Continuing education

The greatest fault in current dental education is that for many dentists education ceases with graduation. It should instead be a lifetime process beginning with the undergraduate course and progressing through clinical experience alternating with continuing education. The ultimate objective should be good oral health for the population but in many cases the service provided falls short of the ideal taught at dental school. Education alone will not solve this problem. Other factors such as job satisfaction, pay and superannuation, general policy and the organization of the individual surgery play a part. Planning of continuing education should start with a comparative analysis of dental care as it is and as one would like it to be. At the undergraduate level the concentration must be on theoretical knowledge and the practice of clinical skills. Growing clinical experience will develop these skills and will also give rise to new feelings about work, patients and the world around. Continuing education must update the dentist's theoretical knowledge which is then advanced at collective sessions. Although voluntary, more than 20 per cent of all private dentists in Sweden are currently taking part in this programme.