Journal of dental education
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Education for the first professional degree in dentistry is intended to produce graduates capable of offering a wide range of high quality dental services to the general public. More than that, it is expected that graduates will be firmly grounded in the scientific basis for their professional practices and be equipped to evaluate critically and integrate selectively new scientific findings that emerge during their professional lifetimes. In addition, they are expected to be able to work effectively with diverse patient populations and to conduct their practices with a high level of sensitivity to the ethical and psychosocial dimensions of patient care. ⋯ Students will demonstrate their understanding of science concepts and methods by applying them to the solution of research and health care problems. Biomedical sciences will be taught at a level that will provide a comprehensive understanding of the functioning of the human body in health and disease, allow students to assimilate the coming revolution in molecular medicine, and selectively use new diagnostics, preventives, and therapeutics that evolve as molecular biological technologies yield solutions to current medical and dental problems. Using the biomedical sciences curriculum as a vehicle, we will also achieve the goal of training dentists as critical thinkers, problem solvers, lifelong learners, and ethical practitioners, skillful in peer and self-evaluation, and cognizant of the psychosocial as well as biomedical perspective of health and disease.
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Responding to the recent Institute of Medicine report on dental education, the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology (CCMB) of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry has developed a parallel track program in dental education leading to the D. D. S. degree. ⋯ Initial experience with this program suggests that the problem-based learning (PBL) students learn as well (if not better) than their traditional program peers and develop excellent group and cognitive analytical skills. The absence of a pool of dentally related biomedical cases suitable for a PBL program has necessitated the use of innovative approaches to their development and presentation. It is believed that this educational approach will produce dental clinicians equipped with the self-motivated, life-long learning skills required in the ever-changing world of bio-dental sciences in the twenty-first century.