A standardized open-ended questionnaire as a substitute for a personal interview in dental admissions.
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This paper discusses the need for reliable and valid measures of personality and motivational factors in the prediction of success and attrition in a dental school. The admissions system currently used in most schools includes personality factors that are measured by an interview. Our study examined whether the interview could be replaced by a standardized, open-ended questionnaire, thus increasing standardization and objectivity and avoiding the possible biases of the interview. The relationship between the standardized questionnaire score and the interview score in a dental school in Israel was examined, as well as the relationship between the standardized questionnaire score and the admissions decisions. The results showed that the questionnaire and the interview probably measure a common construct, enabling us to tentatively recommend a two-stage admissions process: all candidates meeting certain academic criteria should be asked to answer the questionnaire; those candidates scoring above a certain percentile on the questionnaire should either be admitted outright or invited for an interview. (+info)
The current status of the anatomical sciences curriculum in U.S. and Canadian dental schools.
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The anatomical sciences form one of the major building blocks of the basic medical sciences in the professional training of dentists. This paper defines the courses and classifies the formats of teaching for each course within the anatomical sciences curriculum. Information was gathered from the Internet, specifically the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) website links to U.S. and Canadian dental schools and their online catalogues or bulletins as well as online course syllabi. The results demonstrate the distribution of schools in the United States and Canada teaching anatomical sciences in the following categories: stand-alone, sequential, and multifaceted courses for gross anatomy; stand-alone and integrated courses for histology; stand-alone, integrated, incorporated, and no course for neuroanatomy; and stand-alone, incorporated, and no course in embryology. This paper concludes with the proposition that a survey of the usage of anatomical knowledge in use in a typical dental general practice needs to be conducted. The results of such a survey need to be evaluated with the intention of determining what should be taught in a dental clinical anatomical sciences curriculum. (+info)
Reexamining educational philosophy: the issue of professional responsibility, "Cleveland First".
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This paper proposes a shift of emphasis in the dental curriculum from measures to protect and improve the oral health of individuals to measures to protect and improve the oral health of the community or society. This shift represents a fundamental change in educational philosophy of the dental school. To illustrate this shift in emphasis, this paper describes a demonstration project to test the feasibility of this approach involving all seventy first-year students in the Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry in a four-week experience placing dental sealants in erupting molars of second and sixth graders in fifty schools of the Cleveland City School System. In future years, the program is expected to reach all second and sixth graders in the Cleveland School System. The experience is a required integral component of the curriculum, involving every student in the class, and is designed to make a demonstrable difference in oral health in the City of Cleveland. The experience is reinforced with course material on professional responsibility. The school is developing additional intensive experiences for second-, third-, and fourth-year classes involving smoking prevention for adolescents, oral health maintenance for nursing home residents, and dental care delivery in the inner city. The initial year of the program has had effects on students' responses to other elements of the first-year curriculum that go beyond the experience of placing sealants in children's teeth. The focused efforts of dental students every year are expected to have a measurable effect on the disparities in oral health found in the City of Cleveland as well as a measurable effect on dental students' and dentists' attitudes concerning professional responsibility. (+info)
A comparison of private and public dental students' perceptions of extramural programming.
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This project was undertaken to compare the opinions of private and public dental school students' perceptions concerning extramural programming, which is defined as any aspect of the curriculum in which undergraduate dental students provide dental care outside the main dental facility. A survey instrument was used to collect data from undergraduate students at a private (N = 267; 88.4 percent response rate) and at a public (N = 213; 67.2 percent response rate) dental school. When asked to rate the value of various extramural sites in making them a better dentist, both groups rated private dental offices the most valuable and prisons the least valuable. When questioned about the amount of time students should spend each year in extramural programming, private students, overall, desired 34 percent more time than did public students. When asked what percentage of the total time spent in extramural programming students should spend providing various categories of dental care, public school students thought 26 percent more time should be spent rendering preventive services/health education than did the private students. The private students indicated a stronger desire (13 percent more) for rendering clinical services than did public students. Both private and public students were most likely to enter group private practice after graduation. The increasing interest in community-based programs makes the information gained from this study useful for future curriculum planning. (+info)
Distance education in the U.S. and Canadian undergraduate dental curriculum.
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A major trend at all levels of education in recent years has been the advent of distance learning and, more specifically, the use of computers and communications capabilities to provide online learning. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which distance learning and online technologies are being employed by dental schools in the United States and Canada. Two groups were surveyed: academic deans and faculty members of U.S. and Canadian dental schools. Thirty-eight academic deans responded to a paper-based survey, and more than 400 faculty members responded to a web-based survey. The results of these surveys indicate that online delivery of content and information has a bright future in the delivery of the dental school curriculum. At the same time, formidable obstacles must be addressed for this approach to be successful. (+info)
Creating an environment for diversity in dental schools: one school's approach.
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Recent reports have indicated the need to improve the diversity in the dental profession's workforce. The enrollment of underrepresented minority students in the nation's dental schools must increase to accomplish this goal. A complex change process within the dental schools is required to prepare schools to enroll a more diverse student body. While each dental school in the United States is unique, a product of its history and institutional culture, and will, therefore, create an environment for diversity in different ways, it is appropriate to describe lessons learned in individual schools as they strive for diversity. The purpose of this paper is to describe how one dental school, the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, approached diversity, so that appropriate strategies can be shared among schools. (+info)
Self-reported mental illness in a dental school clinic population.
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The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of mental illness in a university-based dental clinic population. Dentists routinely review the patient's medical history to identify any physical disease or condition that may impact dental treatment. Mental illness may also affect dental treatment and patient management. This study examined the degree to which patients seeking routine dental care report these diagnoses. Data was gathered from records of 508 consecutive new patients whose treatment plans were submitted for faculty approval. The patient's self-reported mental illness was obtained from the patient questionnaire and physical evaluation forms of the dental record. One hundred thirty-six patients (26.77 percent) reported at least one mental illness. Of all diseases and disorders recorded in the medical history, self-reported depression was second only to hypertension in frequency. Substance abuse, anxiety, anorexia, bulimia, insomnia, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder were also common findings. This study establishes the need for training of dental students to recognize and manage psychologically compromised patients. The dental curriculum must address these issues. (+info)
Underserved region recruitment and return to practice: a thirty-year analysis.
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The purpose of this investigation was a retrospective analysis of a select group of graduates from the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry (UKCD) over a thirty-year history to determine how many of these individuals came from the Appalachian Region of Eastern Kentucky, which historically has been economically depressed and underserved by health care practitioners including dentists. This same group of dental school graduates was then tracked to see if they established dental practices in the Appalachian region of the state. Recruiting trends were investigated by reviewing student records regarding county of origin from targeted classes at UKCD in 1969, 1979, and 1989 to gain ten-year incremental, historical perspectives. To identify more recent trends, classes graduating in 1994 through 1999 were reviewed. Once identified, the databank of the Kentucky Board of Dentistry was used to determine if these individuals reported practicing in counties of Kentucky designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The findings of this study indicate an alarming decline both in numbers of students being recruited from this underserved area and a concomitant decline in those recruits returning to ARC-designated counties in the state. This study establishes the need for persistent diligence in recruitment of students from underserved areas and challenges dental schools to create strategies that will encourage their graduates to establish practices in these regions. (+info)