An effective method of facilitating change in quality dental practice was identified. Assessment of strategies and techniques for professional development of dentists should include observation of patterns of participation.

The aim of this report is to provide guidance to assist in the international convergence of quality assurance, benchmarking and assessment systems to improve dental education. Proposals are developed for mutual recognition of qualifications, to aid international movement and exchange of staff and students including and supporting developing countries. Quality assurance is the responsibility of all staff involved in dental education and involves three levels: internal, institutional and external. Benchmarking information provides a subject framework. Benchmarks are useful for a variety of purposes including design and validation of programmes, examination and review; they can also strengthen the accreditation process undertaken by professional and statutory bodies. Benchmark information can be used by institutions as part of their programme approval process, to set degree standards. The standards should be developed by the dental academic community through formal groups of experts. Assessment outcomes of student learning are a measure of the quality of the learning programme. The goal of an effective assessment strategy should be that it provides the starting point for students to adopt a positive approach to effective and competent practice, reflective and lifelong learning. All assessment methods should be evidence based or based upon research. Mutual recognition of professional qualifications means that qualifications gained in one country (the home country) are recognized in another country (the host country). It empowers movement of skilled workers, which can help resolve skills shortages within participating countries. These proposals are not intended to be either exhaustive or prescriptive; they are purely for guidance and derived from the identification of what is perceived to be ‘best practice’.

There appears to have been little previous research interest in continuing professional development (CPD) of dentists and the oral health team. This paper presents data and information on the following aspects of CPD in 17 countries in Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America: availability of different types of CPD, its providers, data on uptake of CPD courses and activities, and funding of CPD. The results indicate that lectures and hands-on skills courses were held in all 17 countries but the use of the Internet to deliver CPD was by no means universal. CPD was funded from a variety of sources including universities, governments and commercial companies. However, the only universal source of funding for CPD was dentists themselves. Data on participation were available from only three countries. Research issues based on these results will be listed in a second paper.

We examined the psychophysical power functions describing the relation between subjective judgments and electric shock intensity in 30 subjects exposed to social modeling influence procedures. Models simulated different levels of discomfort and pain susceptibility, ostensibly in response to the same shocks the subjects were receiving. Subjects observing a tolerant model accepted substantially greater shocks and on several measures reported no greater discomfort than those exposed to an intolerant model. A control group paired with an inactive observer was intermediate to these groups. The scale unit of power functions derived from regressions on logs and the mean range-estimated power function exponent were significantly smaller for the tolerant model group than for the other two groups. Changes in psychophysical parameters as a result of social modeling influence were interpreted as providing quantitative information on the contributions of central processing systems to the experience of pain.