Pre-Meeting Workshop: The Shape of the Future of Dental Education for Dental Caries (and How to Get There)
Sunday 7th May
Implementing cariology curriculums with a focus on global application, technological and scientific development and inter-professional collaboration.
We were delighted to invite ADEE and ADEA members to this pre-meeting update and implementation workshop, co-hosted by King’s College London Dental Institute and the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future.
Since 2010, the ACFF has brought together dental educators and experts from across the globe in a combined effort to address the gaps found between dental interventions and education in the area of caries prevention and management.
The need to collaborate not only with other educators, but with professionals from all aspects of health and dentistry is becoming clearer, and this event will explore the reasoning behind this relatively new approach to networking, showcasing examples of successful collaboration and drawing on the experience of a global panel of presenters.
Following the many developments in dental education in the caries space over the years, most recently the creation and adoption of the European Core Cariology Curriculum and its American counterpart (which were crafted to ensure increased focus on prevention, early stage control and minimum intervention management within the education system), we are now at a pivotal point in encouraging the full adoption of these teaching strategies by dental schools and educators the world over. A look into schools in which these curricula have been successfully implemented offers insight into how this change in direction can best be adopted, and sheds light on how championing an updated core curriculum will enable us collectively to shape the future of dental education away, moving it from a purely restorative focus and towards prevention and minimum intervention management.
As we continue to progress in our understanding, and to witness further technological and scientific developments within the world of dentistry, there have been many recent steps forward in the formation of the ICDAS and ICCMS™ Systems, offering a uniform approach to caries detection, classification and management. This offers a tool for all dental professionals, educators and students to align in their understanding of caries, offering universal guidance and a simple, quick treatment cycle. The role of these systems within our understanding of dental education will be explored by those who have seen first-hand the benefits of adopting a preventive and system based curriculum within their establishments.
We discussed the implications of full adoption of these tools into the dental education system, barriers that may be in place and the role that we as educators play in ensuring their implementation, to mould the shape of the future of dental education.
With insight from Professor Nigel Pitts (Global Chair, Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future, King’s College London), Professor Avijit Banerjee (King’s College London), Dr. Margherita Fontana (ADEA Cariology Section), Professor Paulo Melo (ORCA, FDI, CED), and representatives from the European Dental Students Association. Delegates left the session with an enhanced understanding of the local and global implications of refocusing our approach to dental education in this area. They also contributed to the development of implementation tools for this area.