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Developing a flexible core D ental P ublic H ealth curriculum for predoctoral dental and dental hygiene schools
Author(s) -
Atchison Kathryn,
Mascarenhas Ana Karina,
Bhoopathi Vinodh
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of public health dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1752-7325
pISSN - 0022-4006
DOI - 10.1111/jphd.12130
Subject(s) - curriculum , medical education , public health , dental hygiene , syllabus , medicine , dental public health , health promotion , dentistry , nursing , psychology , pedagogy
Abstract Objective The curriculum for graduating dental and dental hygiene students must prepare them to contribute to the improvement or maintenance of health for individual patient's and the public's health. The objective is to describe the background for and the process used to develop a core D ental P ublic H ealth C urriculum for such students. Methods The process used was to solicit and review existing dental public health curriculum in dental and dental hygiene schools; review curriculum for other health professionals; identify the themes needed to frame the curriculum; select usable materials and identify gaps in existing curricular materials; and develop appropriate curriculum materials that would embody the competencies developed for undergraduate dental and dental hygiene education. Results Twenty‐three topics were identified as embodying the eight competencies. Based on these topics, six courses, P rinciples of D ental P ublic H ealth, E vidence‐ B ased D entistry, Ethics and D ental P ublic H ealth, D ental P ublic H ealth P olicy and A dvocacy, O ral H ealth P romotion and D isease P revention, and O ral H ealth L iteracy and D ental P ublic H ealth, were prepared. Each course includes syllabus, PowerPoint presentations, student assignments and activities, instructor guide, and classroom discussion points. Depending on the hours available in the existing curriculum at the dental or hygiene school, lecture presentations and take home assignments/discussions may be used independently or in combination with presentations from other courses. In addition, individual discussions and activities may be used to integrate dental public health materials into other courses. Conclusion A flexible curriculum is available at the AAPHD website to enable the incorporation of DPH topics into the curriculum.