This is a 5 year
undergraduate dental medicine program with 1 additional year as Internship in
different clinics assigned by the Makerere University, College of Health Science,
Department of Dental Sciences. This Orthodontics and Paediatric Dental course is
intended for undergraduate dental program at their 5th year. The Orthodontic and Paediatric Dentistry
theory courses run separately as one block each for 5 weeks in the 5th academic
year and combined clinics every Monday for both Orthodontic and Paediatric
Dentistry.
Course Objectives
The specific
objectives of the course were:
To understand the Orthodontic diagnosis and the
orthodontic treatment need and the meaning of Interceptive Orthodontics
To identify the treatment priority of
Orthodontic problems in growing patients
To provide "hands on" experience using peer assessment
learning and feedback in the
registration process of new orthodontic patients and skills needed to
understand the aim of treatment and to plan an interceptive orthodontic
treatment and be able to apply an appropriate appliance design to achieve the
planned treatment results
To provide familiarity with the dominant research fields and research strategies in the field of Orthodontics
To appreciate and understand the basic ethical
principles that governs the application of the treatment modalities and the
boundaries for a general dentist within the field of Orthodontics
To provide an understanding and a solid
foundation for critical reading and reviewing the reliability and validity of
research findings and scientific literature
Comparison of Teaching/Learning
activities at the Makerere University (MU) and Karolinska Institutet (KI), Departments of
Dental Medicine
Theory/practice relationship: The
main goal of education in health care is to understand the importance and the
ultimate way of application of the in learned knowledge and the results of
scientific findings into the clinical practice in delivering the best health
care service to the patients. The fundamental pillars of the education involves
theory, methodology, analysis and application of theory and research findings
to practice as clinical work. In Makerere University, Department of Dental
Medicine, in comparison with KI, the link between theory and practice was less
pronounced. The opportunity of integrating the theory/research/practice for the
5th year Dental students seems to be limited.
The
teacher-student-patient relationship: There was also a difference
in classroom size between MU and KI. The number of dental students at MU this
year is 21 in comparison to KI where the number of students vary about 75-85
per year. The advantage of having small groups over large groups allows an
improvement of teacher/student interaction at an individual level. This
enhances the understanding of the weaknesses and strength of students at an
individual level both in their theory and practical knowledge. However, there
is a lack of academic staff at MU which limits the possibility of alteration
between education (theory)/research and clinical work. The schedule at MU planned as clinical practice in the mornings and
lectures in the afternoon. Each different discipline has its own specific day
in the week for clinical work. The afternoon lectures divided between different
disciplines with 5 weeks intervals
Teaching approach
and clinical work: Both at MU and KI, a tutor supported “peer
learning and feedback” teaching method is used. The student involvement in
knowledge transfer did not seem to differ between two student groups. Nevertheless,
assigning each student a topic to discuss based on a material provided by the
tutor at MU enhances the student involvement. The student then make a power
point presentation followed by an in-depth discussion of the topic in the
class. Each session is then finishes with a patient case with the application
of the recently discussed topic as a real scenario example.
Support material: Almost all
students as well as general dentists who attended the CPD lecture asked for
soft copies of the books in the field. The university library facilities at MU
are not at KI standards. The above mentioned teaching method depends on the
easy access to books and updated material. One might think that the possibility
of access to internet will solve this lack of material distribution. However,
this seems to jeopardize the state of art in the field due to unreliable
information on the internet. Tutors need to pay attention to this aspect and
must stress the importance of fundamental knowledge before heroically
practicing any techniques seen on “Youtube” in their clinics.