Factors associated with Iraqi dental students' intention to perform dental implant therapy after graduation: a cross-sectional study.
OBJECTIVES This study aimed to identify the demographic, educational, and perceptual factors associated with undergraduate dental students' intentions to perform dental implant therapy after graduation. METHODS A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted during the 2024-2025 academic year among fourth- and fifth-year dental students (n = 304). A structured online questionnaire collected data on demographic characteristics, sources of implant-related information, perceived importance of dental implants, preferred management of severely compromised teeth, views on the delivery of the implantology curriculum (stand-alone versus integrated), and self-reported familiarity with implant systems. Associations were examined using chi-square tests and multivariable binary logistic regression (α = 0.05). RESULTS Overall, 65.8% of the respondents (200/304) indicated an intention to perform implant therapy after graduation. In the adjusted logistic regression model, intention was higher among students who preferred extraction followed by implant placement than among those who preferred root canal treatment with build-up (AOR = 2.26; 95% CI 1.24-4.12; p = 0.008). Lower odds of intention were observed among female students (AOR = 0.49; 95% CI 0.25-0.94; p = 0.033), students who rated implants as "very important" (AOR = 0.27; 95% CI 0.12-0.60; p = 0.001) or "important" (AOR = 0.42; 95% CI 0.18-1.00; p = 0.049) compared with "essential," and students who did not support implantology as a separate subject (AOR = 0.51; 95% CI 0.27-0.96; p = 0.038). CONCLUSIONS Future intention to perform dental implant therapy was associated mainly with treatment preference, perceived importance of implant therapy, and views on implantology teaching as a separate subject, rather than academic stage or informal learning sources. These findings suggest that clinically meaningful undergraduate implant education may be more closely associated with professional intention than exposure alone.