Service-learning in dental education: meeting needs and challenges

Community-based service-learning is increasingly common in dental education. By definition, service-learning combines educational goals with service to the community, and the community and school are equal partners. The three main goals of service-learning are improving learning, promoting civic engagement, and strengthening communities. There have been calls from many groups to reform dental education to better serve the public, and service-learning is one of the most often recommended methods to help meet this goal. One of the key attributes of service-learning is its potential to promote civic engagement and social responsibility during the student's education. The social responsibility of dentists and aspects of professionalism can be learned by students through participation in well-structured service-learning programs. Community-based service-learning programs can also address societal needs by improving the public's access to oral health care through partnerships among dental schools, oral health providers, and communities. This article describes service-learning programs at several dental schools to illustrate application of this educational strategy in predoctoral dental education. This article also describes challenges that confront schools desiring to implement and sustain service-learning programs, including academic quality, faculty development and training, interprofessionalism, making time in the curriculum, budget, faculty shortages and time, student credit, quality control, and remote sites away from the dental school.