The Journal of Medical Education and Development

 Introduction: One of the most important decision for everyone in life is choosing an appropriate education to undertake a profession later in life. This study aims to investigate individual, environmental and professional motivation who enrolled in dentistry courses of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services and Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey undertook involving first year dental students who enrolled at Shahid Sadoughi University (SSU) of Medical Sciences and Health Services and Tehran University of Medical Sciences،(TUMS) in 2012. The questionnaire included demographic and individuals, environmental and professional motivations of the students. After validating the questionair, it was distributed among the students. Data were entered into SPSS and analysed accordingly.

Results: Participation rate was 40% for SSU and 79% for TUMS. SSU students reported continual desire, in individual domain, main university entering exam, in environmental domain and possibilities for postgraduate education nad having own clinic in the professional domain. However, TUMS students were more influenced by continual desire, personal interest and family recommendation, income and possibility to have their own clinic.

Conclusion: Itseemes that the most important factors to dentistry by SSU and TUMS first year dental students were environment and professional factors. The significant effect of professional factors suggests that by improving these factors, the motivation of interested students may increase.