The American College of Prosthodontists (ACP) has released a curriculum designed to prepare dental students and specialty residents to use advanced digital technology throughout diagnosis, assessment, and treatment in patient care. It is now available to all dental schools in the United States at no cost. According to the ACP, the five pilot schools that have used it all rated it as “very useful.”
“The Digital Dentistry Curriculum offers educators the resources needed to deliver a transformational education focused on emerging digital technologies in dentistry,” said Lyndon F. Cooper, DDS, PhD, associate dean for research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry. “By driving change in dental education, we are effectively accelerating the adoption of digital dentistry for the profession.”
Created by a task force of prosthodontic educators with input from dozens of institutions and individuals, the curriculum encompasses all four years of predoctoral and advanced education in prosthodontics, the ACP reports. In 2017, the curriculum was piloted at five dental schools, with all reporting positive outcomes and ease of integration with existing programs of study, according to the organization.
Each year, approximately 6,000 new dentists graduate and 150 new prosthodontists complete specialty training, the ACP says. Patients will benefit from the improved communication, comfort, and quality of oral healthcare that practitioners acquire from the curriculum, it adds. The curriculum was made possible through a grant from the ACP Education Foundation (ACPEF) thanks to an unrestricted grant from Henry Schein.
“Henry Schein shares the ACPEF’s deep commitment to help accelerate the adoption of digital dentistry through education. We are pleased to have supported the development of the groundbreaking Digital Dentistry Curriculum, along with our valued supplier partners,” said Stanley M. Bergman, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Henry Schein.
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