Maintaining a strong rural dental workforce.

AIMS: This study was designed to examine demographics of University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry graduates over a recent 10-year period and factors related to their choice of rural or urban practice. Findings were compared to similar previous studies to analyze trends. METHODS: Using data from the annual Health Professions Tracking Service 2019 Dentistry Profile survey, we examined the demographic information of 169 graduates from 2009 to 2018 practicing in Nebraska at the end of 2018. We analyzed factors such as rural or urban high school graduation, gender, and other background information to explore associations with their 2018 practice location (urban vs. rural) using chi-square tests and logistic regression. RESULTS: This study found that some demographic variables were associated with future practice location. Specifically, a higher proportion of graduates of rural high schools chose to work in a rural location (60%) relative to those who graduated from an urban high school (18%) (p < 0.0001). A higher proportion of men (50%) selected rural practice compared to women (33%) (p = 0.02). Only 17 graduates who attended high school outside of Nebraska stayed to practice in Nebraska, and there was a lower proportion of these graduates working in rural locations (18%) relative to in-state high school graduates (45%) (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: We found significant positive associations between dentists who chose rural practice and demographic factors such as being rural high school graduates, male, and in-state predental residents. Our findings differ from descriptive results of similar previous studies.

Factors contributing to student satisfaction with dental loupes and headlights.

PURPOSE: Surgical loupes and headlights are becoming standard equipment for dental professionals and students. Students often purchase these relatively expensive instruments with limited knowledge of which features will affect their satisfaction with use. The purpose of this study was to measure levels of satisfaction with loupes and headlights amongst dental and dental hygiene students after 1, 2 and 3 years of use, and use those findings to guide first-year students in making better purchasing decisions. METHODS: An electronic survey was sent to all second, third and fourth year dental students as well as second-year dental hygiene students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in October 2018. The survey asked students to respond to multiple questions with a 5-level Likert scale measurement of satisfaction and provide open-ended responses to questions about their loupes and headlights. RESULTS: Ninety-three percent of eligible students responded. Overall, 68% of students were very satisfied with their loupes and 56% were very satisfied with their headlights. Sixty-seven percent of dental students chose 3.5× magnification or higher and 96% of dental hygiene students chose 2.5×. CONCLUSIONS: Of all characteristics evaluated for loupes, customer service and sales representatives received the lowest satisfaction ratings. For headlights, battery-related factors (battery life in hours, rate of recharging, size or weight and on/off controls) received the lowest satisfaction scores. Information collected and reported in this way can help future students make better decisions when selecting products, vendors and features that will best meet their needs.

Qualifications and Characteristics North American Dental Deans Seek in Department Chairpersons.

The aim of this study was to determine whether deans of North American dental schools perceived that one category of department chairperson skills (leadership or management) was more important than the other for their chairpersons to be successful. A secondary purpose was to determine the professional qualifications and personal characteristics these deans perceived contributed most to the success of department chairpersons and whether those differed by the research emphasis of the school. An email survey was sent in 2016 to all 75 deans of U.S. and Canadian dental schools with graduating classes. Section one of the survey was an open response section asking deans to list the five most essential characteristics of a successful department chairperson. Section two asked deans to rank the importance of eight listed professional qualifications, and the last section asked deans to rate the importance of four leadership and four management traits that could contribute to the success of their chairpersons. Questions about characteristics of the deans and the schools were also included. A response rate of 46.7% was obtained. The most frequent characteristics listed in the open response section were in the categories of vision, academic expertise, and integrity. The three most highly ranked professional qualifications were previous teaching experience, previous administrative experience, and history of external research funding. Four of the eight professional qualifications were ranked differently by deans of high compared to moderate research-intensive schools (p<0.05). Overall, the respondents rated leadership skills more highly than management skills (p=0.002) as important for departmental chairpersons.

Current Status of Operation and Management of Dental School Clinics.

This article summarizes the current status of the operation and management of dental school clinics as schools strive to provide excellent patient-centered care in an environment that is educationally sound, efficient, and financially strong. Clinical education is a large component of dental education and an area in which many dental schools have an opportunity to enhance revenue. Clinical efficiencies and alternative models of clinical education are evolving in U.S. dental schools, and this article describes some of those evolutionary changes. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."

Improving the Fiscal Sustainability of Teaching Clinics at Dental Schools.

Educational patient care clinics are becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for dental schools. Revenue from clinics can help offset the rising cost of dental education. In addition, those clinics represent a source of income over which the schools have reasonably direct control. Recently, a group of nine U.S. dental schools conducted a detailed financial survey of their clinics and shared the confidential results with each other. The purpose of their analysis was to develop benchmarks for key factors related to clinical financial productivity and expenses and to define best practices to guide improvements at each school. The survey found significant variations among the nine schools in revenue produced by predoctoral students and by postdoctoral residents. There were similar variations for levels of clinical staffing. By sharing the results of the survey with each other, the individual schools gained a strong understanding of the business strengths or weakness of their own clinical programs. That information gave each school's leaders the opportunity to investigate how they might improve their clinical fiscal sustainability.

Rural dentists: does growing up in a small community matter?

BACKGROUND: The aging of the dental work-force has implications for both patients and dentists, especially those in rural and underserved areas. Anecdotal information regarding dental workforce trends indicates that students from rural communities are more likely to practice in rural communities than are students from urban areas. Although the medical literature supports this premise relative to physicians, there are no data to verify this statement relative to dentistry. Therefore, the authors decided to study whether this premise applies to dentistry. METHODS: The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of dental student records from a Midwestern dental school for the years 1980 through 2010 to determine if there was a statistical correlation between the size of a dental student's town of origin and the size of the community where he or she practiced after graduation. They also examined what role, if any, the student's sex played. RESULTS: Dentists from rural areas were approximately six times more likely to practice in a rural area than were dentists from urban areas. Female dentists were only slightly less likely to practice in a rural community than were male dentists. CONCLUSION: Dentists from rural communities were more likely to practice in rural communities than were dental students from urban areas. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: To ensure future access to care in rural communities, rural dentists may want to recruit actively or work closely with dental students from rural areas when hiring associates or seeking purchasers for their dental practices.

Rural dentists of the future: dental school enrollment strategies.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship, if any, of a dental student's 1) state of residency and 2) gender to his or her practice location in a rural Nebraska community after graduation. Previous research has demonstrated that dental students generally locate their practices near their place of rearing and that male graduates are more likely than female graduates to locate in rural areas. Dental student data for all University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry graduates from 1989 to 2008 (n=879) were analyzed. Descriptive and quantitative analyses were performed utilizing SPSS software (version 17.0). Chi-square and odds ratio analyses were also conducted. In contrast to previous research, women dentists who remained in the state after graduation were more likely to locate their practice in a rural community than were male dentists: 59 percent and 48.5 percent, respectively. Nonresidents who remained in the state after graduation were also more likely to locate in a rural community than were residents: 69 percent and 51 percent, respectively. Dental schools may find this information useful as state officials and policymakers look to dental schools for leadership in addressing dental workforce needs, especially in rural/underserved areas.

Effects of repeated fluoride varnish application on different restorative surfaces.

AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of repeated (twice) applications of two fluoride varnishes (Duraflor and CavityShield) on the surface micromorphology of a high-viscosity glass ionomer (Fuji IX GP), a compomer (F2000), and a flowable composite (Filtek Flow) using a profilometer and scanning electron microscope (SEM). METHODS AND MATERIALS: Fifteen specimens were prepared from each material, surface roughness (Ra) was measured with a profilometer, and an impression was made for epoxy replicas. The fluoride varnishes were applied to the experimental specimens of each material at repeated intervals of 48 hours. For all specimens, Ra was measured and SEM replicas were examined. RESULTS: The final Ra of glass ionomer was 3.49 +/- 0.59 (mean +/- SD) for CavityShield, 4.69 +/- 1.33 for Duraflor, and 2.96 +/- 1.53 for the controls. The final Ra of flowable composite was 0.53 +/- 0.20 for CavityShield, 2.61 +/- 3.08 for Duraflor, and 0.15 +/- 0.09 for controls. For glass ionomer and flowable composite, Duraflor was associated with a significantly higher roughness at the final measurement compared to controls (P < 0.05). SEM micrographs showed differing surface topographies which in many specimens confirmed Ra analysis. CONCLUSION: Fuji IX GP and Filtek Flow showed significantly higher roughness after two applications of Duraflor compared to controls.