title: Developing core dental public health competencies for predoctoral dental and dental hygiene students.
abstract: Dental professionals are an "underutilized" workforce, when it comes to advocating for prevention and wellness in populations. The goal of this HRSA-funded project is to develop dental public health (DPH) competencies and curriculum for US predoctoral dental and dental hygiene programs. These competencies and accompanying curriculum are designed to better prepare the oral health workforce to meet the needs of the entire population, including the chronically underserved, those challenged by poor health literacy, or communities encountering barriers to accessing oral health care. By increasing the DPH competency of all graduating dental providers, in population-based approaches to preventing oral diseases rather than the existing exclusive focus on treatment, the number of providers who can respond to a population or the public's unmet needs and challenges, both in private practices and publicly supported clinics, will increase. This paper describes the competency development process and the eight competencies that were identified.
authors.affiliation: American Association Public Health Dentistry, Springfield, IL, USA.|College of Dental Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Ana Karina
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Mascarenhas
authors.affiliation: American Association Public Health Dentistry, Springfield, IL, USA.|Division of Public Health and Community Dentistry, Los Angeles School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn Ann
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Atchison
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D006801:Humans; D011636:Public Health Dentistry; D013335:Students, Dental
keywords: competencies; dental public health; dental public health competencies; public health