Abstract
The increasing size of the elderly population in Spain underlines the need for the dental profession to pay particular attention to the oral health needs of older patients. The aim of this study was to perform a preliminary assessment of the Geriatric Dentistry education programs in Spanish dental schools and highlight the models being employed for the geriatric training programs in these schools. The assessment was designed to be a cross-sectional study, which involved all the dental schools (n = 19) in Spain. Using a simple, 12-item questionnaire, information regarding the geriatric dental education programs in the schools was collected from their official websites by researchers from the University of Seville. In the first instance, the information was collected from the dental schools' websites and included the history, frequency and characteristics of the geriatric dental program. The deans or their deputies from those schools with a geriatric dental education programme were then asked to validate the data obtained from the websites. Only eight (42%) of schools offered a specific geriatric dentistry course. Seven of these schools were public and only one was private. The other 11 Spanish dental schools (five public and six private) did not offer a specific geriatric dentistry course. Seven out of the eight schools taught the course using a didactic teaching method and none of these seven included a clinical component in the program. No school had a specific geriatric dentistry clinic within the school, neither did they run geriatric clinics at remote locations or operate mobile dental clinics for geriatric patients. This study has described the current provision of dental undergraduate education in geriatric dentistry in Spain. The results suggest that there is a need to develop the curriculum content, design, implementation and evaluation of geriatric dentistry programs. Research should also focus on assessing the access to and improvement in the oral care of the elderly population.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, the world has experienced a gradual increase in the percentage of people aged 65 years and over
Data obtained from the various school websites revealed that only 8 (42%) of Spanish dental schools offered a specific geriatric dentistry course (Table 1)
The other eleven dental schools did not have undergraduate geriatric education, but in some schools prosthodontics or medical pathology departments were responsible for teaching undergraduates geriatric dentistry
Summary
Over the past few decades, the world has experienced a gradual increase in the percentage of people aged 65 years and over. As of 1 January 2011, the National Institute of Statistics in Spain put the elderly population at 7.8 million (16.6%) out of a total population of 47.1 million people. This is a significant increase from the 10.6% recorded in 1975 (NISS, 2011). Projecting forward, the United Nations Population division predicts that by the year 2050, the elderly population in Spain will be 35.7% of the total population, meaning that one out of every three Spaniards will be aged 65 or over This would be the highest percentage in Europe (Population Division, 2001)
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