University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, 263 Farmington Ave., Farmington, CT 06030-3910;
J Dent Educ. 2013 Oct;77(10):1270-85.
The number of adults above sixty-five years of age in the United States will expand considerably over the next thirty years. However, many dentists believe that their dental education did not adequately prepare them to treat an older adult population. Consequently, it is important to review dental curricula to determine where these gaps in education may occur and what can be done to address them in order to improve access to care. In this study, information was gathered from the websites of sixty-two U.S. dental schools in order to understand the types of geriatric courses offered. This review revealed that while most schools (89 percent) provide their predoctoral students with some education in geriatrics, only fourteen (22.6 percent) offer clinical training specifically for older adult care. In addition, forty-three schools (69 percent) include a geriatric component in either their General Practice Residency or Advanced Education in General Dentistry programs or have a certificate program in geriatric dentistry. Only about 23 percent of the schools offer a continuing education course in geriatrics at any one time. Previous studies have shown that clinical training is the most effective method of increasing students' confidence in treating older patients. Consequently, dental schools should work to incorporate clinical experience into geriatric education to prevent widening an existing gap in older adult oral health care.
美国 65 岁以上成年人的数量在未来三十年将大幅增长。然而，许多牙医认为他们的牙科教育没有充分准备好为老年人群体提供治疗。因此，重要的是要审查牙科课程，以确定教育中的这些差距可能在哪里出现，并采取什么措施来解决这些差距，以改善获得护理的机会。在这项研究中，从 62 所美国牙科学校的网站上收集了信息，以了解提供的老年课程类型。这项审查表明，虽然大多数学校（89%）为其牙科学员提供一些老年医学教育，但只有 14 所（22.6%）提供专门针对老年护理的临床培训。此外，43 所学校（69%）在其普通实践住院医师或普通牙科进修课程中包含老年学部分，或有老年牙科证书课程。只有大约 23%的学校在任何时候都提供老年学继续教育课程。先前的研究表明，临床培训是提高学生治疗老年患者信心的最有效方法。因此，牙科学校应努力将临床经验纳入老年教育，以防止现有的老年人口口腔保健差距进一步扩大。
