Approaching patient care from a holistic perspective, incorporating not only the patient's medical and dental history but also psychosocial history, improves patient outcomes. Practitioners should be trained to provide this style of care through inclusive education, including training working on interprofessional teams. A component of this education must incorporate social determinants of health into the treatment plan. Social determinants of health include income, race/ethnicity, education level, work opportunities, living conditions, and access to health care. Education regarding social determinants of health should be woven throughout dental curricula, including hands-on application opportunities. This education must extend to patient care situations rather than be limited to didactic settings. This article explains the need to incorporate social determinants of health into dental education and illustrates how social determinants education is being addressed in two U.S. dental schools' curricula, including how to weave social determinants of health into interprofessional education. These descriptions may serve as a model for curricular innovation and faculty development across the dental education community.

The dental radiograph is a diagnostic tool that is used to view internal structures without any invasive procedures. A difference radiograph, i.e. one showing the changes that occurred over time, is the best tool for diagnosing slow or small changes. The difficulty in creating a meaningful difference radiograph, or its digital image, is that the imaging geometry of the image pair must be identical. This paper addresses the problem of reproducing imaging geometry. A new technique for registering digital images of radiographs based on the correspondence of 3D anatomical structures (such as root apices and the cemento-enamel junction) was compared with a registration method using occlusal stents. In a pilot study of 30 volunteers, difference images were created by three different registration techniques (no registration, mathematical methods and occlusal stents). The standard deviations of the difference images were used to compare the registration techniques. The results show that this new mathematical technique applied to digital images of radiographs can be used to establish correspondence between pairs of clinical images taken at different projection angles and to produce reconstructed images comparable with images taken with occlusal stents.

Dental faculty recruitment and development are critical to replenish and cultivate sufficient and adequately prepared educators to educate future generations of dentists. At Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, the From Practice to Preceptor (FP2P) program, now in the last of its five years of funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has an overall aim of recruiting, training, and retaining a diverse and well-prepared dental faculty workforce. The FP2P program introduced novel methods for recruiting and preparing new faculty members since its goal is to help participants transition from being practicing dentists to becoming part- or full-time faculty members. The recruitment and selection process has emphasized reaching community practitioners in general or pediatric dentistry, individuals from underrepresented groups, and those with a passion for teaching. The two-year program with weekly meetings was designed to develop participants' skills to meet the teaching, clinical, and administrative roles of dental faculty. The aims of this study were to determine if the program recruitment methods used would result in participants who were more ethnically and racially diverse than the school's current faculty and to determine if, after training, participants perceived they had increased knowledge, skills, and abilities in specified areas as compared to before training. Participants completed pre- and post-program surveys assessing their perceived level of preparedness in critical competencies for dental faculty. Surveys were completed by 94% of participants in cohorts one through four; 75% (n=15) of cohorts two and three completed both the pre- and post-program surveys, which were used for this analysis. Over 30% of the 35 participants to date were from an underrepresented group. Survey results suggest the participants increased their perceived preparedness in administrative, clinical, and educational competencies. Follow-up is needed to ascertain how many go on to become dental educators and whether they are better prepared to succeed as new faculty compared to nonparticipants.

This article seeks to outline the implementation of a longitudinal interprofessional education (IPE) program in the predoctoral curriculum at a U.S. dental school. The challenges of implementing the curriculum in a complex environment are reviewed, and an overview of the 4‐year curriculum is offered, including exposure, immersion, and clinical readiness components. Results of developmental evaluations are reviewed. Respondents to surveys regarding the capstone case conference experiences overwhelmingly suggest the conferences were educationally rewarding as well as enriching for each of the health professions represented. While response was limited, alumni surveys also indicate satisfaction with the IPE experience. A discussion of challenges and suggestions regarding successful implementation and expansion of IPE programs from didactic to clinical settings are also included.

Introduction: A grant-funded faculty development program, From Practice to Preceptor (FP2P), sought to recruit and train diverse general and pediatric dentists to become dental faculty from 2012-2018. This study is an evaluation of this completed initiative and offers an initial review of long-term outcomes of the program. Methods: Over 5 entering cohorts, 133 practitioners applied to the program and 45 were accepted. A 2-year training program used classroom and hands-on training to prepare practitioners for the occupational demands of academia. Program participants were offered pre-and post-surveys to evaluate their perceived preparedness in faculty competencies identified by the program. Participants were also sent an alumni survey, and employment was tracked by the host institution. Results: Most (43 of 45) participants completed the program. Pre-and postsurvey results were received from 24 of 30 (80%) participants in Cohorts 2, 3, and 5, and used for this analysis. The results suggest the program participants' perception of their ability to work effectively as faculty members in administrative, teaching, and clinical arenas increased. Over half of the program completers obtained employment as dental faculty. A majority of (19/26, 73%) program completers who responded to the alumni survey indicated the skills and knowledge gained in the program were useful to their current employment. Conclusion: The FP2P program evaluation results indicate a long-term faculty training program may be a useful methodology for recruiting and training current dentists to work in academic dentistry. K E Y W O R D S academic careers, dental faculty, dental faculty development 1 BACKGROUND Preparation of the future dental workforce depends on the availability of a sufficient supply of dental educators. According to Formacola's 2017 review of trends regarding dental faculty, over a 10-year period ending in 2014, the predoctoral dental student population in the United States increased 20%, and the number of schools increased 16%. In this time, the full-time/part-time breakdown of faculty in both basic and clinical sciences remained relatively stable. However, the number of basic science faculty dropped by nearly half, and the number of full-time clinical faculty increased by only 3.8%. As a result, the average student to faculty ratio for full-time clinical faculty increased from 7.3:1 to 8.7:1. 1 While annual demand for faculty hiring varies slightly, the number of full-time faculty vacancies increased to 5.1% of budgeted full-time positions in 2015-2016, while the number of part-time vacancies decreased