Academic dentistry is experiencing financial austerity and must be able to reallocate its resources in order to provide the optimal level of service within a given budget. Dental college faculty will need to develop procedures and criteria for program restructuring that will increase educational flexibility and link budgeting with planning.…

A flexible dental school curriculum in which the basic science courses are integrated, modular, and supplemented by self-instruction programs is described. (Editor)

Two distinct types of research in science and technology are described. One extends existing knowledge by gathering information, and the other requires an intuitive leap from present knowledge. Factors in the university-industry research relationship affecting or affected by the research type are outlined and discussed. (MSE)

A course to help dental students learn techniques of putting fearful patients at ease includes use of physician-patient interviews in a clinical setting, patient reviews of the taped interview, interview evaluation, student-instructor conferences, and group discussion, followed by an actual treatment session and review discussion with the patient.…

A national survey of dental schools and dental licensing boards indicates a deemphasis on teaching and testing of direct gold restoration techniques. Reasons for this decline may include decline in practitioner use of gold, decline in faculty motivation and dedication to teaching the techniques, and shifting of available curriculum to other…

A program for training dental nurses in Surinam is described whose objective is to alleviate a serious labor shortage. Its unique characteristics include an extra year of training for advanced techniques, absence of direct supervision, and acceptance by the national professional association for dentists. (MSE)

A survey of dental schools revealed little standardization of student requirements for dental radiography in the United States. There was a high degree of variability as to what constituted a full radiographic survey, which has implications concerning the maximum limits to patient exposure to radiation. (Author/MLW)

Teaching physical evaluation of dental patients has become an important aspect in an undergraduate dental curriculum. The evolution, objectives, and content of a practical, in-house method of teaching clinical physical evaluation using a seminar-participation format is presented. (Author/MLW)

Guidelines developed by the Section on Dental Anatomy and Occlusion of the American Association of Dental Schools for use by individual educational institutions as curriculum development aids are provided. (MLW)

A course to coordinate all of the various specialities and disciplines of dentistry with emphasis on esthetics, designed as an elective for the 1980 graduating senior class at Emory University School of Dentistry, is described. (MLW)

An instructional approach to pathogenic microbiology appropriate for dental medicine, which was developed by the University of Texas, is described. This approach is perceived by the students as relevant to their needs, and it increases the instructor's awareness to emphasize the oral aspects of the infectious diseases. (Author/MLW)

Curricular guidelines developed by the American Association of Dental Schools for use by individual educational institutions as curriculum development aids are provided. The guidelines were developed by the Sections on Community and Preventive Dentistry and Practice Administration. (MLW)

Guidelines developed by the Section on Anatomical Sciences of the American Association for Dental Schools are presented. These guidelines were drawn up as an effort to provide a general criterion-referenced standard against which a school can measure its course content in histology. (MLW)

The growing complexity in the dental profession has contributed to the diversity of current specialities and practice modes. Dental students are seen to need time to explore this diversity of opportunities and plan for their futures. A survey of career assistance programs in U.S. dental schools is reported. (MLW)