title: A four-tier problem-solving scaffold to teach pain management in dental school.
abstract: Pain constitutes a major reason patients pursue dental treatment. This article presents a novel curriculum to provide dental students comprehensive training in the management of pain. The curriculum's four-tier scaffold combines traditional and problem-based learning to improve students' diagnostic, pharmacotherapeutic, and assessment skills to optimize decision making when treating pain. Tier 1 provides underpinning knowledge of pain mechanisms with traditional and contextualized instruction by integrating clinical correlations and studying worked cases that stimulate clinical thinking. Tier 2 develops critical decision making skills through self-directed learning and actively solving problem-based cases. Tier 3 exposes students to management approaches taken in allied health fields and cultivates interdisciplinary communication skills. Tier 4 provides a "knowledge and experience synthesis" by rotating students through community pain clinics to practice their assessment skills. This combined teaching approach aims to increase critical thinking and problem-solving skills to assist dental graduates in better management of pain throughout their careers. Dental curricula that have moved to comprehensive care/private practice models are well-suited for this educational approach. The goal of this article is to encourage dental schools to integrate pain management into their curricula, to develop pain management curriculum resources for dental students, and to provide leadership for change in pain management education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience Research, College of Dentistry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163, USA. civanoff@uthsc.edu
authors.forename: Chris S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Ivanoff
authors.forename: Timothy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Hottel
mesh_terms: D059787:Acute Pain; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D059350:Chronic Pain; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003190:Comprehensive Dental Care; D003657:Decision Making; D004497:Education, Dental; D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007858:Learning; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D018710:Pain Clinics; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011231:Preceptorship; D011331:Private Practice; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D012575:Schools, Dental; D013335:Students, Dental; D013850:Thinking
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics
keywords: clinical curriculum; clinical education; critical thinking; dental education; pain management; problem-solving