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21 st Century Realities: The Urgency of Diversifying the Dental Professional Field
Author(s) -
Clyburn Tayo,
Davies Sharon L.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.21815/jde.019.037
Subject(s) - ethnic group , diversity (politics) , socioeconomic status , population , cultural diversity , dental care , underrepresented minority , dental education , health care , professional development , medical education , field (mathematics) , medicine , public relations , political science , sociology , family medicine , environmental health , law , mathematics , pure mathematics
This article asserts that U.S. demographic shifts make it imperative that academic dental institutions and, in turn, the dental profession must diversify to best meet the needs of the nation's quickly changing population. In particular, it argues that the severe underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic students in dental schools is a detriment to those students who are being excluded from a field critical to the well‐being of the population, their prospective peers who are thus not afforded the benefits of compositional diversity in the classroom, and the millions of Americans who live in areas with little to no access to culturally competent oral health care. With such complex challenges facing the profession, dental schools must evolve to prepare students of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds to provide adequate oral health care to the country's changing population.