Clinical education in dentistry. In light of form & content issues.

Dentistry exists to serve people in need of medical care, with special focus on oral and maxillofacial care. In order to perform at the most optimal level in today's society, dental practitioners must be attuned to and be able to respond to assessed changes in the dental needs of the general population it serves. In what other way can the profession of dentistry meet this need unless future practitioners are given the education and tools, in light of these changes, to do so? With the publication of the Institute of Medicine study on the future of dental education in 1995 and the Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health in 2000, the need for greater integration and collaboration of dental schools with medicine is becoming more apparent. Aside from just expanding the medical content of the curriculum, are there ways to enhance the integration of that medical knowledge into patient-focused comprehensive care in the clinic? Perhaps lessons relating to this question can be gleaned from both the history of dental education and from the medical model of student education.