Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:During the COVID-19 pandemic, dental institutions were challenged to rapidly adapt to the inability of teaching in-person lectures and pre-clinical simulations. Strategies had to be quickly developed to guarantee the safety of faculty and students, while also adhering to national guidelines to ensure that educational standards were met and students' graduations and entrance into residency programs were not delayed. This literature review assesses the novel strategies that dental schools created and implemented to teach in a distance-learning platform and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies. In addition, this review talks about the lessons learned during the pandemic and the incorporation of successful strategies after the pandemic ended. METHODS:This review evaluated the literature using PubMed and ScienceDirect with the following keywords: "teaching strategies," "dental education," and "COVID-19." The search strategy yielded 15 articles that assessed relevant teaching strategies that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS:The literature described the swift response of dental institutions in implementing teaching strategies in response to the inability of continuing in-person teaching. An overwhelming majority of institutions moved their didactic lectures to online platforms. Several institutions implemented online simulations with virtual reality models, videos and discussion boards, standardized patient actors, and case-based discussions. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Many of the teaching strategies that were implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic were highly effective. Dental schools were able to satisfy Commission on Dental Accreditation standards and meet students' requirements for graduation during the pandemic despite the rapid and unplanned shift away from in-person instruction and simulation secondary to the COVID-19 pandemic.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:Surgical specialties, including oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS), are traditionally male-dominated fields. This study aimed to analyze the proportions of female surgeons on specialty society boards and journal editorial boards in OMS in the United States and to assess whether they were proportionate with female representation in OMS academic faculty between 2011 and 2020. METHODS:A retrospective cohort study was performed using information obtained from the websites of two major OMS journals and information obtained directly from six American specialty societies for OMS. The predictor variable was time. The outcome variable was gender. Temporal changes in the proportion of women on society and journal editorial boards were compared with those amongst full-time board-certified faculty. Chi-squared test and simple linear regression were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS:Between 2011 and 2020, the proportion of women on editorial and society boards was 6.7% (31 women among 463 editorial board members) and 7.8% (43 women among 553 society board members), respectively. The proportion of women on editorial boards increased from 4.5% in 2011 to 10.6% in 2020 (β = 0.656 [95% confidence interval, 0.336-0.975], P = .001) and that of women on society boards increased from 4.3% in 2011 to 10.3% in 2020 (β = 0.645 [95% confidence interval, 0.252-1.037], P = .005). The proportion of women on editorial boards in 2011-2012 was significantly lower than that in full-time board-certified faculty positions (4.3% vs 11.0%, P = .045), whereas in 2019-2020, there was no difference between the two groups (9.8% vs 12.5%, P = .454). Similarly, the proportion of women on society boards in 2011-2012 tended to be lower than that in full-time board-certified faculty positions (5.6% vs 11.0%, P = .111), while in 2019-2020, no difference was observed between the 2 groups (10.4% vs 12.5%, P = .531). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:The proportion of women on society and journal editorial boards in OMS remains low but has progressively increased from 2011 to 2020, resulting in proportionate female representation in these positions compared with the gender composition of academic faculty in recent years. The current upward trend of female representation in leadership positions will hopefully present more diverse opportunities and mentorship/role models for trainees.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Traditional manikin training has limitations that virtual reality can address. This study investigated the effectiveness of two part-task training simulation methods, a virtual reality (VR Sim) vs a plastic manikin (PM Sim), on learning outcomes for local anaesthesia skills for second-year pre-clinical dental students. METHODS:In an experimental study, 58 second-year students were randomly assigned to one of two groups, VR Sim or PM Sim. Both groups completed the same pre-post survey. The VR Sim group practiced with a VR simulation, completed a built-in treatment test and a transfer test with a live person, and was evaluated by an expert teaching assistant (TA) with a rubric. The PM Sim group practiced with a plastic manikin and completed a treatment test on the same manikin evaluated by a TA, followed by the same transfer test with a live person and evaluated by a TA with a rubric. RESULTS: = 0.148. Scores on respective treatment tests were similar to final transfer test scores for each group suggesting differences were localised to the practice methods. Pre-survey results indicated participants had low prior experience with VR technology. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Whilst outcomes showed higher results for plastic manikin tutor training over the VR training method, they are complementary. As students practice more with the technology and the VR simulation they may improve further. Likewise, as the technology for haptics with VR improves beyond hand controllers so may the experience and learning of this skill for students.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of web-based patient simulations, a whole-task simulation, in oral surgery education for second-year pre-clinical dental students on learning outcomes regarding cognitive, psychomotor and professional interpersonal skills for two topics: local anaesthesia and non-surgical extractions. MATERIALS AND METHODS/METHODS:In 2018-19, using an experimental design in a live course, we evaluated two web-based patient simulations on student learning outcomes in an introductory course on oral maxillofacial surgery. The study was repeated across two semesters, Fall (N = 109) and Spring (N = 112), on two different topics, namely local anaesthesia and extractions, respectively. Learning outcomes were evaluated for each topic with two different assessment formats: a student-recorded role-play video project and a fifty-item multiple-choice test. RESULTS:For both topics, local anaesthesia and non-surgical extractions, students in the group, Web Sim, who used the web-based patient simulation over and above the online lesson material earned significantly higher scores in the role-play patient video project compared with the group, No Web Sim, who only used the online lesson materials. However, scores on the fifty-item multiple-choice test did not differ significantly between groups. CONCLUSIONS:The results suggest that the web-based patient simulation as a formative assessment type is a useful scaffolding tool for the summative student-recorded role-play patient video project due to the similarity in activity types that support clinical learning objectives.

The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the published literature on current educational techniques used to teach local anesthesia administration in U.S. dental schools to determine the methods by which potential complications may be minimized and efficacy maximized. A PubMed search was performed in June 2017 on the following terms: (local anesthesia, education, dental) AND (Humans[Mesh]). Out of 136 articles identified, 13 met the study criteria and were included for review. Of those, the nine with outcome measures were included in the qualitative synthesis. With a quality assessment tool designed for this study, the quality of each included article was assessed independently by three of the authors. Three main pedagogies were identified: didactic instruction based on textbooks and lectures, student-to-student injections, and use of anatomic models. However, the effects of these pedagogies on local anesthesia administration efficacy, patient satisfaction, and student confidence in administering local anesthesia were largely not assessed in these studies. Quality assessment of the reviewed articles yielded a mean score of 62% (range 44-83%) for the observational studies and a mean score of 56% (range 47-63%) for the interventional studies. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies assessed, no meta-analysis could be performed. While the experimental and observational studies reviewed provided some insight into the efficacy of current educational techniques, they had numerous methodological inconsistencies. The inconsistency of the available evidence made it difficult to make fully informed curriculum recommendations based on the existing literature.