Confrontation and the professional maturation of dental students

The professional maturation process through which every dental student sould pass involves perception and identification of his professional role. The process is complicated at many points by conflicts between the student's own professional role expectations and the expectations of his teachers or of society. Confrontation is described as occurring daily in the dental-school environment; many confrontational situations occur on an impromptu basis in the course of interaction between the student and his classmates, his patients, and the faculty. Other confrontational situations can be arranged deliverately by the dental educator in order to provide clinical and social experiences for the student which ordinarily would not be included in the dental curriculum. By taking advantage of the particular student-instructor relationship existing during these confrontational situations, the dental educator can reap perhaps the greatest reward to be realized from an academic career--that of being able to take an active role in the professional maturation process of his students.