Trends of oral medicine education in US dental schools: A pilot survey

Abstract

Objectives. The needs and demands of oral medicine services in the United States have increased dramatically in the last few years.1Miller C.S. Hall E. Falace D. Jacobson J. Lederman D. Seguelman A. Need and demand for oral medicine services in 1996.Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 1997; 84: 630-634Google Scholar However, oral medicine has not yet been recognized by the American Dental Association as a specialty. The overall staffing approach taken to teach oral medicine varies according to each dental school. One of the difficulties for oral medicine to be recognized as a dental specialty is the lack of uniformity and homogeneity of course content across the different curricula. The purpose of this abstract is to present and analyze baseline information across US dental schools and identify implications and future directions related to the number of teaching faculty, open clinical positions, the administrative location of oral medicine and the topic areas being taught. Study design. This study included a survey sent to all of the 56 United States dental schools. Using the websites made available by each dental school, we located the individual e-mail of the chairman, director(s), and/or division chief of oral medicine. We then submitted 2 different form e-mails which contained the survey regarding trends in oral medicine. The e-mails were separated by 2 weeks to allow adequate response time. Responses were then gathered and analyzed. The survey included 10 questions:1.The number of faculty teaching Oral Medicine?2.Formal training in (Oral Medicine, GPR, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, General Dentist, Other)?3.Is your program a residency or fellowship?4.Are there any open positions in Oral Medicine in your department/division right now?5.Is the Oral Medicine area at your school a department, division or other?6.Board eligible or Board certified?7.What are the areas of focus in your Oral Medicine department/division?8.What are the areas/topics of Oral Medicine that are taught?9.Describe your institution and its location?10.Other information regarding your program you would care to share? Results. 56 e-mails were sent. Six e-mails returned to the sender with problems in the e-mail address. The overall response was 60% (30 responses). In 56% of the responders between 2 and 3 faculty are directly involved in teaching oral medicine. Fourteen percent reported no faculty teaching oral medicine. In 66.7% of the schools that answered the survey, 1-2 faculty are formally trained in oral medicine; 26% of the schools listed no one as formally trained in oral medicine. In 43% of the schools between 1 and 2 faculty have been trained in a GPR program. In 16% of the schools 1 oral surgeon is involved in teaching oral medicine. In 40% of the schools oral pathologists are responsible to teach oral medicine. Regarding topic areas that are covered (focus of oral medicine), in 41% the main component is the medically compromised patient, followed by oral lesions (37%), orofacial pain (17%) and pharmacology (3%). For the areas/topics of oral medicine that are taught, medically compromised patient occupied the majority of first-choice responses with a rate of 86.7%, followed by treatment and management of oral lesions and orofacial pain. Conclusions. The results of this survey indicate that the backgrounds of the faculty teaching oral medicine in US dental schools are mixed, and the backgrounds of the faculty are not necessarily only in oral medicine. From an administrative view, it is important to note that in some schools it is difficult to find specifically how oral medicine is integrated into the dental curriculum. This small pilot survey suggested that more studies are necessary to discover and define the actual status of the faculty trends and teaching of oral medicine in US dental schools. Further studies are also needed to include and compare data from different countries regarding the status of oral medicine.