The dental student as technician: To what degree?

Removable Partial Denture Education in U.S. Dental Schools

“…These results indicate an apparent trend that fewer schools are now delegating work to in‐house laboratories; rather, these schools are sending work to commercial laboratories. This finding is consistent with previous studies, 10,11 which looked at the amount of clinical laboratory work delegated by dental students to the laboratory technicians. These studies showed that there is a trend toward decreased use of in‐house laboratory technicians for flasking RPDs, 68% in 1977 versus 57% in 1995.…”

“…These studies showed that there is a trend toward decreased use of in‐house laboratory technicians for flasking RPDs, 68% in 1977 versus 57% in 1995. One reason delegation of laboratory work to commercial laboratories has increased is because of the gradual decrease of in‐house laboratory support in the past couple of decades 10 . Another reason for this increase could be that schools are now focusing more on teaching their students to become competent in clinically relevant skills rather than laboratory‐related skills that can be delegated 12 …”

Content and Goals of Preclinical Prosthodontic Programs at German‐Language Dental Schools

“…To make room for new content, a reduction of the preclinical prosthodontic program is being discussed. The international trend in dental education of shifting from technology to biology has been cited; however, evidence from the US experience shows that dental laboratory work is a necessary part of dental core competence . De‐emphasizing this competence could have negative repercussions .…”