Helping Dental Students Manage Stress
Though previous studies have been conducted on dental students and stress, this qualitative study by Dr. Dahan and Dr. Bedos is distinctive in developing a clear typology of how dental students experience stress. They found three types of students - relaxed, moderately stressed, and highly stressed - and identified the characteristics of those who use effective coping strategies and those who do not. This study should give educators new ideas for developing ways to help students who are struggling with stress.
Effects of Tobacco Counseling by Dental Students
Dr. Shibly reports on his dental school's implementation of a tobacco counseling cessation program for students in clinic. The follow-up assessment, questioning both students and their patients, found that students' counseling was effective in convincing patients to reduce smoking, quit, and remain smoke-free. This study illustrates the impact dental students, and by extension practicing dentists, can have on reducing their patients' tobacco use and thus contributing to their oral and systemic health.
RPD Experience of U.S. Prosthodontic Residents
This cross-sectional study by Dr. Bidra and Dr. Agar, the first to quantify the clinical experience of prosthodontic residents with removable partial dentures (RPDs) across the United States, found that their experience varied greatly based on year of training and the geographic location and nature of their program. These results provide baseline information for future studies on trends and will allow individual programs to compare themselves to national averages.
Three articles present evaluations of innovative educational methodologies:
- Dr. Wright and Prof. Hendricson studied the incidence of use and the effectiveness of a 3-D interactive tooth atlas in dental anatomy and endodontics courses.
- Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Okunseri assessed predoctoral dental students' experience with a caries risk assessment computer program in the pediatric dentistry clinic.
- Dr. Badner et al. developed specific evaluable action statements to assess the competency-based performance of AEGD residents providing care to medically compromised patients in a community clinic.
Poster and TechExpo Abstracts
This issue also includes the abstracts of posters that will be presented at the 2010 ADEA Annual Session, as well as abstracts of presentations at the TechExpo held at the same event.