Future Trends in Dental Education

Abstract

One cannot discuss the present status o f dentistry as a profession, or the arts and science of dentistry as it is practiced, without including the subject o f dental education. Also, one cannot predict the future status o f dentistry or the future trends in practice and in research with­ out giving consideration to the trends in dental education. Like all o f the professions in the health field, dentistry depends largely on edu­ cation and depends entirely for its per­ sonnel on the dental education programs. Although there are many factors that have an effect on the future o f any o f the professions, and a study o f these will help one to predict many o f the changes which will occur, it would seem that a study o f the trends in dental education and a study o f what the dental schools envision for the future is probably the best single index o f what the future holds for the dental practitioner. It should be pointed out that the im­ portance of dental education to the fu ­ ture o f the profession is not determined solely by the undergradate programs in dentistry existing today, or by those which have been the basis for training the m a­ jority o f dentists who are still in practice. I f the scope o f the profession were lim­ ited to the undergraduate programs that were in existence at the time the practi­ tioner obtained his professional training, we would find it definitely restricted,, be­ cause only about 46,000 practicing den­ tists, or about 53 per cent o f those now in practice, are graduates o f the present curriculum requiring a minimum o f two years o f predental college study and four years o f professional training. This means that the remaining 40,000 dentists ob ­ tained their basic study under shorter courses taken prior to 1935, which is only 22 years ago. However, the dental schools and other institutions, as well as both the local and state dental societies, have done a great deal in the way o f providing continuing educational experience de­ signed to permit the dentist to avail him­ self o f new information and to make it possible for him to employ the currently taught methods and technics in his prac­ tice.