Oral health care is the most prevalent unmet health care need among all U.S. children age 17 and under in the U.S., and this includes those with special health care needs (SHCN). Children with SHCN experience unique barriers to receiving oral care including challenging behaviors, inadequate insurance coverage, and a lack of trained dentists. Despite the need for specialized training to successfully provide dental care to children with SHCN, few dental programs offer the necessary educational preparation. The Nova Southeastern University College of Dentistry was funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration to prepare pediatric and Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) dental residents in the care of children, adolescents, and adults with SHCN. The purpose of this paper is to describe the didactic and clinical training program and to provide data on the program’s impact.

Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine (NSU-CDM) has developed a program to educate its Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residents to provide oral health services to survivors of domestic violence. NSU-CDM worked in collaboration with three community-based sites in Florida's Dade and Broward counties that provide residential and outpatient services to women survivors of domestic violence. The educational program includes didactic instruction and clinical rotations utilizing portable dental equipment assembled at the community-based sites. The central element of the program was the establishment of a partnership between NSU-CDM and local community-based organizations that serve women who have experienced domestic violence. This collaboration enabled the school to involve a range of key stakeholders in program development and implementation and to successfully establish dental clinics at two shelter sites. In total, NSU-CDM provided dental care to over 250 women, and twenty AEGD residents completed both the didactic and clinical rotations of the domestic violence education program. Elements identiied as being essential to successful collaborations between oral health clinics and shelter settings are described.

We studied changes in the affective and empathic responses of sixty-three dental school faculty, students, and staff to people with HIV/AIDS following an HIV/AIDS training session. Empathic response was measured using a modification of the Gallop Staff Patient Interaction Scale, with five statements to which the provider responded at baseline and three times during and after the training. Data were subjected to theme analysis and analysis of empathic level of response, where a theme is a central idea that can be identified by expressed language. Results indicated that themes of provider response included the role and importance of maintaining health, reassurance, comfort, and hope. Negative responses were rare, accounting for only 3 percent of responses. Following the training, themes were expressed more fully but usually did not change. Changes in level of empathy usually paralleled changes in themes. These data describe the measurement of empathy in dental providers dealing with people with HIV/AIDS and changes in the themes and levels of empathy following an HIV/AIDS training session.

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We conducted a focus group with eight surrogate teaching patients who participate in an HIV/AIDS training program for dentists and auxiliaries. With one exception, these surrogate patients were HIV‐seropositive, had taken part in eight training sessions over six months, and had been examined by about forty groups of trainees. Researchers inquired about how surrogate patients could tell if the trainees were afraid or comfortable, what negative experiences with trainees occurred or stood out, and what positive experiences were recalled or stood out. Theme analysis was used to interpret the results of the focus group. The main signifiers of clinician discomfort were related to physical distance, avoidance of physical contact, verbal interaction, and what we call “dentist interaction.” The results suggest that training of dentists and other dental personnel to interact with patients with HIV/AIDS should attend to reduction of patients' psychological distress as well as management of any physical discomfort. The feedback from surrogate patients with HIV disease who have experienced a large number of dental examinations is a valuable tool for providing feedback to, and insight into, the factors that cause psychological discomfort to patients with HIV disease.