Integrating Issues of Substance Abuse and Addiction into the Predoctoral Dental Curriculum

Abstract

Methodological discussions about the teaching of substance abuse and addiction in predoctoral dental curricula typically fall short. This article explores the pedagogy employed to present and discuss the relevance of addiction (mostly to illicit drugs) to the dental profession in the irst-year predoctoral dental curriculum at the University of British Columbia. These pedagogical approaches are multifaceted and include a role-play scenario with a standardized patient; an interactive guest lecturebased seminar and a community panel of personal testimonials; students' written relections; and the provision of clinical care to patients with a past or current history of addiction. Students' relections illustrate the impact of these approaches upon their views of addiction and the dental profession. This pedagogy exposes students to alternative views on substance abuse and addiction, challenges their values and beliefs, and fosters dialogue.Note: The session for Term 1 has eight scenarios, one of which is Dr. Gleason's case and takes about twenty minutes in total. The prereading in Term 2 is given one week before the session and refers to Brondani and Park's "Methadone and oral health: a brief review," J Dent Hyg 2011;85(2):91-7. A complete description of the grading system and rubric of the reflection assessments used in Terms 1 and 2 can be found in Brondani et al.'s "An evolving community-based dental course on professionalism and community service," J Dent Educ 2008;72(10):1160-8, Brondani's "Students' reflective learning within a community service-learning dental module," J Dent Educ 2010;74(6):628-36, and Brondani and Paterson's "Teaching lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues in a dental curriculum: a multipurpose method," J Dent Educ 2011;75(10):1354-61. The students are encouraged to reflect soon after the standardized patient encounter in class (Term 1) and within the first twenty-four hours (Term 2).

Developing Common Competencies for Southeast Asian General Dental Practitioners

“…Some issues such as drug addiction and smoking have been perceived as an important part of predoctoral dental education 21 , 22 . However, these issues may vary by area and could be influenced by local cultures implying that dental graduates may not regularly encounter them.…”

Community as the teacher on issues of social responsibility, substance use, and queer health in dental education

“…Whilst these three sessions had a mostly positive impact, it appears they did not leave the same impression upon all students (as mentioned above); this warrants further studies. As we have emphasized before, any education pedagogy destined to have a positive impact must change students’ attitudes, beliefs, and how they envision their professional responsibility [ 10 – 12 , 18 ]. While using the community as a teacher might have had such an impact on most, it may not have been enough to influence all students.…”

“…These sessions were mandatory for the undergraduate students from both dentistry and dental hygiene programs. Table 1 presents the topics covered in each of the sessions according to the existing literature on substance use [4,12], queer health [10], and social responsibility [13]; they also had a pre-and post-session component, interactive presentations from the respective communities, and in-class individual, paired, and group activities. Each session was delivered only once, during the first three Wednesdays in January.…”

“…In order to foster dental and dental hygiene practices that are inclusive, sensitive to diversity, equitable, and without prejudice, a call "to teach cultural diversity" [11] broadly within dental and dental hygiene education has been made. In the era of globalization, teachings related to substance use [12], queer health [13], and social responsibility [10] need to be revisited within alternative pedagogies beyond lectures, and within a flipped classroom approach by introducing students to learning material before class and deepening their understanding of the content within classroom time [14,15]. Moreover, pedagogies in which the community is engaged as a teacher should be favored, adding depth and context to a solely community-based dental education where students are enabled to get a positive learning experience while providing needed dental services to the underserved [16].…”

Innovations in pre‐doctoral dental education: Influencing attitudes and opinions about patients with substance use disorder

“…In the past, dental education had focused on oral health implications of SUD. However, the need to investigate the curricular content used to discuss SUD is now being recognized, 33 and curricular design to achieve competency in a range of skills, such as Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), interprofessional approaches, and electronic data systems, are some of the priorities that have been identified 34 . Additional challenges that will need to be addressed include access to trained personnel to assist dentists in managing, when necessary, patients with mental health disorders as well as defined dental billing codes for reimbursement.…”