Overhauling the dental education sytem

[Energon]

This thread was inspired by the one on Academic dentistry

In dentistry (as opposed to medicine), the disparity in income between working in even an average private practice and being an academic is too big.
There is a big generation gap between the "old schoolers" and the "new guys". At my institution, the old timers had many of the new guys fired because they were getting too popular with the students.... I dont think I have ever seen a bigger act of pride based stupidity.

Personally, I think the entire dental education system needs to be overhauled if we expect to attract a new breed of faculty (and believe me we do). This is what I propose:
Basic Sciences should stay the way it is. For clinic, the entire concept of one big facility is obsolete. It would be better to open up medium sized for profit "educational practices" in different communities (low and middle income). Each facility should be staffed by faculty who do lectures in the morning and supervise/ practice in the afternoon. Each location should have about 20-25 chairs. This should be more of an AEGD setting so that students will learn to acclimate to the "real world" a little faster. The entire class should rotate through the different clinics to obtain a wider exposure. At the end of the year, there should be profit sharing between the faculties. This will increase pay for faculty as they are teaching the students in a real practice base, and hence attract younger faculty who would not mind this option. Of course, the dental students would have to travel in order to rotate through the different clinics but medical students do it all the time.

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[aphistis]

Originally posted by AMMD
This thread was inspired by the one on Academic dentistry

In dentistry (as opposed to medicine), the disparity in income between working in even an average private practice and being an academic is too big.
There is a big generation gap between the "old schoolers" and the "new guys". At my institution, the old timers had many of the new guys fired because they were getting too popular with the students.... I dont think I have ever seen a bigger act of pride based stupidity.

Personally, I think the entire dental education system needs to be overhauled if we expect to attract a new breed of faculty (and believe me we do). This is what I propose:
Basic Sciences should stay the way it is. For clinic, the entire concept of one big facility is obsolete. It would be better to open up medium sized for profit "educational practices" in different communities (low and middle income). Each facility should be staffed by faculty who do lectures in the morning and supervise/ practice in the afternoon. Each location should have about 20-25 chairs. This should be more of an AEGD setting so that students will learn to acclimate to the "real world" a little faster. The entire class should rotate through the different clinics to obtain a wider exposure. At the end of the year, there should be profit sharing between the faculties. This will increase pay for faculty as they are teaching the students in a real practice base, and hence attract younger faculty who would not mind this option. Of course, the dental students would have to travel in order to rotate through the different clinics but medical students do it all the time.

What you're discussing sounds very much like a vocational apprenticeship. I don't know if I'd like that. Additionally, doing any sort of for-profit work would be a mess administratively for the school. Most (all?) dental schools are university-affiliated, and universities are non-profit institutions.

I do agree something needs to be done, though.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by AMMD
For clinic, the entire concept of one big facility is obsolete. It would be better to open up medium sized for profit "educational practices" in different communities (low and middle income). Each facility should be staffed by faculty who do lectures in the morning and supervise/ practice in the afternoon. Each location should have about 20-25 chairs. This should be more of an AEGD setting so that students will learn to acclimate to the "real world" a little faster. The entire class should rotate through the different clinics to obtain a wider exposure.

That's our 4th year in a nutshell, with the exception that we can choose our rotation sites as well as areas of emphasis (all peds for those interested in peds, hospital dentistry for those interested in that, public health dentistry, etc., etc.).

 

[sxr71]

Well the line between a non profit and a for profit is very thin. You can remain non profit but generate more cash to feed salaries.

It's sort of like how they advise prospective dentists to not make a profit in their practices, but to take any surplus as salary.

 

[Energon]

Originally posted by aphistis
What you're discussing sounds very much like a vocational apprenticeship. I don't know if I'd like that. Additionally, doing any sort of for-profit work would be a mess administratively for the school. Most (all?) dental schools are university-affiliated, and universities are non-profit institutions.

I do agree something needs to be done, though.

I think vocational training is the way to go. Talk to any residency/PG director, they will always say how dental schools dont teach their students anything. In a way its true. Most of the faculty you see are really old and do things their way. Like I said there is a huge generational gap. Dentistry is a very dynamic field more so than medicine (I dont know if that's good or bad) and the educational system needs to keep up.
Secondly, all the educational clinics will be university sponsored. Instead of building one huge structure with 300+ chairs, it will be smaller clinics spread out over a larger area catering to different populations. I dont think it will be an administrative mess.

These clinics should provide subsidized care for their patients but have a more active faculty practice. University hospitals are also "non profit" organizations but the smaller faculty group practices do profit sharing for their services... thats the only way they keep on attracting new faculty. I dont see why dentists cant base it on a similar model.

 

[Firm]

I THINK THAT IS A WONDERFUL IDEA. THERE ARE TOO MANY CHEFS IN THE KITCHEN WHEN IT COMES TO DENTAL EDUCATION.

 

[Energon]

unfortunately firm, not only are there too many chefs, most of them suck (unfortunate but true). Most of the guys are relics of pre historic dentistry that just dosn't have a place in the real world anymore.

 

[scandalouslj]

I dont know which schools you guys go to, but we have a pretty good mix of young and old teachers. If we opened practices in only middle income places and charged accordingly then you wouldnt get the wide range of cases or a large number of pateints which you see when a school is situated in a lower income neighborhood and charges a lot less. Finally like Gavin said our 4th year is a lot like that too, becuase we have main clinic and then 8 satillite clinics in the suburbs you could go work at. That way you have experience from both.