A recent survey of the U.S. and Canadian Dental Schools on IPE found that the majority of schools (thirty-nine of the fifty-one dental schools) that had a medical school on campus collaborated with it. Although opportunities for collaboration existed between dental schools and dental hygiene programs, there was less interest in collaborating with dental assistant training programs, with only 10% of the schools reporting the collaboration. As dental education continues to explore IPE, there will be enough room to focus attention on teamwork within the dental workforce as well as across other health professions (Formicola et al. 2012). At Boston University, one pioneering course aimed to prepare public health, medical, and dental students for their combined roles in community health settings. This crossdisciplinary, practice-based education model could meet students’ learning objectives and exceed expectations of community partners. It was also possible to overcome formidable obstacles related to the “silo” nature of academic institutions and the competing priorities within overburdened community organizations (McCloskey et al. 2011).
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There appears to be sufficient interest among dental schools toward IPE, but leadership within schools, faculty champions and additional funding may be required to provide necessary resources for IPE programs. Active coursework should include fields beyond medicine and dentistry, such as nursing, social work, physical therapy, public health and other disciplines to ensure that dentists of the 21st century are well prepared to face the challenges of complex patient care for better health outcomes. The Commission on Dental Accreditation (the only accrediting body for dental schools in the United States) recently added a standard for pre-doctoral dental programs:
Standard 1-9: The dental school must show evidence of interaction with other components of the higher education, health care education and/or health care delivery systems. This inclusion in the standards for dental schools assures that dental students will be participating in inter-professional education as part of the college’s dental curriculum. In Boston’s Northeastern University, there is an entire department dedicated to interprofessional education. The Northeastern University’s Bouve College of Health Sciences hosts the Innovation in Inter-Professional Oral Health resource center. Here medicaldental education programs collaborate in service learning projects and participate in joint educational opportunities.
2.8 Moving towards collaborative practice The literature review and case studies demonstrate that epidemiological and demographic transitions, increased focus on oral disease prevention, along with scientific and technological advances, disparities in oral health among different socioeconomic groups within and between countries, and a growing recognition of dental health care as part of overall health and well-being, create a pressure for the dental profession to redefine its future and lead the change rather than have solutions imposed upon it. The American Dental Association’s Action for Dental Health is a community-based, grassroots movement to provide care now to people who suffer from untreated dental
