Prosection based gross anatomy lab for dental students

Abstract

While developing a new dental specific gross anatomy lab curriculum at the U. of Utah, we were faced with the task of determining how best to use the cadaver lab for teaching first year dental students. Relative to the existing anatomy course for medical students, two problems emerged. First, the critical tissues for dental students, the head and neck, are among the most complex and difficult to dissect. For novice dissectors it is very difficult to do a quality dissection and preserve the structures of interest. Second, with only two hours each week, the time allotted for lab was not sufficient to create head and neck dissections, even for very skilled dissectors. To address these two issues, a prosection based lab curriculum was instituted. By using prosections that were prepared in advance by experienced dissectors, and forgoing traditional student dissection, we aimed to present detailed anatomy clearly and in an efficient manner. As the students arrived to lab they were divided into small groups and paired with an instructor to learn a specific set of objectives. Over the course of the lab, students would rotate through the stations, each of which had a prosection prepared to teach a specific set of anatomical structures. Where appropriate, non‐cadaver based activities were used to supplement and help integrate concepts and overriding principles. Students were also given access to the lab outside of scheduled lab teaching time so that they could come in and study using the prosections on their own. Critically, these high quality prosections have made it possible to teach students very detailed anatomy in a relatively short period of time. The prosections have also allowed the students to see structures and relationships that are often destroyed in a traditional lab setting where students do the dissections. Initial results have been encouraging. Student feedback has been positive, and scores on practical exams suggest students are learning the material. Our future plans include creation of a greater number of prosections to allow material to be taught both systemically and regionally, as well as a 4th year elective dissection course for senior dental students who wish to gain the skills that would come from the more traditional dissection experience.