There has been a lot of discussion online recently on the adequacy of clinical experience at dental school, and whether graduates are performing a sufficient quantity of certain complex procedures such as crowns or endodontic treatment. What this discussion often misses is that quantity is not a substitute for quality. Although we might think that practice makes perfect, it’s not just a matter of repetition or meeting quotas.
Dental education, like any form of education, is a beginning and not an end. It starts the journey, equipping graduates with knowledge and skills that can then be built on, and indeed must be built on, over time. It also equips graduates to adapt as the profession changes and adapts.
Edward de Bono had this to say about education:
Education has, historically, been concerned with knowledge. You learned operating values in a long apprenticeship to your master. The purpose of education was to give knowledge to the knowledge users. Knowledge is easy to teach, and easy to test. But is knowledge enough? When a student leaves school they have to start operating in the future. Decisions, choices, alternatives, plans, initiatives. Even if we could have complete knowledge about the past, the use of the knowledge for future action requires ‘thinking’. To the knowledge base we must add the thinking skills of doing.
De Bono is reinforcing this point about education as the start of the journey. We need to build on the skills and knowledge we have been taught, and apply those to future actions.
Of course, a focus on the number of complex procedures also misses the point that being a health practitioner is about much more than just technical skills, and we need to consider our roles as physicians of the mouth – doctors who teach and advocate for their patients to prevent disease, not just tooth technicians who repair the damage after the event.
Being a competent dental practitioner is about much more than just surgical skills.
In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I discuss these issues of dental education, professional identity and what it means to be a dentist. You can listen to the podcast here, and it is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts - don’t forget to follow/subscribe, and share with your friends.
Previous Episodes
In case you missed it, you can catch up with the previous episodes of the Dental As Anything podcast here.
Episode 1: Mouthwash
Episode 2: Ethics, professionalism and the imagination
Episode 3: Public dental funding lacks teeth, but is change coming?
Episode 4: If in doubt, fill ... dogma, myths and clinical judgement in caries management.
Episode 5: How will artificial intelligence change dentistry?
Episode 6: The ethics of artificial intelligence
Episode 7: Do we have too many dentists?
Dentists – physicians of the mouth, or glorified carpenters?