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The oral ecosystem: implications for education
Author(s) -
Eriksen H. M.,
Dimitrov V.,
Rohlin M.,
Petersson K.,
Svensäter G.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1600-0579
pISSN - 1396-5883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0579.2006.00414.x
Subject(s) - premise , context (archaeology) , curriculum , oral cavity , conceptual model , action (physics) , psychology , ecology , sociology , medical education , engineering ethics , pedagogy , knowledge management , medicine , engineering , computer science , geography , dentistry , epistemology , philosophy , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , database , biology
We propose a model that is applicable to oral health education. The model describes the oral cavity in a complexity‐based ecological context. This concept includes the premise that factors from different organisational levels (biological, individual, community, society) interact in a complex way with the potential to ‘stress’ the ecosystem and thereby provoke changes. This mode of action complies with the understanding of the oral cavity as a complex adaptive system. An ecological model is actively used in the undergraduate problem‐based curriculum at the Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Sweden and has recently been applied as a conceptual basis for the new dental curriculum being established at the University of Tromsø in Northern Norway. The purpose is to encourage and promote an ecological, health‐oriented view and to stimulate reflections on premises for oral health and diseases in an integrated context.