Journal of dental education
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Comparative Study
Communication Skills in Dental Students: New Data Regarding Retention and Generalization of Training Effects.
Previous studies have shown that a communications program using patient instructors (PIs) facilitates data-gathering and interpersonal skills of third-year dental students. The aim of this study was to address the question of whether those skills are retained into the students' fourth year and generalized from the classroom to the clinic. In the formative training phase, three cohorts of D3 students (N=1,038) at one dental school received instruction regarding effective patient-doctor communication; interviewed three PIs and received PI feedback; and participated in a reflective seminar with a behavioral science instructor. ⋯ Based on changes in the communications curriculum, prior instruction facilitated the students' clinical communication performance at baseline (p<0.05). This study suggests that the current Clinical Communications program improved students' data-gathering and interpersonal skills. Those skills were maintained and generalized through completion of the D4 students' summative competency performance in a clinical setting.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of a tiered predoctoral pediatric dentistry clinical education model to competency achievement by dental students over a two-year clinical education. Retrospective data were obtained for academic years 2012-13 and 2013-14 from three sources: a campus-based, dental school-housed clinic; division-directed clinics in community-based pediatric and special needs clinics (DDC); and clinics affiliated with the dental college's community-based dental education (CBDE) program, the OHIO Project (OP). A fourth dataset was obtained for the same two-year period from a biannual clinic event held at the college in conjunction with Give Kids a Smile Day (GKAS). ⋯ Numbers of diagnostic and preventive procedures were 19,441, restorative procedures were 13,958, and pulp and surgical procedures were 7,392. Site contribution ranged from 52.2 to 144.9 procedures per attending student, with the DDC yielding the highest per student average for each year (126.4 and 144.9) and the dental school clinic the lowest (52.2 and 53.1). This study found that a combination of school-based, community-based, and philanthropic pediatric dental experiences offered a large number of essential pediatric dentistry experiences for predoctoral dental students, with CBDE opportunities offering the largest contribution.
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The aims of this study were to assess dental students' perceptions of their preparedness for providing treatment for tobacco dependence and to determine if their training resulted in successful practice in the dental school clinic. Since the tobacco dependence treatment program began at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry, all third- and fourth-year dental students have been required to complete an online survey about their attitudes and experience with tobacco dependence treatment. This descriptive study and retrospective analysis utilized these survey data from the initiation of the program in fall 2002 through 2010 (615 third-year and 590 fourth-year students, for a total of 1,205, all of whom participated in the surveys). ⋯ S. tobacco users that general studies have found are interested in quitting. These students' perception of such low patient interest reflects a misconception they may have about their own preparedness, and it suggests a barrier exists for them in providing effective tobacco dependence treatment services. This perception signals a need for curriculum and assessment changes to increase the effectiveness of this school's tobacco dependence treatment program.
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In 2003, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for interprofessional education (IPE) to be adopted by the health professions education community as the pedagogical approach to educating future practitioners for practice in multidisciplinary teams. In dentistry, this call built on points made in the key 1995 IOM report Dental Education at the Crossroads. Currently, IPE and collaborative practice are among the most significant changes to health care education and delivery in the 21st century. ⋯ Interprofessional core competencies occupy four of the top five content areas of IPE programming, providing a framework for schools to implement IPE activities. However, finding the bandwidth within the dental curriculum to accommodate IPE competencies, identifying adequate time in the schedule, providing faculty training, and assessing IPE activities were the most frequently reported challenges. The results of this survey lead to recommendations for academic dental institutions moving through this transitional phase in adopting IPE.
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Comparative Study
Utilizing self-assessment software to evaluate student wax-ups in dental morphology.
Traditionally, evaluating student work in preclinical courses has relied on the judgment of experienced clinicians utilizing visual inspection. However, research has shown significant disagreement between different evaluators (interrater reliability) and between results from the same evaluator at different times (intrarater reliability). This study evaluated a new experimental software (E4D Compare) to compare 66 student-produced tooth wax-ups at one U. ⋯ The investigators hypothesized that the software would provide more consistent feedback than visual grading and that a tolerance value could be determined that closely correlated with the faculty grade. The results showed that a tolerance level of 450 μm provided 96% agreement of grades compared with only 53% agreement for faculty. The results suggest that this software could be used by faculty members as a mechanism to evaluate student work and for students to use as a self-assessment tool.