Exploring motivational interviewing and its philosophical alignment to an undergraduate behavioural science programme in dentistry

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client‐centred, directive, therapeutic approach that enhances clients' readiness to change by exploring their ambivalence about doing so, thus increasing their motivation to change, and by helping them to commit to the process of change. MI is now being applied to dentistry in the area of oral health e.g. smoking cessation and the prevention of early childhood caries. This aligns dentistry with other healthcare professions in their focus on utilising MI to bring about behavioural change. This paper focuses on how the profession of dentistry would benefit from examining how to integrate MI both in undergraduate teaching and practice. Currently the teaching focus in relation to MI has centred on the theoretical content and less on underlying philosophy. This paper explores how a teaching philosophy, as delivered in the behavioural science programme in the School of Dentistry, University College Cork, Ireland, can provide a framework for teaching MI. Key components within this teaching philosophy are: teaching for understanding, developing reflective practice and student‐centred teaching.     

Oral health students’ perceptions of clinical reflective learning – relevance to their development as evolving professionals

Context: A clinical professional should be a reflective practitioner, however reflective learning and deliberate clinical reflections have not traditionally featured in dentistry or dental hygiene programs. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies exploring the perceptions of oral health students to reflective learning and clinical reflective practices. Aim: This study determined student perceptions of clinical reflective learning and its relevance to their clinical and professional development. Methods: Reflective learning was embedded as a topic in the curriculum of the University of Queensland Bachelor of Oral Health program, within the discipline of dental hygiene practice. Reflective practices were integrated with clinical practice, and were linked with assessment requirements. Students’ perceptions of clinical reflective learning were obtained via quantitative and qualitative analyses of sequenced questionnaires. Computer‐assisted thematic analyses of the students’ reflective journals, reflective essays and summary notes from in‐class group discussions validated students’ perceptions. Results: Students (n = 17) perceived clinical reflective learning as relevant, and useful for consolidating their clinical learning and accelerating their professional development. In particular, students gained insights about their strengths and weaknesses, thought more deeply about what they were doing in the clinic, and unpacked difficult concepts. Conclusion:  Students views of clinical reflective learning in this program were positive. They believed that the deliberate reflective process assisted their clinical learning and professional development.     

History of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry: A 50‐year perspective

This paper demonstrates how the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD) arose from small beginnings in 1967. What started as an International Forum on Child Dental Health in London grew to become first the International Association of Dentistry for Children and then the outstanding IAPD with biennial Congresses, regional meetings, cooperation with other children's organizations, Teach the Teachers programmes, a wonderful website, and this International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry. There are now 70 national member societies worldwide representing over 16 000 members with a single interest: to further the oral health care of children. It is a truly remarkable achievement.     

Self‐reported gagging in dentistry: prevalence,psycho‐social correlates and oral health

Although gagging has a profound effect on the delivery of dental care, it is a relatively under‐investigated phenomenon. This study aimed to derive a prevalence estimate of gagging during dental treatment based on patient‐reported information, to determine some socio‐demographic and psychological correlates and to assess the relationship of gagging with self‐reported oral health and avoidance of dental care. Data were collected with a survey among Dutch twin families (n = 11 771). Estimated overall prevalence of gagging during dental treatment was 8·2% (95% CI 7·7–8·7). Patients' self‐report of gagging was found to be significantly associated with female sex, a lower level of education and higher levels of dental trait anxiety, gagging‐related fears (e.g. fear of objects in the mouth), anxious depression and neuroticism. Gagging also appeared to be significantly associated with untreated cavities, gingival bleeding and wearing full dentures, but not with avoidance of dental care. It can be concluded that individuals who report to gag during dental treatment are moderately dentally anxious, fear‐specific situations that can trigger a gagging response and, albeit visiting the dentist equally frequently, report to have a poorer oral health compared to those who do not gag.     

Awareness,knowledge and practice of evidence‐based dentistry amongst dentists in Kuwait

This study assessed the awareness, knowledge and practice of evidence‐based dentistry (EBD) amongst dentists working in the public sector in Kuwait. Of the 150 randomly selected dentists from all five health districts in Kuwait who had originally been approached, 120 participated by completing a pre‐tested, self‐administered questionnaire (80% response rate). Whereas 60.9% of the group stated that they practice EBD most of the time, fewer (40.8%) had a reasonable understanding of EBD based upon tested knowledge scores of EBD‐related topics. Clinical decisions appeared to be mostly based on the clinician’s own judgment (73.3%) rather than on evidence‐based sources such as PubMed (28.3%) or the Cochrane Library (6.7%). A number of within‐group differences were noted, with women (P < 0.05), those working in a particular district (P < 0.05), those with <10 years’ experience (P = 0.05), those whose first dental qualification had been obtained in Kuwait (P < 0.05), and those who had had any EBD training (P < 0.05) showing greater knowledge of EBD. Training in EBD was felt necessary by a majority of the group, and this may be facilitated if dental centres have access to evidence‐based sources to remove some of the possible barriers to implementation of EBD.     

From dental science to clinical practice: Knowledge translation and evidence-based dentistry principles

It has been claimed that in order to decrease the gap between what we know and what we do, research findings must be translated from knowledge to action. Such practices better enable dentists to make evidence-based decisions instead of personal ideas and judgments. To this end, this literature review aims to revisit the concepts of knowledge translation and evidence-based dentistry (EBD) and depict their role and influence within dental education. It addresses some possible strategies to facilitate knowledge translation (KT), encourage dental students to use EBD principles, and to encourage dental educators to create an environment in which students become self-directed learners. It concludes with a call to develop up-to-date and efficient online platforms that could grant dentists better access to EBD sources in order to more efficiently translate research evidence into the clinic.     

The transition to self‐regulated learning for first‐year dental students: threshold concepts

Research shows that when students arrive at university they are often not prepared for independent learning. New students enter a period of transition during their first year, which is often characterised by emotional destabilisation, as they move towards becoming more self‐regulating in their new learning environment. In this small‐scale qualitative study, data from an in‐depth pair interview were triangulated with data from a questionnaire, to explore participants' experiences of self‐regulated learning in the first year of a Dental Surgery course. Five threshold concepts relating to learning in transition emerged from the analysis of the data. These concepts were as follows: learning how to learn using a range of self‐chosen sources instead of a single textbook, learning how to organise incoming information without guidance, distinguishing between main ideas and detail during revision, coping with a heavy workload, and knowing what to expect from examinations and coursework. Strong emotions (feeling confused, overwhelmed and scared) were associated with negotiating these threshold concepts. However, the study illustrates how the participants adopted new cognitive and metacognitive strategies to become more self‐regulating over time. The findings of the study suggest that lecturers, tutors, study advisers and peers all have an important role to play in explicitly guiding first‐year students as they grapple with troublesome threshold concepts relating to self‐regulated learning. Furthermore, structural changes to the content‐heavy, lecture‐based curricula often associated with first‐year Medical and Dental courses would help ease students’ transition to independent learning, which may make an impact on student attainment.     

Dental students' ability to locate emergency equipment‐lessons learned from aviation

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dental student's ability to locate medical emergency equipment/items at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry clinic.

Methods

A total of 138 second‐year dental students (traditional group) participated in this study as part of a simulation‐based medical emergencies rotation course held during the winter term of 2014 and 2015. Without prior training, students were tested on their ability to locate nine predetermined items on the clinic floor using a self‐reported checklist. Six months later, a convenience sample of 18 students (novel group) from the same cohort were later trained on their location and retested individually.

Results

Of the 138 students tested, only 10.14% students could locate seven of the nine items when compared to 100% in the novel group. Only 5.07% of students in the traditional group could locate all items initially, compared with 72.22% students in the novel group.

Conclusion

Whilst our students have lecture‐based knowledge about medical emergencies, the results of our study identified a gap of knowledge of emergency equipment/item location amongst students. Therefore, an intervention performed with a similar group of second‐year dental students supported that proper training may be used to achieve retention of knowledge. Based on our “novel group” results, we have incorporated targeted training in the dental curriculum that leads to students being better prepared in locating emergency equipment/items. This study suggests that other populations, such as faculty or staff, may also benefit from hands‐on training.