Can a virtual learning module foster empathy in dental undergraduate students?

Background: Empathy is an essential part of patient-centred health care, which positively benefits both patients and clinicians. There is little agreement regarding how best to design and deliver training for healthcare trainees to impart the skills and behaviours of clinical empathy. The study aimed to inform the field by sharing an educational intervention where we aimed to improve empathy amongst dental undergraduate students in Trinity College Dublin using a virtual learning module.

What is it about carer-led oral hygiene interventions for people with intellectual disabilities that work and why? A realist review.

Objectives: To undertake a realist review of carer-led oral hygiene interventions for people with intellectual disabilities. This was run parallel with a Cochrane Review.

Methods: Realist review methods were followed.

Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to describe children referred to special care or paediatric dental services.

Children in dentistry are traditionally described in terms of medical diagnosis and prevalence of oral disease. This approach gives little information regarding a child's capacity to maintain oral health or regarding the social determinants of oral health. The biopsychosocial approach, embodied in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health - Child and Youth version (ICF-CY) (WHO), provides a wider picture of a child's real-life experience, but practical tools for the application of this model are lacking.