Dental Education - Science topic

Well said I especially like the phrase "Mission Impossible"...

This is a wonderful question. I typically use focused mentoring within an inter professional team. The interprofessional team research provides a setting where students, fellows, and other trainees gain first hand experience in needed skills such as building and engaging team members, holding colleagues accountable for promised work, negotiating roles and responsibilities on a project, presentation, or paper, and handling disciplinary differences in academic support for team science, culture and communication patterns, and measures of success, .

As challenges emerge, I try to provide opportunities for discussion of both the rewards and challenges of interprofessional team work. More recently, I have been interested in developing resources for trainees in the most important skills needed for interprofessional teams.

Looking for suggestions on resouces for interprofessional training, including any curriculum development on training in interprofessional team research and any program that involve explicit training in the important knowledge and skill domains needed for interprofessional team research.

There are multiple steps required for student's recognize importance of research at an early stage of their studies. 

a) Encourage students to read latest published research papers and journals.

b) Give students assignments based on research and analysis

c) Assign them research problems 

d) Encourage them to write research papers

I agree Sudeep. But it also pays to think outside the box. Sometimes doing something as simple as getting the person a cup of coffee or a meal can open the door to impart information or getting other services like Social services involved. Our Social Workers are an amazing group of people with outstanding resources. I encourage those that work in any field to look at the other services available and utilize them. You might be surprised at what they can achieve. 

Acknowledging the factors mentioned in the earlier comments, I would also add another factor here that is collaborative research. I say this because I was personally conducting research on dental implants at the Material Testing Laboratory, Departments of Material Science, IIT Bombay, a few years ago. The aim of the research among other things was to improve the mechanical strength of the dental implants to lend them longevity as well as making them cheaper by using newer materials. We were fortunate to be partnered by the local dental colleges in and around Mumbai; although, we had to struggle with a lot of dentists due to their inertia to participate in such research. They were not really enthused about the project primarily due to lack of mental bandwidth that a practising doctor can offer and also because research in India is unstructured. 

I would, therefore, say that more structured collaborative research is required which would not only enrich the field but ultimately benefit the patients too. 

ANSWER- 15 years (cut off age)

AT 5 years it is practicable and feasible, this age is of interest in relation to caries levels in primary dentition, which may exhibit changes over a shorter time span than in the permanent dentition at other index ages. In  age groups(6 to 8 yrs), missing primary incisors should not be scored as missing because of the difficulty in differentiating between normally exfoliated primary incisors and those lost because of caries or trauma.

12 years

Age is important as it is generally the age at which children leave primary school. Therefore in many countries, it is last age at which a reliable sample may be obtained easily through the school system. Also, it is likely that by this age all the permanent teeth except the 3rd molars will have erupted. For these reasons, age 12 years has been chosen as the global indicator age group for international comparisons and surveillance of disease trends.

15 years (cut off age)

By 15 years, the permanent teeth have been exposed to the oral environment for 3 to 9 years. The assessment of caries prevalence in adolescents may therefore be relevant

First start with the ABCs of dealing with this issue: The choice of trays that don't extend excessively; the choice of impression materials that don't easily flow backwards; and the choice of the right amount of this material so you dont end up with excess flowing backwards.

Then we move to the tricks that could be used, and I could mention a couple here: EITHER have the patient suck a candy made with the medical topical anesthetic tetracaine 1% until it begins to coat both the hard and soft palates, OR have the patient massage their hands with a chemical ice bag. The idea here is to keep the hypothalamus distracted and busy. As you know, the hypothalamus is the part of the brain that, besides other things, controls the gag reflex. So if you can keep this part busy with those "other things", then it will temporarily "forget" about the gag reflex.

Morning appointments are typically given for those anxious patients. To minimize the gag reflex, patients anxiety needs to be at a minimum. So anything that can be done to decrease the anxiety should be tried. Having a chair with heat and vibrating modes that the patient can control during the procedure also helps, since it provides a pleasing vibration meanwhile.

Nitrous oxide is a good way to calm the patient and their reactions to sensations during dental procedures.And finally, antianxiety elixir could be used.

Hello Ayad ? are we talking about conserving the area or preparing the marginal ridge during veneer crown preparation ? or are you just asking about preserving the marginal ridge during cavity preparation ?

Dear Ruth,

Nowadays everybody speaks about interdisciplinarity, BUT in practice it is indeed a very difficult issue as you have clearly explained. Most of the answers, if not all, contain important insights as what to do. Actually I would follow all the good advises given by everyone, which are not contradictory. The challenge implies using many different strategies. Talking to different people is one and publishing for different audiences is another one. Most communities are very closed and through these efforts we can attempt to open them to new insights. Be prepared for your papers to be rejected until you find the right journals. This is part of the challenge.

Good luck !

Miguel AF Sanjuan

Dear Dr Deppe 

We celebrating Teachers Day today in india.. (Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birthday on September 5 )..

I agree we all r what we are because of countless efforts of our parents.. teachers mentors guides..

Love respect and wishes to in this humble profession 

I haven't taught Dental Ethics, but are you already familiar with the book by David T. Ozar,  Dental Ethics at Chairside? If not, it would be an excellent place to start_.

Dear Guiliana,

Reflective practice has been used in community based dental education, though not extensively. However, there is an article in JDE about experiences in reflecttive practice in community based health education.Roland Strauss et al. Reflective Learning in Community-Based Dental Education. J Dent Edu. 2003;67;1234-42.

Another article on application of reflective practice in dental education is available on rg and another from bdj. I am attaching the links.

Hope it helps.

An introduction during first year, then a deepening understanding later on, when the knowledge is actually needed

 yes, definitely, Salivary flow rate differs from children to adults. children will be having more than adults and also there are 3 types which includes serous type, mucous type and mixed type. It is believed that as the age advances salivary secretion will be reduced.

In our institution, Integrated teaching is not for graduate or postgraduate ,but we have integrated teaching ,in which teacher from various department according to the topic specific present their presentation, and after this question answer session is arranged to clarify the query of the other faculty staff members and Postgraduates students. Topics are chosen according to their importance in the current situation.But In thinking integrated teaching require a lot of efforts to evaluate the level of knowledge and skills of the students.For this effective planning,implementation and evaluation should be planned.

You may add tooth structure preservation (Width). The angulation of the gingival marginal wall and the finishing of the cavity margins to eliminate unsupported enamel 

Ina here is the VFI ;-)

In some cases, I ask the student to write down 3 things that went well (and why they went well) and 3 things that need improvement (and why they need improving). This practice helps them reflect upon their practice and figure out ways to improve further practice.

Furthermore, every surgical procedure receives a written evaluation from the supervisor, which helps in assessing student level for end term evaluations.

I use hand out for each problem that faces the student while treating patient.I also try to provoke many basic question to engrave his learning process and to instill the procedure permanently in their learning experience.

I would like to add video for each procedure they are attempting to do,such as caries excavation modalities. this clarify the picture very well.

Then I follow with questions like a( quiz), to make sure they are paying attention.

Greetings from VCU in Richmond VA. I was honored to give a presentation at King's College of London October 2011 and had a chance to try the HapTEL virtual reality system. It was impressive. I also direct the second year Fixed Pros pre-clinical course where students execute preparations on melamine teeth in a mannequin. These environments provide a safe and standardize experience for students, an excellent place to render comparative and meaningful evaluation of the work; all with no risk of patient harm. Secondly they provide a place for struggling students to complete remediation and gain additional practice before treating patients. Students practicing and performing well in the mannequin have been observed to be more likely to preform will in the clinical setting. One disadvantage some colleagues have mentioned is that this experience, and the time invested, do not produce clinic revenue as would be produced if the student was rendering care on a patient paying a fee. However, in my opinion this standardized educational experience offsets the loss in revenue to better assure a quality health care provider.

yes you can do this using virtual simulator with haptic device. Applied for Implantation, opertive dentistry and oral surgery.

Dear Dr. Antony. Thank you very much for the agreement that " some religions cover some universal ethical norms." I too agree with you that " no religion has 'invented' any of those ethical norms by itself and indeed all religions have borrowed/adopted principles and norms of ethics".

This is because all religions are divine and their teachings corresponds to improve the wrongdoings of the concerned communities or societies. Here I don't want to open a religious discussions because we are science students supposed to discuss only about logic and facts above from our emotions. Here I want to make point that we should look around and find if the religion provides some fundamentals about Ethics or Ethical Standards. If so, then what is a harm if some good ethical standards are opted from religion/s because such teachings would be easily digestible and accepted by students.