Empathy in Dentistry: How Attitudes and Interaction With Older Adults Make a Difference.

The development of empathy and positive attitudes are essential elements of professional education. This study explored the nature of empathy and its association with attitudes about, and exposure to older patients in a sample of dental students. Students completed an adapted version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) and answered questions about their exposure to older people.

Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) for Clinical and Research Applications: recommendations of the International RDC/TMD Consortium Network* and Orofacial Pain Special Interest Group†.

Aims: The original Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) Axis I diagnostic algorithms have been demonstrated to be reliable. However, the Validation Project determined that the RDC/TMD Axis I validity was below the target sensitivity of ≥ 0.70 and specificity of ≥ 0.

Dental students' attitudes about older adults: do type and amount of contact make a difference?

This study was an extension of a previous study that considered dental student attitudes about older adults. In the current study, the association of student interactions with older adults, in both the dental school clinic and daily life, with their attitudes about this group was evaluated using the Aging Semantic Differential. A total of 311 dental students across all four years of academic standing were included in the study.

The challenges of defining oral cancer: analysis of an ontological approach.

An important inconsistency currently exists in the literature on oral cancer. Reviewing this literature, one finds that the term oral cancer is defined and described with great variation. In a search in PubMed, at least 17 different terms were found for titles of papers reporting data on oral cancer.

Factors that influence dental students' attitudes about older adults.

Our study considered dental students' general attitudes towards older persons using the Aging Semantic Differential. The influence of age, gender, cohort, education, and academic exposure on general attitudes towards older adults was evaluated using a total of 328 dental students across all four years of academic standing. Students were assessed in the fall and spring semesters.

The OBO Foundry: coordinated evolution of ontologies to support biomedical data integration.

The value of any kind of data is greatly enhanced when it exists in a form that allows it to be integrated with other data. One approach to integration is through the annotation of multiple bodies of data using common controlled vocabularies or 'ontologies'. Unfortunately, the very success of this approach has led to a proliferation of ontologies, which itself creates obstacles to integration.

The qualitative and time-dependent character of spatial relations in biomedical ontologies.

Motivation: The formal representation of mereological aspects of canonical anatomy (parthood relations) is relatively well understood. The formal representation of other aspects of canonical anatomy, such as connectedness and adjacency relations between anatomical parts, their shape and size as well as the spatial arrangement of anatomical parts within larger anatomical structures are, however, much less well understood and represented in existing computational anatomical and bio-medical ontologies only insufficiently.

Results: In this article, we provide a methodology of how to incorporate this kind of information into anatomical and bio-medical ontologies by applying techniques of representing qualitative spatial information from Artificial Intelligence.

More than a set of teeth: assessing and enhancing dental students' perceptions of older adults.

Dental professionals play a key role in maintaining the well-being of older adults by identifying problems that disturb systemic health. A 3-part instrument was used to assess dental students' knowledge of aging, comfort with patient diversity and patient care strategies (Years 1-4; N = 321). Collaborative education and services were developed by the Schools of Dental Medicine and Social Work.

The Significance of SNODENT.

SNODENT is a dental diagnostic vocabulary incompletely integrated in SNOMED-CT. Nevertheless, SNODENT could become the de facto standard for dental diagnostic coding. SNODENT's manageable size, the fact that it is administratively self-contained, and relates to a well-understood domain provides valuable opportunities to formulate and test, in controlled experiments, a series of hypothesis concerning diagnostic systems.

Improving patient retention and access to oral health care: the CARES program.

Improving access to dental care for patients experiencing barriers such as financial, transportation, or mental health is a public health concern. Dental schools have an obligation to assist patients experiencing such barriers as well as to educate future dentists and allied professionals on how to assist these patients in overcoming barriers. Once admitted to the dental clinic, retention issues can further complicate the provision of dental care.

Biodynamic ontology: applying BFO in the biomedical domain.

We propose a modular formal ontology of the biomedical domain with two components, one for biological objects, corresponding broadly to anatomy, and one for biological processes, corresponding broadly to physiology. The result constitutes what might be described as a joint venture between two perspectives--of so-called three-dimensionalism and four-dimensionalism--which are normally regarded as incompatible. We outline an approach which allows them to be combined together, and provide examples of its application in biomedicine.

Coexistent concerns: assessing the social and health needs of dental clinic patients.

University dental clinic professionals identified increasing numbers of patients with complex problems and generated 2 research questions: (1) Are there significant health and social concerns within the dental clinic population that indicate the need for high-risk screening and social work services?; and (2) How do age, gender, and income influence health and social concerns in this population? This exploratory descriptive cross-sectional study employed a brief self-report survey in a clinic waiting area. Logistic regression was used to understand the influence of age, gender and income on the existence of specific concerns. Results indicate that caregiving, finances and health are issues for 1/3 of the participants and that 44% endorsed 2 or more concerns.

Understanding dental students' knowledge and perceptions of older people: toward a new model of geriatric dental education.

Increasing numbers of older people and the decreasing rates of edentulism highlight the importance of dental education that focuses on oral health and aging. This evaluation study assessed dental students' knowledge and beliefs about older people as well as their awareness of the biopsychosocial concerns that are potential barriers to oral health care. Dental students' (N=202) knowledge and perceptions of older people were evaluated before and after the first year of a new educational program.