Changes in the Dental School Landscape by Peter Paradiso

Change for the better?
As a fourth-year dental student at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, I’ve experienced a lot of changes. Recent alterations to the dental curriculum—including the change of grading standards, technology integration and the introduction of interprofessional education (IPE)—can affect life after dental school.

In January 2012, the ADA changed its grading on Parts I and II of the National Board Dental Examination (NBDE) from a numerical grade to a pass/fail system. This is great for students, because it takes the pressure of performance away. However, it has caused a ripple effect in postgraduate programs that were forced to find different ways to compare applying students, especially those graduating from pass/fail programs.

Another major change involves the strong push to integrate IPE into interdisciplinary health services and programs. IPE is not a new concept—in fact, many schools have similar types of courses. Furthermore, the growing complexity of medical conditions can make performing dentistry on older or infirm patients very difficult. As a result, it’s important to know when and how to write medical consults.

With the changes in the health care system and the push to have multiprofessional groups, it is important that we learn how to work with other professions. Knowing how to effectively communicate with other dentists, physicians, social workers and other health care professionals is pivotal to our profession.

In addition to curriculum changes, multimedia technology use has woven itself into all parts of dental school as video and audio lectures are becoming more common. Does this use of technology replace class attendance? We can argue a hundred different ways about how dental school is different than medical school and we can also talk about how there needs to be more overlap. To me, one of the most important aspects of dental school is attending lecture and pre-clinic sessions. Learning from professionals and acting like professionals help us develop these important social and business skills.

The ever-changing dental curriculum and the new ways students learn and approach dental school will heavily influence their postgraduate path. More graduating students are choosing to go into specialty programs and apply to general practice residency programs and/or advanced dental education programs.

In addition, with the growing amount of information and push toward evidence-based dentistry, students are responsible for knowing a lot more. Couple that with issues with patient-based licensure exams, and there might be a needed call to change this process as well. Should students be asked to do a year-long residency in lieu of participating in a licensure exam? Some people may disagree with this because of the need for dentists in rural areas. Some dental students may also disagree because they need to start paying down student loans.

For many individuals, however, the dentist is the one doctor they see the most. In fact, a dentist is most likely to be the first doctor to diagnose a patient’s systemic health issue. Would a year as a hospital dental resident or serving in the public health system make us less prepared? As providers in that system, we do need to change and look at the evidence so we can improve how to train better, more prepared dentists.

Conclusion
Just because the industry is changing doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. As we learn to grow and adapt to the curriculum changes, we can continue to implement change long after we are out of dental school. Are you ready to make that change?