A survey of Canadian pediatric dentists: practice characteristics and views on dental education.

The success of caries prevention in the developed countries has resulted in a marked decline in dental disease, especially in pediatric divisions of dental faculties, where an acute problem is finding patients to provide students with the clinical experience they will require in practice. It has become apparent that this changing disease pattern should be accompanied by a re-thinking of educational strategies and objectives to mirror the times and projected trends. While changes in educational strategies will likely be initiated from within the dental faculties, debate and discussion should include those in private practice as well as the academic field. With this in mind, 85 pediatric dentists nation-wide were surveyed regarding their views on educational matters as well as characteristics of their practice and their general profiles. There was widespread agreement on the need for changes in educational strategies and suggestions were made regarding the directions these changes should take.