It is well demonstrated by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences January, 1995 report, Dental Education at the Crossroads: Challenges and Change, that dental education must face up to some major challenges and change. A major recurring theme in the Institute Of Medicine report is the need for dental education to join the mainstream of preventive health care education. Additionally, the report emphasizes the importance of training dental students in community health care settings utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach to their training while maintaining the prominence of dental schools in academic health centers. Dental education must begin to mirror the times by changing the curriculum to reflect shifting patterns of oral soft-tissue and dental diseases in the context of dental public health practice. The problems identified for purposes of this study was how American schools of dentistry may organize and implement a dental public health residency program to enhance their multi-disciplinary health care collaboration and community involvement. The outcome demonstrated that a dental public health residency program can be the catalyst for change in dental education and can provide the dentistry-core for an effective multi-disciplinary health care system. Also, that targeted community-based programs, implemented conjointly by schools of dentistry, public health, medicine and nursing have improved public access to health services and consequently have helped to reduce health disparities. Dental public health specialists address not only the issues of dental/oral health, but also the broader spectrum of physical well-being, of which dentistry is a significant integral part.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants in this session will be able to: 1. Discuss the major challenges and change facing dental education; 2. Articulate how a dental public health residency program would be the catalyst for change and provide the core for an effective interdisciplinary health care system; and 3. Identify the problems faced by American schools of dentistry in organizing and implementing a dental public health residency program
Keywords: Change Concepts, Collaboration
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.