Improving the oral health of Alaska Natives.

There is a high prevalence of oral disease in the Alaska Native population, much of which goes untreated, creating a large discrepancy between the level of their oral health and that of the general population. The causes of this discrepancy are multiple--a major cause being the lack of access to care, especially in remote Alaska Native villages. Improving the oral health status of Alaska Natives will require treatment of current disease and initiation of an effective program to prevent oral disease. Cooperation between the Alaska Native organizations, dental health aides, the dental profession, and the government will be important. A strategy that combines addressing the disease currently present and preventing the occurrence of disease in the long run is the only strategy that offers a sustainable solution.

2.3 Towards global convergence of education, training, quality, outcome and assessment.

The purpose of this section's report is to propose strategies which will help those committed to promoting and implementing higher standards in dental education. There is a wide variety of systems throughout the world. These systems are developed, governed, operated and applied differently. Their standards, whether they are controlled by governments (federal and/or state), councils, universities or professional organizations are frequently determined cooperatively with dental educators, so that there is often some agreement among interested constituencies as to the content and application of the standards. These standards, whether they be called 'accreditation standards"requirements' or 'guidelines' (formal or informal), or written as laws or statutes reflect a region's history, traditions, culture and socio-economic realities. The emphasis in this report will be on the development of an organic or growing electronic database containing worldwide information relating to standards in dental education. This database might contain or be linked with similar sources detailing, inter alia, best practices, innovations and core values as they relate to the convergence of standards in education, professional training, continuous quality analysis, assessment and outcome. The linking of such a database to others containing electronic curricular modules, clinical management and practice information needs to be further developed.