Advanced Predoctoral Implant Program at UIC: Description and Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Dental implant education has increasingly become an integral part of predoctoral dental curricula. However, the majority of implant education emphasizes the restorative aspect as opposed to the surgical. The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry has developed an Advanced Predoctoral Implant Program (APIP) that provides a select group of students the opportunity to place implants for single-tooth restorations and mandibular overdentures. This article describes the rationale, logistics, experiences, and perspectives of an innovative approach to provide additional learning experiences in the care of patients with partial and complete edentulism using implant-supported therapies. Student and faculty perspectives on the APIP were ascertained via focus group discussions and a student survey. The qualitative analysis of this study suggests that the select predoctoral dental students highly beneited from this experience and intend to increase their knowledge and skills in implant dentistry through formal education following graduation. Furthermore, the survey indicates that the APIP has had a positive inluence on the students' interest in surgically placing implants in their future dental practice and their conidence level in restoring and surgically placing implants.

Prosthodontic Implant Club at UIC, Program Description and Survey Analysis

“…As part of the coaching‐mentoring approach, the ACP has recommended current instructors to identify potential prosthodontists among the ranks of current predoctoral students and mentor these high‐profile candidates so hopefully they will pursue a specialty career . This suggestion is similar to that accomplished by the UIC Advanced Predoctoral Implant Program and reported elsewhere …”

Prosthetic reconstructions and referring implant survival in a postgraduate program: A retrospective study

“…Furthermore, two universities recently reported on a predoctoral implant program where selected students placed a series of implants themselves. While the students highly benefited from this experience by improving their understanding of the connection between surgical implant placement and definitive prosthodontics reconstruction, their interest for a postgraduate implant program to improve theoretical and clinical skills became more intense 40 . The placement of implants by undergraduate students as part of an implant program would require significant efforts in theoretical education, pre-clinical laboratory training and clinical treatment.…”

A critical review of qualitative research publications in dental implants from 2006 to 2020

“…Four of them used qualitative methods to complement their major quantitative research (Hyland et al, 2009;Osman et al, 2014;Rousseau et al, 2014;Vernazza et al, 2015). Alternatively, one author used the qualitative methodology, but expressed disagreement with the findings and recommended large quantitative studies instead (Afshari et al, 2014).…”

“…The research subjects included how dentists engage patients in decision making (C. E. Exley et al, 2009), dentists' opinion about the current implant provision, what are the future needs of this treatment regime (Kashbour et al, 2018a(Kashbour et al, , 2018b, and what is their position in introducing high-cost treatment options to patients (Vernazza et al, 2015). One article discussed a new dental implant educational programme and the students' opinion of the learning experience (Fatemeh S Afshari et al, 2014). Another study investigated the educational value of YouTube patient testimonials (Ho et al, 2017).…”

“…Participants were either the patients who attended for dental implant treatment (Abrahamsson et al, 2017;Gatten et al, 2011;Grey et al, 2013;Hyland et al, 2009;Johannsen et al, 2012;Kashbour et al, 2017); or dentists who undertook either the clinical procedures or learned about the subject (Afshari et al, 2014;Kashbour et al, 2018aKashbour et al, , 2018b. Purposive sampling was the commonly employed method (Cronin et al, 2009;Kashbour et al, 2018aKashbour et al, , 2018bMeaney et al, 2017; T. E. Nogueira, et al, 2019;Parahoo et al, 2019;Rousseau et al, 2014;Vernazza et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015).…”