MISSION & GOALS
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Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine believes dental education must prepare future general practioners to provide oral health care services to a diverse population. Not only this, but dentists must provide this care competently and ethically, assimilate continually improving approaches to patient care through lifelong learning, and assume a responsible role in shaping the profession's future. |
To meet oral health care needs, general practice dentistry requires today's graduates to have strong skills in restoring and replacing teeth and in periodontal therapy. An estimated 200 million Americans have experienced dental caries and periodontal disease and will have continuing maintenance needs for the rest of their lives.
Changes in the population's profile indicate an accelerated trend in the numbers of medically compromised and geriatric patients. As the population ages and the number of people with chronic diseases increases, practioners must integrate of medical, biological, psychosocial, and dental sciences to provide comprehensive evaluation and responsible treatment of patients.
The scientific basis for general practice is grounded in biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and epidemiological research. Continual changes in the scientific basis underpinning practice require today's graduates to use evidenced-based reasoning to identify and apply new methods that improve patient care and reshape standards for care. Students who enter the DMD program in the early part of the twenty-first century will likely be practicing dentistry through 2040. It is reasonable to expect that, over the next ten to twenty years, researchers in molecular biology and genetic engineering will find better ways to control dental caries and periodontal disease. Biomaterials researchers will create new materials and techniques leading to restorations that last longer. General practice requires graduates to upgrade knowledge and skills repeatedly through self-directed learning, to access information independently, to think critically as they evaluate changes in the health care environment, and to solve new and unique problems throughout their careers.
Given the nature of both existing and emerging general practice dentistry, today's graduates must possess scientific, technical, and intellectual knowledge and skill; a well-integrated working knowledge of biomedical, psychosocial, and dental sciences; evidence-based thinking that enables critical assessment and application of new approaches to patient care; and skills for accessing information in support of lifelong learning. The curriculum at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine gives its graduate these skills.