Educational program  n dental public health at schools of public health as of fall 1973.
A letter of inquiry from a fictious dentist, requesting applications and information regarding training in dental public health, was sent to each of the 19 accredited Schools of Public Health. The purpose of the survey was to determine the manner in which the schools respond to a letter of inquiry from a dentist and to determine, from the material included in the response, what type of program in dental public health, if any, each school had. All 19 schools responded, but the type and quality of the responses varied greatly. Some schools answered the questions fully and others ignored them. From the bulletins of the schools and other material contained in the responses, seven schools were determined to have what could be termed viable programs in dental public health. Two of the seven programs are administratively independent with full-time faculty as directors of their programs; three of the programs receive their major input in dental public health from an affiliated dental school; one program's input of dental public health is provided by the school of public health; and one program has an affiliation with a dental school, but the major portion of the input for dental public health during the year of preparation for the degree of MPH is provided in the school of public health. There are seven schools of public health with eight full-time faculty who are public health dentists, although only three of the faculty spend a substantial portion of their time in activities related to dental public health. Five schoolshave no public health dentist on the faculty and they have a total of 33 part-time faculty at the rank of assistant professor or higher and a total of 36 part-time faculty with a rank lower than instructor. Twelve of the schools of public health still require only a minimum of an academic year for a dentist to receive the degree of MPH and only one school requires more than a calendar year. Only five schools require field-experience in order for a dentist to receive his degree of MPH. Most schools, it appears, do not provide a program for dentists which meets the standards established by the American Public Health Association or the American Board of Dental Public Health. It is time to question the blanket acceptance by the Council on Dental Education of the American Public Health Association's accreditation of Schools of Public Health for meeting the academic requirements in the specialty of dental public health.
D000068:Accreditation; D003479:Curriculum; D005179:Faculty, Dental; D011636:Public Health Dentistry / Q000193:education*; D012575:Schools, Dental; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States