Taxonomy for Competency‐Based Dental Curricula

Abstract

The objective of this article is to propose a classification of dental competencies. Interest in dental competencies has grown consistently during the last three decades. However, the dental education literature suggests that the term “competency” is understood and used differently by dental schools around the world. The taxonomic classification of dental competencies we propose follows a systematic approach starting at the highest level of complexity, i.e., the professional profile the teaching institution envisions for its graduates, and following in a decreasing degree of complexity to competency function, task, step, movement, and moment. This taxonomy has proved to be useful for more than thirty years in the Dental School of the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia. Graduates of this school are successful practitioners, teachers, and researchers in Peru and other countries. The classification proposed here should clarify terms, facilitate curriculum design and learning assessment, stimulate further discussion on the matter, and facilitate communication among the dental education establishment.

Identifying Global Health Competencies to Prepare 21st Century Global Health Professionals: Report from the Global Health Competency Subcommittee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health

“…The American Association of Medical Colleges identified competencies related to oral health education for medical and dental students that include cross-cultural training, linguistic proficiency, social accountability, access, and social determinants of health. 18 Beltran-Neira and Beltran-Aguilar published a taxonomy for competency-based dental curricula that does not focus specifically on global health competencies, 19 and Donaldson et al, advocated for the development of global dental competencies, but did not specify what those competencies should be. 20 Giannobile identified the importance of promoting global oral health, but did not specify individual global health competencies.…”

High fluoride and low calcium levels in drinking water is associated with low bone mass, reduced bone quality and fragility fractures in sheep

“…Here, it is of critical importance to note that in fact, the diagnosis and/or especially exclusion of skeletal fluorosis is in general made on the basis of the presence or absence of osteosclerosis on X-rays, in other words, decreased radiolucency, without further histological confirmation to exclude mineralization defects and bone quality deterioration. However, as the rates of dental fluorosis in the USA have dramatically increased during the last 60 years, with a prevalence of 10 % in 1950, 23 % in 1987 and 41 % in 2004 [ 14 ], the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has announced its recommendation that water fluoridation programmes should lower the levels added (to 0.7 mg/l [=parts per million (ppm)]) in January 2011 [ 15 ]. Thus, there is an awareness of potential clinical problems beyond classical fluorosis that might be of importance not only for people in certain areas of the world with a naturally high fluoride water content due to pyroclastic/geologic activity in the past but also for communities whose water has been and is still been being fluoridated.…”

Evolution of Clinical Reasoning in Dental Education

“…Dental educators have defined competencies and suggested assessment techniques to ensure the validity of their assessments 65 – 69 . However, DePaola and Slavkin 20 argue that the health professions have yet to develop a common language or core competencies for each discipline and that current dental curricula do not have appropriate evaluation components to assess the core competencies.…”