Securing Public Trust: Dentistry, SARS-CoV-2, and "Testing for Tomorrow".

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic created societal upheaval well beyond what anyone, but the oldest of Americans, has seen in their lifetime. As the pandemic begins to subside, it is leaving behind a legacy of permanently changed practices, including enhanced environmental controls in clinical settings, reconsideration of modes of personal protective equipment outsourcing, changes and/or reinterpretation of dental practice acts, and entirely new approaches to testing and vaccine design, among many others. This article focuses on one change that the authors hope will prevail: greater trust in the dental profession as a valuable public resource during healthcare crises.

Meeting commentary: Santa Fe Group Salon Expanding Oral Healthcare for America's Seniors, September 28-30, 2016.

A meeting to explore ways to expand access to oral health care for seniors-possibly by expanding a dental benefit in Medicare-was convened in Arlington, VA, by the Santa Fe Group. Four factors motivated the meeting: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The model Medicare dental benefit presented generated much discussion. There was agreement that any dental benefit must attract participating dentists.

Identifying unaddressed systemic health conditions at dental visits: patients who visited dental practices but not general health care providers in 2008.

We assessed the proportion and characteristics of patients who do not regularly visit general health care providers but do visit dentists and whose unaddressed systemic health conditions could therefore be identified by their dentist. Of the 26.0% of children and 24.

Connecting dental education to other health professions.

The health care delivery system is poised for substantial change in the coming years. The foremost vector driving this change is economics. However, use of evidence-based principles of practice and a high desire, if not a national mandate, for increased quality in health care delivery are also very important factors.

Teaching implant dentistry in the predoctoral curriculum: a report from the ADEA Implant Workshop's survey of deans.

In 2004, a survey of the deans of U.S. and Canadian dental schools was conducted to determine the implant dentistry curriculum structure and the extent of incorporating implant dentistry clinical treatment into predoctoral programs.

Introducing a senior course on catastrophe preparedness into the dental school curriculum.

This article describes an integrated fourth-year course in catastrophe preparedness for students at the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD). The curriculum is built around the competencies proposed in "Predoctoral Dental School Curriculum for Catastrophe Preparedness," published in the August 2004 Journal of Dental Education. We highlight our experience developing the program and offer suggestions to other dental schools considering adding bioterrorism studies to their curriculum.

Dentistry, nursing, and medicine: a comparison of core competencies.

Health care, including oral health care and oral health education, is under great stress in the United States. The cost of and access to care, the cost of dental education, and a shortage of educators have led leaders in dental education, organized dentistry, and the public sector to underscore the problem. One of the proposed solutions is to find synergies and new health care and education models by building bridges among the health professions.

Meeting a disaster's medical surge demand: can dentists help?

No one can deny that these are extraordinary times in world affairs. This is true not because there is turmoil in the world, which tends to be the norm, but because the problems in the world are dominated not by countries or religions, but by individuals and radical sects for whom life seems far too expendable. It is a time for each of us to determine how to respond to help protect our families.

Predoctoral dental school curriculum for catastrophe preparedness.

Preparing for catastrophic events, both human-made and natural, is in the national interest and has become a priority since catastrophic events in Oklahoma City, Washington, DC, and New York City. Dentists are a large source of non-physician health manpower that could contribute to the public welfare during catastrophic events that require additional public health human resources. Dentists, by virtue of their education, understand biomedical concepts and have patient care skills that can be directly applied during a catastrophic event.

Capacity for training in clinical research: status and opportunities.

The ability to base patient care on scientific evidence depends in part on the results of translational and applied research. The shortage of trained clinical researchers identified by several sources limits the availability of clinical research studies upon which to base evidence-based therapeutics. This premise suggests that the dental profession needs to train more clinical researchers and faculty to conduct clinical research and to teach its applications to practice.

Bioterrorism and catastrophe response: a quick-reference guide to resources.

Background: Dentists' responses to catastrophe have been redefined by bioterrorism. Informed response requires accurate information about agents and diseases that have the potential to be used as weapons.

Methods: The authors reviewed information about the most probable bioterrorist weapons (those from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Category A) from the World Wide Web and print journals and distilled it into a resource list that is current, relevant to dentistry and noncommercial.