Embedding a population oral health perspective in the dental curriculum.

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, oral healthcare has changed dramatically as a consequence of changing disease profiles and population demography. However, dental disease continues to be highly prevalent and costly to treat. Furthermore, it has been recognized that there are inequalities, with tooth loss being influenced by social, cultural and economic factors. Undergraduate education has been task oriented, with a heavy emphasis on training in technical aspects of treating disease. However, oral healthcare education needs to include a population health perspective, and each professional programme should describe appropriate learning outcomes for population oral health. This includes the need to understand health systems and health trends, and to have knowledge of the evidence base for community prevention strategies and health promotion. A key challenge in embedding population oral health into the curriculum is to break down traditional boundaries in the curriculum and to make teaching of this subject context specific and interdisciplinary. Embedding population oral health offers the potential to create synergies between educators and health service providers with the ultimate benefit of producing a reflective and holistic oral health practitioner. There are challenges, but it is important to produce graduates whose attitudes and clinical practices will be shaped by a sound knowledge of population oral health. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.