Benefits from peer teaching in the dental gross anatomy laboratory.

This study examined the impact of implementing a rotating dissection schedule on the attitudes and performance of first-year dental students in the gross anatomy laboratory at the University of Kentucky. In 2002-2003, half of the students assigned to each cadaver dissected the assigned objectives during the first 90 min of the laboratory session. During the last 30 min, the non-dissecting group members came into the laboratory and had the day's dissection demonstrated and explained to them via peer instruction.

Enhancing the dental histology curriculum using computer technology.

The predominant difference between the histology offered to dental students and that taken by other health care professionals is the emphasis placed on the oral tissues. The oral histology component of the dental curriculum is commonly handled in one of three ways, all delivering far more detailed information than the often less than one hour that a typical medical histology course spends on the oral cavity and its component tissues. Overall, three general curricular styles can be defined: 1) dental histology is taught by medical or dental faculty as a separate course, the oral histology component being a separate course taught by either faculty group; 2) medical and dental students take histology together in a single class with the oral histology component taught separately by faculty from either college; and 3) both basic and oral histology is taught within a single semester, the format used at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry.

Making gross anatomy relevant to dental students.

This paper describes the curriculum design and enhancements of dental gross anatomy courses at three universities in North America. The greatest problem for gross anatomy faculty is making the regions of the body below the neck relevant to dental students for their future clinical education as well as the longer term dental practice. The proposed solutions demonstrated in the three courses range from satisfying the student's grade and test requirements, such as passing the anatomical sciences section of the National Board Dental Examination Part I, to making the material relevant to clinical dentistry.