Report on the development of a new dental curriculum at Helsinki

Abstract

A review of the dental curriculum was undertaken in Helsinki in the mid 90s. The objectives of the new curriculum were to reinforce the links between basic biomedical and dental sciences in order to give more emphasis to oral medicine and comprehensive dental care. Furthermore, the curriculum needed to promote an interdisciplinary approach and encourage students to understand dental diseases in relation to the community at large. A two-year, topic-based, preclinical curriculum, fully integrated with medical students, was started. For didactic teaching in the clinical phase, new learning entities were established to promote an inter-disciplinary approach. For the first time in Finland, objectives were formulated for attitudes and interpersonal skills. Clinical training was conducted in a comprehensive clinic, based on the team concept, where emphasis was given to proven competency instead of to the number of procedures performed. The time spent in the clinic was kept the same as previously (1440 h). Students' learning process was assessed with a portfolio. The majority of students welcomed the comprehensive care clinic, especially its team concept and treatment planning seminars. However, feedback seminars after treatment of the patient were not in favour. As part of the evaluation process, a DENTED visitation took place in Helsinki in March 1999. The results obtained in the student questionnaire were consistent with the aims of the undergraduate training and with the present patient treatment range. In conclusion, the curriculum change enabled the school to broaden the biomedical aspects by increasing the period of preclinical studies. Although the extent of these studies was greater than in the past, and meant postponement of clinical skills courses by one semester, it did not jeopardise the competency in clinical dentistry, owing to the effective integration of the clinical phase teaching.

Study motives, career choices and interest in paediatric dentistry among final year dental students in Nigeria

“…Previous studies have also shown a tendency for the majority of the students to prefer to continue their education towards a specialty degree [7,13-15]. This has implications for the dental workforce planning in any country.…”

“…In a study in Nigeria, interest, prestige, good job opportunities abroad as well as regular work hours were the top ranked motives for studying dentistry [5]. The need for the dental education system to train students who have a sense of social responsibility in view of these findings had been emphasized earlier [3,6,7]. Sex differences have also been reported in students’ study motives and career preferences [5,7-12].…”

Current challenges for dental education in Japan and the United States

“…In the United States, similar thematic approaches have been reported in the past, in particular as complementary pathways to the content approaches used in the first 2 years of the medical school curriculum at the same institution [24][25][26]. Utilizing these thematic streams, course material would be centered around concepts rather than specific small focused courses.…”

Impacto del aumento de escuelas de odontología en la productividad científica odontológica chilena

“…La educación dental está estrechamente ligada la investigación en ciencias de la salud (9) . Por esta razón, las escuelas de odontología representan centros de excelencia para las comunidades donde están insertas (10) , proveyendo de valiosa información acerca del estado epidemiológico de una comunidad así como la efectividad de las intervenciones que en ella se realizan.…”