Using Interprofessional Education to Promote Oral Health Literacy in a Faculty-Student Collaborative Practice.

The aim of this study was to assess the oral health literacy knowledge gained by patients who are refugees, community members, and medical and nursing students after participating in an interprofessional education collaborative of students and faculty from the University of Texas Health San Antonio Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, and Nursing. In this faculty-student collaborative practice, all patients were triaged (including oral hygiene status and alcohol/tobacco use), and tailored treatment options were offered following assessment of their dental, medical, and social histories. The study was designed as a pre-post assessment of an educational intervention on oral health literacy.

Clinical evaluation of an enhanced white light and fluorescence device for early detection of caries lesions.

Objective: Sensitivity of a device based on Fluorescence Imaging with Reflectance Enhancement (FIRE) in detecting a potential incipient lesion (PIL) was compared with visual examination to demonstrate non-inferiority to it.

Methods: Visual examination (VE) and an investigational device (ID) were used to detect PIL (actual incipient caries [AIC] and hypomineralization). Seventeen subjects satisfied data analysis criteria.

Visual scoring of non cavitated caries lesions and clinical trial efficiency, testing xylitol in caries-active adults.

Objectives: To better understand the effectiveness of xylitol in caries prevention in adults and to attempt improved clinical trial efficiency.

Methods: As part of the Xylitol for Adult Caries Trial (X-ACT), non cavitated and cavitated caries lesions were assessed in subjects who were experiencing the disease. The trial was a test of the effectiveness of 5 g/day of xylitol, consumed by dissolving in the mouth five 1 g lozenges spaced across each day, compared with a sucralose placebo.

Rethinking tenure in dental education.

In the midst of changes in the environment of academic dentistry over the past two decades, reform of traditional tenure is one way for dental schools to respond to these changes while maintaining scholarly, evidence-based learning environments. Challenges facing academic dentistry today and in the future include a crisis in workforce capacity, difficulty attracting recent graduates into academic positions, overburdened faculty members with limited time for scholarly activity, loss of tenured faculty members due to retirement, and a potentially diminished voice for dental schools within the parent university. The purpose of this opinion article is to suggest ways to reform the current tenure system in dental education as a means of improving recruitment and retention of new faculty members while maintaining or increasing scholarly activity within dental schools.