New Opportunities for Dentistry in Diagnosis and Primary Health Care: Report of Panel 1 of the Macy Study

Input From Practice: Reshaping Dental Education for Integrated Patient Care

Among the primary challenges in advancing the practice of integrated primary dental and medical health care is the appropriate educational and clinical preparation of a dental workforce that can function and flourish within integrated care environments. Most dental schools teach to traditional concepts and standards of dental care delivery which may be inconsistent with those of integrated care and could deter the entry and retention of graduates in contemporary, non-traditional practice models. To better understand how the dental school curriculum should be modified to accommodate integrative care models, a number of patient care organizations actively engaged in dental-medical integration were site visited to gain insight into the readiness of newer graduates, with emphasis on the US DMD/DDS graduate, to function in integrated practice. Leaders, practicing clinicians and staff were interviewed and common observations and themes were documented. This manuscript will focus on those educational components that integrated care organizations identify as absent or inadequate in current dentist education which must be addressed to meet the unique expectations and requirements of integrated patient care. These changes appear pivotal in the preparation of a dental clinician workforce that is respectful and receptive to new practice concepts, adaptative to new practice models, and competent in new care delivery systems.

The Dentist of the Future: Dental Surgeon or Oral Physician?

There is an accepted recognition of the need for the dentist to be able to diagnose and treat the number of older dental patients with more complex health care problems. Therefore in the future, dentists and other dental professionals will need to broaden their role in the delivery of overall health care and the designation of a dentist as an 'oral physician’ as well as a 'dental surgeon’ would seem logical. To deliver this developing role it will be necessary to ensure that undergraduate dental teaching programmes are designed appropriately to provide clinicians with the necessary clinical skills.18