Journal of dental education
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The Office of Professional Development at The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center Dental Branch was established in November 1996 in order to meet the professional development needs of the faculty, staff, and administration. Although other dental schools share similar needs, our research revealed no study to determine how dental schools managed their faculty development needs. Therefore, a preliminary survey to collect data about offices similar to ours was developed and sent to the deans of fifty-four U. ⋯ The respondents were asked to indicate 1) which entity within the school was primarily responsible for handling faculty development, and 2) which entity actually sponsored each of eighteen faculty development activities. With a response from thirty-three U. S. schools (61 percent) and six Canadian schools (60 percent), six administrative structures (models) for faculty development were identified: 1) Office of Academic Affairs, 2) Departmental Chair, 3) a Faculty Development Committee, 4) an Office of the Dean, 5) an Office of Faculty/Professional Development, and 6) Other Resources.
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The importance of promoting ethical behavior in dental students is reflected in the emphasis on formal ethics teaching within the curricula of most dental schools. Over the last three decades, dental educators have addressed the need for ethics training and examined varied teaching approaches. ⋯ This paper provides an overview of trends in ethics teaching in dental schools and the current teaching approaches advocated in health science schools. In addition, future needs in dental ethics education are explored including the importance of addressing the unique aspects of the dental education environment.
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Allied dental healthcare providers have been an integral part of the dental team since the turn of the 19th century. Like dental education, allied dental education's history includes a transition from apprenticeships and proprietary school settings to dental schools and community and technical colleges. There are currently 258 dental assisting programs, 255 dental hygiene programs, and 28 dental laboratory technology programs according to the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation. ⋯ The allied dental workforce may also be called upon for innovative approaches to improve access to oral health care and reduce oral health care disparities. In addition, allied dental education programs may face challenges in recruiting faculty with the desired academic credentials. ADEA is currently pursuing initiatives in these and other areas to address the current and emerging needs of allied dental education.
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The past decade has seen increasing demands for reform of dental education that would produce a graduate better equipped to work in the rapidly changing world of the twenty-first century. Among the most notable curriculum changes implemented in dental schools is a move toward Problem-Based Learning (PBL). PBL, in some form, has been a feature of medical education for several decades, but has only recently been introduced into dental schools. ⋯ The USC dental students working in the PBL curriculum have attained a high level of achievement on U. S. National Dental Boards (Part I) examinations, significantly superior to their peers working in a traditional lecture-based curriculum.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Tobacco cessation through dental office settings.
There is increasing interest in broadly inclusive public health interventions that involve low-cost, self-help materials and minimal support from professionals. Dental health care workers (DHCWs) are a largely untapped resource for providing advice and brief counseling to tobacco-using patients, and there are good reasons to believe that they can be effective in this role. The results of our randomized clinical trials have shown that a brief dental office-based intervention can be effective in helping smokeless tobacco users to quit and smokers to reduce their use and become more ready to quit. ⋯ Workshops were more effective than self-study in effecting behavior change, although our analyses indicate that self-study was more cost-efficient. These studies have demonstrated the viability of using dentists and dental hygienists to provide brief cessation advice and supportive materials in the context of regular oral health visits to encourage their patients to quit. The results of these studies also support the timeliness of further dissemination and diffusion of this program to practitioners, dental schools, and dental hygiene programs.