Dental Students

This article introduces a series of white papers developed by the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation (CCI) to explore the case for change in dental education. This preamble to the series argues that there is a compelling need for rethinking the approach to dental education in the United States. Three issues facing dental education are explored: 1) the challenging financial environment of higher education, making dental schools very expensive and tuition-intensive for universities to operate and producing high debt levels for students that limit access to education and restrict career choices; 2) the profession's apparent loss of vision for taking care of the oral health needs of all components of society and the resultant potential for marginalization of dentistry as a specialized health care service available only to the affluent; and 3) the nature of dental school education itself, which has been described as convoluted, expensive, and often deeply dissatisfying to its s...

As dental education across the United States undergoes growth and change in an effort to improve access to dental care, one dental school, the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health, established in 2003, designed its initial curriculum with innovation in mind. One of those innovations was the introduction of an online certificate in public health that can be used as the foundation for a Master's in Public Health (M.P.H.) degree with a dental emphasis, which students may complete concurrent with their dental education. This article discusses the educational intersection between dentistry and public health and describes how this dental school uses an online public health curriculum to accomplish this integration. It also presents the potential advantages and disadvantages of obtaining the M.P.H. degree concurrent with the dental school training.

Calibration in diagnosis and treatment planning is difficult to achieve due to variations that exist in clinical interpretation. To determine if dental faculty members are consistent in teaching how to diagnose and treat periodontal disease, variations among dental students can be evaluated. A previous study reported high variability in diagnoses and treatment plans of periodontal cases at Indiana University School of Dentistry. This study aimed to build on that one by extending the research to two additional schools: Marquette University School of Dentistry and West Virginia University School of Dentistry. Diagnosis and treatment planning by 40 third- and fourth-year dental students were assessed at each of the schools. Students were asked to select the diagnosis and treatment plans on a questionnaire pertaining to 11 cases. Their responses were compared using chi-square tests, and multirater kappa statistics were used to assess agreement between classes and between schools. Logist...

Access to oral health care for vulnerable populations is one of the concerns addressed by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau's Community-Based Dental Partnership Program (CBDPP). The program introduces dental students and residents at several dental schools to care for vulnerable patients through didactic and clinical work in community-based dental settings. This study of the dental students and residents in this program answered three questions: 1) What are their HIV knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors? 2) How has participation in the CBDPP impacted their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors? 3) Has the intervention affected their work placement decisions and attitudes after graduation, particularly with respect to treating people living with HIV and other underserved populations? A total of 305 first- through fourth-year dental students and first- and second-year residents at five dental schools across the United States completed surveys befor...

Aim: This survey was designed to first – collect information on the oral self‑care practices and self‑assessment of their dental condition among the dental students and second, to provide a recommendation (if required) to improve their oral health behavior.
Materials and Methods: The study design was a cross‑sectional survey using a self‑administered, structured, and close‑ended 25‑item questionnaire. Ninety‑five students completed the study. For the purpose of analysis, the data were divided into four groups according to their year of study. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages was calculated and the comparison between the groups was done using Chi‑square test.
Results: About 100% reported to have used the toothbrush and fluoridated toothpaste. 69.47% practiced toothbrushing twice daily, 64.21% preferred to use medium bristle toothbrush, 52.63% reported to have changed the toothbrush after 3 months; 30.52% stored the toothbrush in the toothbrush stand kept on the wash basin; About 50.52% reported to use the vertical method of toothbrushing; 49.47% brushed for more than 1 min duration; only, 14.73% used mouthwash regularly. Nearly 58.94% visited the dentist for dental problems and 37.89% as a part of routine check‑up. Sixty per cent reported to have a good overall dental health. Overall, intergroup comparison showed statistically significant difference with regards to toothbrush storage, toothbrushing technique, decision to buy the toothbrush, rating the cleanliness of the mouth and visit to the dentist.
Conclusion: The oral self‑care practices followed by the dental students are not up to the mark. They require training and motivation to self‑implement the preventive dentistry measure that they study at the dental school.

This study assessed the impact of a course on communication skills for third-year undergraduate dental students at a dental institute in India. A randomized pretest, posttest controlled trial was conducted with all the students from four cohorts of third-year dental undergraduate students, divided into an intervention group (n=30) and a control group (n=30). The course was developed using Kern's six-step approach to curriculum development. Needs assessment was ascertained, and readings, lectures, and role-plays with real and simulated patients were implemented. Encounters of students during two patient interviews (simulated and real) were rated by two raters using a twenty-seven-item dental consultation communication checklist with a rating scale 0 to 3. Students completed a questionnaire regarding their acceptance of the course. A 2×2 (group × time) ANOVA with group as a between-subjects factor (control vs. experimental) and time as a within-subjects factor (pre vs. post) was p...

''La endodoncia, uno de los procedimientos más optados hoy en día, odontólogo ya que salva la pieza dental afectada manteniéndola en boca, eliminando el dolor y manteniendo su funcionalidad; ha sido un gran aporte a la odontología moderna. Pero está a veces presenta complicaciones en la estética ya que luego de una endodoncia se puede crea una decoloración en el diente, y si está localizada en el sector anterior se vuelve prioridad para nuestro paciente debido a que esto tendrá repercusiones tanto psicológicas como sociales para el paciente, a la hora de realizar sus actividades diarias.
Como solución a este problema la realización de un blanqueamiento dental, o en nuestro caso blanqueamiento de un diente no vital, es un tratamiento viable para solucionar esta problemática de manera conservadora...''

Burnout has been traditionally defined in relation to the dimensions of "exhaustion", "cynicism", and "inefficiency". More recently, the Burnout Clinical Subtype Questionnaire (BCSQ-12) further established three different subtypes of burnout: the "frenetic" subtype (related to "overload"), the "under-challenged" subtype (related to "lack of development"), and the "worn-out" subtype (related to "neglect"). However, to date, these definitions have not been applied to students. The aims of this research were (1) to adapt a Spanish version of the BCSQ-12 for use with students, (2) to test its factorial validity, internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity, and (3) to assess potential socio-demographic and occupational risk factors associated with the development of the subtypes.
We used a cross-sectional design on a sample of dental students (n = 314) from Santiago and Huesca universities (Spain). Participants completed the Burnout Clinical Subtype Questionnaire Student Survey (BCSQ-12-SS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory Student Survey (MBI-SS), and a series of socio-demographic and occupational questions formulated for the specific purpose of this study. Data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using the principal component method with varimax orthogonal rotation. To assess the relations with the criterion, we calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient (r), multiple correlation coefficient (R(y.123)), and the coefficient of determination (R(2)(y.123)). To assess the association between the subtypes and the socio-demographic variables, we examined the adjusted odds ratio (OR) obtained from multivariate logistic regression models.
Factorial analyses supported the theoretical proposition of the BCSQ-12-SS, with α-values exceeding 0.80 for all dimensions. The "overload-exhaustion" relation was r = 0.59 (p < 0.001), "lack of development"-"cynicism", r = 0.49 (p < 0.001), "neglect"-"inefficiency", r = 0.47 (p < 0.001). The "overload"-"lack of development" relation was r = 0.21 (p < 0.001), "overload"-"neglect", r = 0.20 (p < 0.001), and "lack of development"-"neglect", r = 0.38 (p < 0.001). The BCSQ-12-SS explained 38.44% of the variability in "exhaustion", (R(y.123) = 0.62), 30.25% in "cynicism" (R(y.123) = 0.55), and 26.01% in "inefficiency" (R(y.123) = 0.51). "Hours spent on studying" was found to be associated with "overload" (p = 0.001), "campus" with "lack of development" (p = 0.013), and "failed subjects" with "neglect" (p = 0.011).
The results support the definition of burnout as established by the BCSQ-12-SS. As such, the BCSQ-12-SS can be used for the recognition of clinical profiles and for the suggestion of potential intervention strategies specific to the characteristics of each particular case.