title: The future of pediatric dentistry education and curricula: a Chilean perspective.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A meeting was organised to consolidate a network of researchers and academics from Australia, Brazil, Chile, the UK and the USA, relating to Early Childhood Caries (ECC) and Dental Trauma (DT). As part of this meeting, a dedicated session was held on the future of paediatric dental education and curricula. Twenty-four paediatric dentistry (PD) academics, representing eight Chilean dental schools, and three international specialists (from Brazil and Latvia) participated in group discussions facilitated by five members of the ECC/DT International Collaborative Network. Data were collected from group discussions which followed themes developed as guides to identify key issues associated with paediatric dentistry education, training and research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants discussed current PD dental curricula in Chile, experiences in educating new cohorts of oral health care providers, and the outcomes of existing efforts in education and research in PD. They also, identified challenges, opportunities and areas in need of further development. This paper provides an introspective analysis of the education and training of PD in Chile; describes the input provided by participants into pediatric dentistry education and curricula; and sets out some key priorities for action with suggested directions to best prepare the future dental workforce to maximise oral health outcomes for children. Immediate priorities for action in paediatric dentistry in Chile were proposed.
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Dental School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. r.marino@unimelb.edu.au.|Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. r.marino@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mariño
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ramos-Gómez
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Dental School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: David John
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Manton
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile.
authors.forename: Juan Eduardo
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Onetto
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hugo
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Canoas, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Feldens
authors.affiliation: Dental Institute, Kings College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Raman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bedi
authors.affiliation: Dental School, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uribe
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Gisela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zillmann
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002677:Chile; D003479:Curriculum; D006801:Humans; D010377:Pediatric Dentistry / Q000193:education*
keywords: Chile; Curriculum; Paediatric dental education