difficulty
in paying their tuition fees. This may be because their
parents or guardian were laid off due to the recession and
slowdown in most economic sectors. The universities need
to be mindful of this condition and work out some easy
payment scheme or direct the students to financial aid
to ensure the continuity of education for these affected
students.
Peer connection
Peer connection is very important as an informal teaching
and learning process. Exchange of ideas and revision of
individual understanding of certain topics might vary.
Hence they need to get in touch with their peers. Meeting
and discussion with peers during seminars, problem-
based learning (PBL) activities, case-based learning
(CBL), and tutorials will enhance their critical thinking
towards problem-solving. Face-to-face communication
during seminars will boost their confidence in talking to
a colleague, lecturers, and patients. Good communication
skills are very crucial to extract information from the
patient regarding their disease or problem, developing a
diagnosis, and formulating a treatment plan. This platform
is useful in case of introvert students since they must face
a tutor or lecturer in the seminar, CBL, or PBL session.
Without doubt this can also be done through online or
distant learning as was undertaken in School of Medical
Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia;[8] however, the
experience may not be the same. Students may lose focus
      Journal of International Oral Health ¦ Volume 13 ¦ Issue 3 ¦ May-June 2021
and motivation since it is proven that increased screen
time may deviate students’ attention.[9] Additionally, the
environment the students face at home may also deter
them from focusing on the online classes. Distraction
from siblings, parents, improper place to study may result
in loss of focus. The absence of social interaction and
formation of study groups are some of the drawbacks
of online learning. Lecturers cannot sense students’
incomprehension through facial expression, change in the
mood by small jokes in between the tutorial, and absence
of students engagement and interaction are some of the
drawbacks of online learning.[7]
Internet connection for online learning
To have suitable online classes, lecturers and students need
to have a very good and stable internet connection together
with sound technical computer skills.[10] These are one of
the major issues being faced by both parties during distant
online learning.[11,12] This is worrying because 60% of the
students did their online learning from their home which
is in town or city areas with only 6% of students have a
very good internet connection and 40% with good internet
connectivity.[7] Not to mention some lecturers are also not
familiar with this new norm during COVID-19 pandemic.
Since most university students, including dental students
were sent home by their respective universities during
the MCO imposed by the Government of Malaysia, the
internet connection was a major setback. In Malaysia,
there are areas still without good internet coverage. This
will affect some students and their learning experience,
especially those from rural areas. Even though internet is
easily accessible in most places in Malaysia, the stability
of the internet connection was not good during MCO
time. A  sudden increase in internet traffic shocked most
internet providers in Malaysia, forcing them to improve
their service.
This issue may be tackled by increasing the asynchronous
rather than synchronous online learning. Lecturers can
record a video presentation, edit, and upload their lecture
content in specific online learning platforms for their
students to revise. This is very useful where students can go
to a specific place such as near the main road in rural areas
to download the video content shared by their lecturer.
This method is suitable when two-way communication is
not necessary for the learning outcome of that specific
topic. This way, students can use their internet data
cautiously, when compared with synchronous teaching
and learning activities which uses big internet data.
This also is a challenge to telecommunication carriers to
widen their coverage and improve the stability of internet
connection. Not every student has the luxury of having
a fixed home broadband, most of them rely on mobile
internet which can sometime become unstable especially
in rural areas or when there is an increase in internet
traffic at specific point of time such as during the MCO.
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Halim, et al.: Dental education during COVID-19
Lack of student’s engagement during online classes
Some students are reluctant and resilient towards online
classes. This may be due to individual preferences and
attitudes. They prefer online learning to be a supplemental
form to conventional classes, in the form of flash lectures
and procedural videos.[13]
This can be improved by introducing online learning
to the students at the very beginning of dental school
enrolment, expectations of distant learning made clear to
each student including explaining to them in the course
or module description. Extra points for continuous
assessment can be given for students’ participation during
online seminar, case-based discussion or journal club,
whether synchronous or asynchronous classes. This
requires the creativity of dental lecturers to encourage
students to participate in online classes.
Quality of online learning activity materials
Online learning has shown to save time, reduce cost,
allowing students to learn in their flexible time outside
the classroom and with broader knowledge transfer. This
methods also allows a shift towards more active learner
centered rather than passive teacher centered learning.[14,15]
But to ensure the success of online learning, student
satisfaction is one of the key factors.[16] This can be fulfilled
by ensuring the contents of the online lecture is interactive,
with the intended learning outcomes being coverage and
ease of access.[17] Lecturers need to ensure they have this
expertise in online teaching and this challenge should be
accepted with open arms. Students need to be offered
a valuable and interactive online learning activities to
ensure their acceptance and readiness to change. This is
important to avoid the withdrawal from online learning
activities and shift towards traditional face-to-face
teaching and learning activities in the future once face-to-
face learning activities is resume.[7]
Practical-based competencies
Competency refers to the expected qualification of an
individual who is about to begin an independent practice
of a profession with specific skills, knowledge, and values
expected in that profession. Most dental schools in
Malaysia adhere to competency-based exams, requiring
students to be assessed by lecturers while treating patients.
Competency-based procedure cannot be taught or
examined via online learning. Since conventional chairside
teaching is forbidden during MCO, practical-based
subjects are lacking in exercise including communication
skills with patients. Students’ self-perceived competency
also may also be affected because of inadequate credit
hours in practical session including chairside clinical
teaching. Most dental students are taught to treat a
patient’s problem, not just by observing. They need to
learn how to communicate with the patient during history
taking, know and feel how to do a correct restoration,
204 204  Journal of International Oral Health ¦ Volume 13 ¦ Issue 3 ¦ May-June 2021
correct way to extract a tooth or proper way to do a crown
preparation. This cannot be achieved by online learning
alone. A tutor or lecturer needs to be at their side to ensure
the proper procedure being conducted, be able to correct
the students’ mistakes together with ensuring the patients’
safety throughout the dental procedure.
Although it has been suggested that the solution to this is
to have peer reviews of the students clinical work together
with a panel of supervising faculty member, this is still
not very convincing.[18] One suggestion would be to delay
the academic year until COVID-19 cases can be brought
to a controllable number or until a vaccine is made
available. This may result in many students and university
authorities being unhappy since the students cannot
achieve graduation on time. This will be unpopular but
a necessary sacrifice during unprecedented COVID-19
pandemic. Maybe this is the time where universities, faculty,
and regulatory agencies to be more flexible regarding
curriculum fulfillments and competency assessment. This
has to be taken into account as the students also face
pandemic-related and financial stress.[16] Up to date, there
was no official press release from Malaysia Dental Dean
Cauncil regarding this requirement for undergraduate
students to graduate, but nonetheless this issue has been
sorted out internally.
Academia Perspective
Online learning skills and competencies
It has been brought to attention that it is important to
systematically plan and train lecturers on online teaching
in medical education as well as dental education.[19]
Firstly, as an academician cum clinical specialist in each
discipline, lecturers need to have good understanding
on different types of pedagogies in online teaching.
Synchronous teaching is a real-time interaction between a
lecturer and the students, whereas asynchronous teaching
is a pre-recorded video or slides before or after the classes
begin.[20] These different teaching methods serve its own
purposes. Synchronous teaching aims to fulfill knowledge
delivery to a novice and encourage peer interaction like
a classroom setting. Didactic lectures can be delivered
to students, supported by online seminars to encourage
students to discuss on issues related to the topic. By this
method, lecturers can engage actively with the students,
grade the students during online classes and show a demo
on certain clinical procedures. Critical thinking can be
assessed during synchronous teaching, but limited to one
person discussion at one time to ensure proper delivery
of messages and input. This synchronous teaching can
be done with various video webinar platforms such as
Microsoft TEAMS, WEBEX, Zoom, Skype, or Whatsapp.
Asynchronous teaching involves preparing a lecture
material and uploading it to the institutional e-learning
platform to be accessed at the students’ convenience.
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Halim, et al.: Dental education during COVID-19
This will facilitate collaborative learning and ensure
effective embedded knowledge to the students. In this
method, students are encouraged to seek out of classroom
knowledge, videos, and tutorials to ensure they observe
the clinical procedures before they do it on live patients.
But with this, sometimes the information from the internet
can be overwhelming and irrelevant to students expected
programme outcome. The videos and tutorials from the
web may not be the standard operating procedure from
the universities, which makes it dangerous for students to
practice.
During this difficult time, it is necessary for lecturers to
keep themselves updated with the current trends and
knowledge especially in online learning skills to get the
attention from the students. It is not an easy change,
but a change that must be done although it has resulted
in substantial adjustment. The Ministry of Higher
Education of Malaysia has been promoting the usage of
online e-learning platform to deliver the course teaching
material. Preclinical lectures and case-based exercise
can be delivered using a video recording followed by an
online quiz. Clinical video related to certain topics can be
shared from the internet source if not readily available at
the lecturers’ disposal. This is necessary to keep students
engaged during lockdown or MCO.[21]
Assessment for cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor
(skills), and affective domain
During the lockdown or MCO, dental students are not
allowed to be in campus. Examinations can be difficult to
be conducted if MCO or lockdown is extended. Although
theory exams in the form of Multiple choice Question
(MCQs), Short answer question (SAQs), and clinical
scenario with photos for objective structure clinical
examination (OSCE) can be done via e-learning platform,
the psychomotor assessment for clinical examination
still cannot be undertaken. Lecturers may not be able to
assess students’ performance for psychomotor domain
or clinical skills aspects during this MCO. This is very
disturbing as dentistry deals a lot with clinical skills
together with affective domain or professionalism aspect.
A suggestion was to have the psychomotor assessment at a
later date once the MCO is lifted and results from current
examination considered provisional until subsequent
psychomotor component examinations were done.[8] This
may be suitable in other years of the dentistry program but
not the final year; because they are going to be registered
as qualified dental practitioners once final exam results
are announced. Alternatively, dental schools can opt for
alternative competency examinations during final year
professional exam that does not involve direct patient
contact such as procedures on typodont teeth in the
pre-clinical laboratory. Dental schools can also consider
a more longitudinal and global assessment of students
overall competence rather than a single point during final
professional examination.[22]
      Journal of International Oral Health ¦ Volume 13 ¦ Issue 3 ¦ May-June 2021
Research activities and publication
Since many dental schools closed their operations when
the government imposed a lockdown or MCO, laboratory
research-based activities were also put on hold. Any
ongoing laboratory procedures and some time-sensitive
specimens were damaged when researchers could not go
to the laboratory. Most researchers that are involved in
a laboratory-based study are either financed by a local
or international grant and are in a rigid time line, where
their research needs to be finished before the due date,
not to mention the report of findings from the research
activities. No doubt this made many researchers sleepless
and distressed. The sponsoring body needs to be aware
of this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic lockdown
which forces every activity to be put on hold. Indeed, they
should be able to negotiate their contract regarding the
timeline to finish their research project.
During COVID-19 pandemic, there were some silver
linings observed. Since many researchers were forced to
stay at home, pending manuscripts could be completed
resulting in a sudden surge of publication submissions to
various journals.[17-19] This has forced journal editors to
really scrutinize the research papers with more caution
for their respective journals. Three months after the
lockdown, it was far more difficult to publish an article due
to this increase in submissions for publication according
to various authors’ experience.
Conclusion
Although COVID-19 has ceased all clinical teaching and
learning activities in most universities, it is imperative for
delivery of dental education to continue to ensure students
are always engaged in learning activities.[23] Although for
many dental lecturers this change to online learning is a
steep learning curve, they need to be fast learners, embrace
the incorporation of technology into learning programs,
and adapt to the new norms. They need to familiarize
themselves with online learning to ensure that the course
syllabus is covered comprehensively. For students, they
must have the right mind set that this change is bound to
exist until COVID-19 has been brought under control and
MCO or lockdown is no more relevant.
Recommendation
Future respiratory disease outbreak is difficult to predict as
this depends so much on the ability of certain virus strains
to mutate and causing severe manifestation in human once
it cross-infects from animals. Therefore, it is paramount to
all dental schools to equip themselves with the equipment
and facilities to continuously cater treatment to patients
even during the pandemic. It has been acknowledged
that dental treatment is highly potential for the spread
of airborne disease, hence there is no reason for dental
school to not be prepared for future outbreak to ensure
the ongoing dental treatment and dental education during
205  
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Halim, et al.: Dental education during COVID-19
the outbreak. Every dental school should allocate an area
for highly infectious disease treatment delivery for at least
30% from their allocated dental chair.
Acknowledgement
Not applicable.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
Authors declare there are no conflict of interest.
Author contributions
MH and MK: Final draft and conceptualization; MH,TN,
MK: First draft, revision, and final approval; MK,NK:
Revision and plagiarism check; MH,MK,NK: Article
writing and first draft; MK: Advisor, first draft, revision,
and final approval; TN,NK: Advisor, first draft, and
revision. Finally, all authors approved the final version of
the manuscript for publication.
Ethical policy and institutional review board statement
Not applicable.
Patient declaration of consent
Not applicable.
Data availability statement
Not applicable.
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