Developing the next generation of leaders in oral health.

Given the challenges facing oral health providers as practitioners, community leaders, and educators, expanding dental curricula with an introductory course on leadership is timely and necessary. Such a course will sow the seeds of leadership by defining its importance in the dental profession and creating an understanding that the skills associated with leadership need to be developed over a lifetime. This article reports on a conference session in which a group of faculty members and students discussed the need and value of teaching leadership, compared leadership programs from four U.

Dental students' reflections on their experiences with a diverse patient population.

Recent developments, including national reports and new accreditation standards, have emphasized the need for dental students to be prepared to address the needs of a diverse patient population. The purpose of this study was to explore students' descriptions of and reflections on their day-to-day interactions with a diverse patient population in the clinical setting, using a qualitative approach. All dental students (sixty-six) enrolled in the third year of the D.

What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and dental student clinical performance?

Emotional intelligence has emerged as a key factor in differentiating average from outstanding performers in managerial and leadership positions across multiple business settings, but relatively few studies have examined the role of emotional intelligence in the health care professions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and dental student clinical performance. All third- and fourth-year students at a single U.

Leaders and emotional intelligence: a view from those who follow.

Abstract-Boyatzis and Goleman state that Emotional Intelligence (EI) "is an important predictor of success." In their book Primal Leadership, they refer to "the leadership competencies of emotional intelligence: how leaders handle themselves and their relationships." The leadership exercises reported here examined the practices of effective and ineffective leaders as identified by individuals who have worked under such leaders (ie, followers/subordinates).

Virtual reality distraction for pain control during periodontal scaling and root planing procedures.

Background: Although pain management during periodontal treatment usually is achieved with anesthesia, alternative methods are available. The authors conducted a study to evaluate the analgesic effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) during periodontal scaling and root planing (SRP) procedures.

Methods: The authors recruited 38 patients.

Tomorrow's leaders, starting today: a pilot leadership development program for dental students.

Effective leadership is vitally important as the dental profession strives to meet current and future challenges. Leadership development programs have been created for mid-career dental professionals, but the relative lack of such programs for dental students may represent a missed opportunity to cultivate the dental leaders of tomorrow. A pilot leadership development program for dental students is described in this article.

Concordance of chart and billing data with direct observation in dental practice.

Objectives: The commonly used methods of chart review, billing data summaries and practitioner self-reporting have not been examined for their ability to validly and reliably represent time use and service delivery in routine dental practice. A more thorough investigation of these data sources would provide insight into the appropriateness of each approach for measuring various clinical behaviors. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of commonly used methods such as dental chart review, billing data, or practitioner self-report compared with a 'gold standard' of information derived from direct observation of routine dental visits.

Leadership development for dental students: what do students think?

Effective leaders are needed to move the dental profession forward, building on past accomplishments, meeting new challenges, and leading innovation and change. There is a lack of research findings regarding students' perceptions of the importance of leadership abilities and/or their interest in developing leadership skills during their dental school experience. The purpose of this study was to explore dental students' perceptions related to leadership development.

Revisiting comfort: strategies observed in the direct observation study.

The Surgeon General's 2000 report on oral health found that one-third of adults in the U.S. had not visited a dentist in the previous year.

Patient receptivity to tobacco cessation counseling in an academic dental clinic: a patient survey.

Objective: This study investigated dental patient attitudes towards tobacco cessation counseling in the dental school setting.

Methods: Patients attending an academic dental clinic during a six-week period were asked to complete a 22-item self-administered survey. Means and frequency distributions were assessed on all variables as appropriate.

Students' perceptions of effective learning experiences in dental school: a qualitative study using a critical incident technique.

Students' views of their educational experience can be an important source of information for curriculum assessment. Although quantitative methods, particularly surveys, are frequently used to gather such data, fewer studies have employed qualitative methods to examine students' dental education experiences. The purpose of this study is to explore characteristics of effective learning experiences in dental school using a qualitative method.

Early clinical experience for first-year dental students.

Over the past three years we have exposed our first-year dental students at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine to an early clinical experience. Following a seventy-two-hour didactic and laboratory course, first-year students spend over 100 hours treating school children in twenty-eight elementary and middle schools in the Cleveland Municipal School District. Not only do dental students learn a clinical procedure, but more importantly they experience the need for health care, in particular, dental care among those less fortunate than themselves.

Attitudes of incoming dental students toward tobacco cessation promotion in the dental setting.

Dentists can play an important role in helping patients quit using tobacco. The aim of this study was to investigate incoming dental students' attitudes toward tobacco cessation promotion in the dental setting. Such attitudes can impact students' receptivity to training and subsequent involvement in tobacco cessation promotion.