Standards In Dental Education Research Articles

Professional standards in dental education.

The importance of quality-assured teaching development is recognised within the new 'Graduating European Dentist' curriculum. In addition, educators within higher education are now increasingly required to demonstrate good standing in terms of education and educating their profession. Standards and expectations exist within the discipline of medicine, but there is little in the way of a general professional standards document for dental education that accounts for the multitude of training and teaching development pathways available to the wider dental team. As such, this paper aims to examine models from established professional development frameworks that may be applied to standards for dental education, highlight important considerations for the development of standards for professional dental educational team development, and provide guidance for individuals wishing to plan, record, map and reflect on their professional educational development.

Perceptions on faculty development among dental faculty in Andhra Pradesh

Introduction: Development of the teaching skills by the faculty has become a critical component of health professionals' education. Faculty development is an important tool for improving educational standards. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the perceptions on faculty development among dental faculty members in Andhra Pradesh. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted during the months of August and September 2015 in five randomly selected dental institutions of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, Andhra Pradesh. Semi-structured, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to faculty members who were present on the day of survey and collected personally. Chi-square test was used to analyze the categorical data using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 130 respondents returned duly filled forms. Mean age of the respondents was 34.7 ± 6.53 years. Nearly 80% of the respondents never attended any faculty development program. Preponderance of the respondents reported a lack of any established faculty development program in their respective institutions. Half of the respondents reported that they had not received any support from their institutions for improving their teaching skills. The most frequently reported barrier for faculty development was a lack of initiation from authorities followed by excessive clinical and teaching load. Majority of the respondents felt that faculty development programs can improve standards of dental education and quality of dental care. Ninety-three percent of the faculty members were interested in attending faculty development programs. Conclusion: It is time for the institutions and authorities to initiate reforms to remove the barriers and provide institutional support for faculty development programs.

The contributions of Dr. Gies: Promoting standards of dental education, research

Dr. Ranney provides a commentary about two 1924 articles published in The Journal of the American Dental Association by Dr. William John Gies that highlight his many contributions to dental education.

The Contributions of Dr. Gies: Promoting standards of dental education, research

Dr. Ranney provides a commentary about two 1924 articles published in The Journal of the American Dental Association by Dr. William John Gies that highlight his many contributions to dental education.

Scandinavian Fellowship for Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine: guidelines for oral pathology and oral medicine in the dental curriculum

In Scandinavia, as in many European countries, most patients consult their general dentist once a year or more. This gives the dentist a unique opportunity and an obligation to make an early diagnosis of oral diseases, which is beneficial for both the patient and the society. Thus, the dentist must have knowledge of clinical symptoms, local and systemic signs and clinical differential diagnoses to make an accurate diagnosis. The dentist must be competent in selecting appropriate diagnostic tests, for example, tissue biopsy and microbiological samples, and conducting them correctly, as well as in interpreting test results and taking appropriate action accordingly. Furthermore, the dentist must be aware of diseases demanding multidisciplinary cooperation and be able to recognise his/her professional limitation, and to refer to other specialists when required. The dental curriculum changes over time as new approaches, treatments and diagnostic possibilities develop. Likewise, the role of the dentist in the community changes and may vary in different countries. As members of the Scandinavian Fellowship for Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine and subject representatives of oral pathology and oral medicine, we feel obliged to contribute to the discussion of how the guidelines of the dental curriculum support the highest possible standards of dental education. This article is meant to delineate a reasonable standard of oral pathology and oral medicine in the European dental curriculum and to guide subject representatives in curriculum development and planning. We have created an advisory topic list in oral pathology and oral medicine.

Dental Education in Europe

Dental Education in Europe

Address by Mrs Mary McAleese, President of Ireland

Address by Mrs Mary McAleese, President of Ireland

Global Congress on Dental Education and launch of a Global Network

Dublin Castle served as the global knowledge centre on dental education from 6 to 8 September 2007. At that meeting, 330 delegates from 66 countries from all continents came together for the Global Congress on Dental Education. The Global Congress was held under the joint auspices of the International Federation of Dental Educators and Associations (IFDEA), DentEd III (the European Union Thematic Network on Dental Education), the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), and the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE). The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, addressed delegates on Saturday 8 September when she officially launched the ‘Global Network on Dental Education’, a web-based resource designed by IFDEA to help share knowledge and facilitate a better understanding of issues of diversity and inequality in oral health care and education throughout the global dental education community; with special reference to schools in middle- and low-income countries. Senior academics from China, Africa, South America and India committed themselves to the inauguration of constituent organizations on their continents similar to those in Europe and North America. There were four keynote addresses. These were delivered by Dr Mary Robinson, Chancellor, University of Dublin Trinity College; Chairperson, ‘Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative’; a former President of Ireland and formerly the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who spoke on ‘Health as a human right: implications for the dental profession’. Sir Iain Chalmers, Editor, James Lind Library Oxford and a founder member of the Cochrane Collaboration delivered an address on ‘Human rights and professional responsibilities in health care and education’. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, New York Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke on ‘The end of poverty: economic possibilities for our time’ via a video link. Dr David Wong, Associate Dean for Research University of California, Los Angeles, Director, Dental Research Institute, UCLA, Chair, Division of Oral Medicine & Biology, UCLA spoke on ‘Salivary diagnostics: enhancing disease detection and making medicine better’. This unique Congress was the culmination of 3 years preparatory work by 14 working groups. Each group had prepared their reports through an interactive website and these were finalized in Dublin. There was a dynamic series of working group exchanges, where findings and recommendations were debated between working groups. Each group comprised 30 individuals from countries around the globe. The 14 working groups covered the following: Inequalities in access to education and health care. Adapting to changes in molecular biosciences and technologies. Evidence-based care and the curriculum. Exploring opportunities for collaboration between the corporate sector and the dental education community. Curriculum structure: principles and strategy. Potential of information technology in dental education. Quality assurance, benchmarking, assessment and mutual international recognition of qualifications. Profile of the dentist in countries with developed economies. Profile of the oral healthcare team in countries with developing economies. The academic environment: the students’ perspective. Leadership, governance and management in dental education – new societal challenges. Staff recruitment, development and global mobility. Balancing the role of the dental school in teaching, research and patient care including care for underserved areas. The Global Network on Dental Education – a new vision for IFDEA. The Congress was an unqualified success and opened new avenues for collaboration and convergence towards higher standards in dental education with increasing emphasis on the broader aspects of global health and equity in access to care and education. This special issue of the ADEE’s European Journal for Dental Education and ADEA’s Journal of Dental Education carry a full report of the Working Group findings as well as the keynote addresses. Once published in February 2008, Blackwell Munksgaard will provide open access to the electronic version of the publication so that it is available to all educators and students of dentistry and stomatology throughout the world.

Quality assurance and benchmarking: an approach for European dental schools

This document was written by Task Force 3 of DentEd III, which is a European Union funded Thematic Network working under the auspices of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE). It provides a guide to assist in the harmonisation of Dental Education Quality Assurance (QA) systems across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). There is reference to the work, thus far, of DentEd, DentEd Evolves, DentEd III and the ADEE as they strive to assist the convergence of standards in dental education; obviously QA and benchmarking has an important part to play in the European HE response to the Bologna Process. Definitions of Quality, Quality Assurance, Quality Management and Quality Improvement are given and put into the context of dental education. The possible process and framework for Quality Assurance are outlined and some basic guidelines/recommendations suggested. It is recognised that Quality Assurance in Dental Schools has to co-exist as part of established Quality Assurance systems within faculties and universities, and that Schools also may have to comply with existing local or national systems. Perhaps of greatest importance are the 14 'requirements' for the Quality Assurance of Dental Education in Europe. These, together with the document and its appendices, were unanimously supported by the ADEE at its General Assembly in 2006. As there must be more than one road to achieve a convergence or harmonisation standard, a number of appendices are made available on the ADEE website. These provide a series of 'toolkits' from which schools can 'pick and choose' to assist them in developing QA systems appropriate to their own environment. Validated contributions and examples continue to be most welcome from all members of the European dental community for inclusion at this website. It is realised that not all schools will be able to achieve all of these requirements immediately, by definition, successful harmonisation is a process that will take time. At the end of the DentEd III project, ADEE will continue to support the progress of all schools in Europe towards these aims.

2.3 Towards global convergence of education, training, quality, outcome and assessment.

The purpose of this section's report is to propose strategies which will help those committed to promoting and implementing higher standards in dental education. There is a wide variety of systems throughout the world. These systems are developed, governed, operated and applied differently. Their standards, whether they are controlled by governments (federal and/or state), councils, universities or professional organizations are frequently determined cooperatively with dental educators, so that there is often some agreement among interested constituencies as to the content and application of the standards. These standards, whether they be called 'accreditation standards"requirements' or 'guidelines' (formal or informal), or written as laws or statutes reflect a region's history, traditions, culture and socio-economic realities. The emphasis in this report will be on the development of an organic or growing electronic database containing worldwide information relating to standards in dental education. This database might contain or be linked with similar sources detailing, inter alia, best practices, innovations and core values as they relate to the convergence of standards in education, professional training, continuous quality analysis, assessment and outcome. The linking of such a database to others containing electronic curricular modules, clinical management and practice information needs to be further developed.

2.2 Continuous quality improvement.

Continuous quality improvement (CQI) can be envisaged as a circular process of goal-setting, followed by external and internal evaluations resulting in improvements that can serve as goals for a next cycle. The need for CQI is apparent, because of public accountability, maintaining European standards and the improvement of dental education. Many examples are known where recommendations from both external and internal evaluation are used for the improvement of dental education. Unfortunately, the implementation of the recommendations is inconsistent, rarely systematic and usually not transparent. This section agreed that it is essential to apply CQI in a structured, systematic and transparent way if we are to improve and maintain the quality of dental education. A model is proposed which includes three aspects: a) the process of CQI; b) the subjects to which CQI should be applied; and c) the management tools to govern CQI. It is stressed, that CQI is a process that can be applied in any dental school irrespective of curriculum or educational approach within the relevant context of the country or the region. The approach needs to recognize the complexity and the need to balance a quality improvement with accountability. A CQI system is also constrained in any organization by the attitudes and values of the staff. Inevitably there has to be a wide range in the application of CQI. Nevertheless, an agreed model on CQI might enhance convergence towards higher standards of dental education. The process of CQI can be supported by developments in information and communication technology (ICT): collection of data, identifying the steps in CQI, formats of reports, etc. The section was set, as one of its tasks, to advise on the development of a network based on a number of case studies on the application of CQI in dental education.

European convergence towards higher standards in dental education: the DentEd Thematic Network Project.

This paper describes a Thematic Network Project (TNP) funded by the European Union's Directorate for Education and Culture. It focused on convergence towards higher standards in dental education in the European Union and included those 'Associate Countries' seeking membership of an expanding EU. The DentEd Project sought to use peer influence in promoting convergence towards higher standards in European dental education and training. There is evidence of serious differences in standards despite the European Union's Dental Directives and the series of guidelines and recommendations of their Advisory Committee on the Training of Dental Practitioners. The DentEd TNP sought to improve communication, better understanding of different systems and to pool intellectual resources. A central objective of the network was to promote outcome analysis and the implementation of evidence-based treatments. DentEd sought to identify and disseminate innovations and best practices in European dental schools and stomatological institutions. This was achieved by instigating 30 self-assessments of dental schools throughout Europe. Self-assessment was followed by a visit from a team of international peers. Each assessment comprised 19 sections and was placed on the DentEd web site (www.dented.org) after it was jointly approved by the visitors and host school. The 30 self-assessment reports together with the visitors comments and recommendations were then divided into their component sections and analysed. Responsibility for each section was allocated to one of 19 different international working groups of between 8 and 12 people. Preliminary analyses from these working groups were presented and debated on the DentEd interactive web site. They finalised their findings in the DentEd Report at a Plenary meeting in the Nobel Forum in the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The meeting was organised in such a way that each working group finalised their report. This was followed by the rotation of the working groups to listen and respond to the presentation of another group on the basis of a series interactive meetings. At the end of the meeting the original groups reassembled and revised their analysis on the basis of the additional input from the other 200 individuals involved and then finalised their group's report on the web site. These reports are available on the web site and were also published in hard copy.1 The three-year DentEd Project achieved its stated objectives. The DentEd Thematic Network Project employed a process of schools visits, plenary meetings and the use of an interactive web site to help reach consensus on innovations, best practices and significant divergence in standards in dental education in Europe. This process has proven an effective method of improving communication and of increasing the understanding of diversity in a wide range of educational methods. It also emphasised the importance of continuing quality improvement and outcome analysis of the clinical competence of graduates from European dental schools. It is important to emphasise that schools visited are likely to reflect those with an open and flexible attitude to educational reform and development and perhaps they were not representative of those schools that would benefit most from a self-assessment followed by peer review. On completion of the DentEd Thematic Network Project (TNP) the European Union's Directorate for Education and Culture approved a new three-year DentEdEvolves TNP and the consortium has recently submitted a major proposal in the EU's eLearning initiative on the basis of the success of this collaboration. This has extended to include 75% of dental schools from North America and plans for extension to South-east Asia will bring a major meeting to Singapore in April 2002.

Forecast of Dental Service Needs in the South

TO ERASE the difference between the ideal and the merely adequate in dental care, is one of the greatest challenges in public, healtl today. But since the ideal must wait upon the practical, we are concerned with the more realistic goal of providing the dentists the South will lneed to meet the actual demand foir dental care. This is not easy to do. St,ate and regional boundaries are much more clearly defined on a m.ap than they are in public health plannin,g. The, problem which the South faces in providing fo,r the future, dental health of its citizens is neither unique nor isolated. The dental manpower problem in Arizona. is not, only similar t,o that, in Alabama, but the manner in wllicl Arizona solves it will affect Alabama's answer too. A national shortage of dentists has developed-a shortage a,lready limiting the amount of care which people who want it cani get. This shortage dates from the early 1920's, when improved standards of dental education resulted in the closing of substandard schools, and caused a sharp cut in enrollment. During the depression of the, thirties, a further reduction occurred. By the time World War II began, there were fewer dentis,ts than there were prior to 1930, only about half as many students were attending dental school as in the midtwenties, and not enough new dentists were being produced to replace older dentists who had died or retired. When large numbers oif dentists enitered the service, the shortage was further aggravated.