Assessing competence in surgical dentistry

The growing demand for assessment in all aspects of surgical competencies will inevitably embrace the whole of dental surgery. The aim of this paper is to review the literature and discuss some of the issues that will have to be addressed as objective assessment of the surgical dentists' skills is introduced. The paper reviews what is meant by competence and how we assess it, with particular emphasis on practical and technical skills. Specific methodologies for assessing competence are described including, as illustrations, two means of assessing the removal of lower wisdom teeth. The evaluation of competence in the workplace is discussed together with the difficulty in assessing important attributes such as attitude. It concludes that the assessment of competence is a valuable tool in its own right and a means of demonstrating to the public the continuing commitment of the profession to the highest possible standards. However assessment will be very time consuming and to be worth while we must ensure that it is done in a way that produces clear and unambiguous benefits and solves real problems.