title: Improving the Medical Curriculum in Predoctoral Dental Education: Recommendations From the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Committee on Predoctoral Education and Training.
abstract: Dental procedures are often performed on patients who present with some level of medical fragility. In many dental schools, the exercise of taking a medical history is all too often a transcription of information to the dental chart, with little emphasis on the presurgical risk assessment and the development of a treatment plan appropriate to the medical status of the dental patient. Changes in dentistry, driven by an increasingly medically complex population of dental patients, combined with treatment advances rooted in the biomedical sciences necessitate the adaptation of our dental education to include a stronger background in systemic health. Many predoctoral educators in the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) have expressed concern about the medical preparedness of our dental students; therefore, the AAOMS and its Committee on Predoctoral Education and Training have provided recommendations for improving the medical curriculum in predoctoral dental education, including a strengthening of training in clinical medicine and biomedical sciences, with specific recommendations for improved training of our dental students and dental faculty.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Florida College of Dentistry, Gainesville, FL. Electronic address: mdennis@dental.ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Dennis
authors.affiliation: Professor, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor and Director of Predoctoral Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Program, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University College of Dentistry, Richmond, VA.
authors.forename: Dean M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: DeLuke
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH.
authors.forename: Erik W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Tennessee Medical Center Knoxville, Knoxville, TN.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of the Pacific School of Dentistry, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nattestad
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Anesthesiology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
authors.forename: Gregory M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Ness
authors.affiliation: Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Surgical Sciences, East Carolina University School of Dentistry, Greenville, NC.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yeung
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D058996:Quality Improvement; D013515:Surgery, Oral / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States