The Impending Oral Health Crisis.

Last May, the New York State Dental Association and the New York State Dental Foundation convened the first "Oral Health Stakeholders' Summit on the Future of Special Needs Dentistry, Hospital Dentistry and Dental Education." The summit was chaired by David J. Miller, then NYSDA President Elect, and Carl H.

Dental licensure reaches a crossroads: the rationale and method for reform.

Following calls to reform the dental licensure process, New York state has adopted an innovative approach that is responsive to the perceived shortcomings of the existing Part III examination. This solution eliminates the legally, psychometrically, and ethically compromised system, replacing it with a requirement that both ensures the public's protection and gives the new dentist additional experience in contemporary procedures in a supervised setting. The best preparation for the practice of dentistry is the practice of dentistry--something so profound and simple; yet it constitutes the core of New York's revolutionary reform.

Banning live patients as test subjects on licensing examinations.

The use of live patients on the licensing examinations was a part of dentistry for almost the entire twentieth century and continues up until today. Considerable new debate about the appropriateness of using live patients as test subjects began in the mid-1990s and culminated in the passage of a resolution in the American Dental Association's year 2000 House of Delegates calling for an end to this practice by the year 2005. The live patient examination tests a narrow range of clinical skills, creates ethical dilemmas for candidates, for the host institution, and for the profession, and is unable to distinguish between those ready to assume independent practice from those who are not yet at that level of competence.