Advancing Dental Education by Integrating Teledentistry Teaching and Learning into the Predoc Curriculum

Abstract

In the advancing and changing landscape of dental education, dental curricula should be forward-thinking about the future roles of dental professionals. The need to train future dental providers to be able to facilitate care to underserved areas, and to patients who can’t come in person to a dental office, is becoming significant. Advancing dental education in 21st century with tele-dentistry should be a part of the dental curriculum, as it has been used for over a decade at this point. During the Covid-19 pandemic, tele-dentistry has become a vital method of engagement with patients and has the potential to expand across the country for those who are unable to be seen in person for any number of reasons. The main aim of this effort is to foster development and advancement in tele-dentistry and to help the integration of tele-dental education in teaching and learning. The importance of working on developing ways to teach dentistry to predoctoral students cannot be overlooked, and hence, we have been looking at best practices for integrating tele-dentistry into the dental curriculum.Dental Education should incorporate tele-dental education into predoctoral education, as it facilitates care for underserved populations as well as any other patients who are not able to be seen in person.