en دندانپزشکی ، اطفال دندانپزشکی ، اطفال پژوهشی اصیل Original Article <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:12.0pt"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span calibri="" style="font-family:"><b><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:#660066">Background:</span></span></b><b> </b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Students&#39; self-assessment of clinical competencies can be a criterion to evaluate the students&#39; clinical training needs. The present study aimed to investigate dental students&#39; self-assessment of their ability in clinical competencies in the pediatric dentistry of Babol Faculty of Dentistry during the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:12.0pt"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span calibri="" style="font-family:"><b><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:#660066">Methods: </span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">71 students participated in this correlation-descriptive study. The researcher-made questionnaire</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> with</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> examined validity and reliability</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> included three parts: 1. personal characteristics, 2. self-assessment questions of students regarding their ability in clinical competencies, 3. and questions about the number of treatments performed by students. The data were entered into SPSS software (22) and were analyzed with independent t-tests, ANOVA, Spearman&#39;s correlation coefficient, and descriptive indices.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:12.0pt"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span calibri="" style="font-family:"><b><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:#660066">Results: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">A significant correlation was observed between female gender and latex In this study, among the 12 groups of clinical competencies examined, the highest level of ability was related to the extraction of deciduous teeth (80.63 &plusmn; 20.78), and the lowest level of ability was related to treating patients with systemic problems (36.61&plusmn;25.99) followed by abscess of deciduous teeth treatment (49.64&plusmn;24.45) and child behavior control (58.80&plusmn;21.17). </span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:12.0pt"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span calibri="" style="font-family:"><b><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:#660066">Conclusion: </span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Students studying during the COVID-19 pandemic evaluated their ability to perform clinical </span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">competencies</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> in pediatric dentistry as generally medium to high.</span></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">However, competency in treating patients with systemic problems, treating abscesses of deciduous teeth, and controlling child behavior did not have a suitable rank compared to competency in other groups of clinical competencies. This issue shows the necessity of planning to compensate for not achieving educational goals in the era of COVID-19.</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; Self-assessment, pediatric dentistry, clinical competency, COVID-19. 39 49 http://crms.mubabol.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-204-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Fatemeh Hejrati hejrati.b1367@gmail.com 10031947532846002440 10031947532846002440 No Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran. Maryam Ghaemi-Amiri mghedcbabol@gmail.com 10031947532846002441 10031947532846002441 No Medical Education Development faculty, Medical School, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran. Effat Khodadadi dr_ekhodadadi@yahoo.com 10031947532846002442 10031947532846002442 Yes Oral Health Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Mohamad Mehdi Naghibi Sistani mnaghibis@gmail.com 10031947532846002443 10031947532846002443 No Dental Material Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran. Hemmat Gholinia Ahangar h_gholinia@yahoo.com 10031947532846002444 10031947532846002444 No Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.