Dental Education
Designing for Dental Education
Research continues to illuminate the role of dentistry in a comprehensive, holistic approach to health care. In turn, dental education must shift from a focus on purely technical skills, to one that understands the central role that dentists play in a patient’s healthcare delivery team. With this in mind, the SmithGroup dental school design team’s most recent meeting with our Dental School Client Advisory Board concentrated on the question of how the changing role of dentistry will affect the dental school of the future.
Critical to this new approach is the idea of Interprofessional education. The ability of health professionals to work effectively as a coordinated care team has never been more important to quality patient care. Integrating the dental profession into the larger care team will be particularly important for chronic conditions that require long-term management. Diabetes, for example is closely linked with oral health issues. As the incidence of diabetes continues to rise, so will the need for dental students to understand the role they can play in its treatment. Interprofessional education will better prepare dental students to practice in an evolving market that demands both higher quality and lower cost care. To read more about the trends discussed, click on the link.