A scoping review on social justice education in current undergraduate dental curricula

A recent shift in educational components within healthcare has pushed dentistry toward a greater understanding of the role of social components on oral health. There has also been an increased awareness of inappropriate conduct among dental students.

A scoping review was conducted to determine if, how, and when social-justice-oriented education has been incorporated into dental curricula worldwide. A systematic and reiterative search of articles was performed on February 22, 2018, and combined quantitative and qualitative synthesis of data. An updated search was done on September 26, 2019.

Seventy-three studies were evaluated: 46 quantitative (63%), 24 qualitative (33%), 3 multimethods (4%). The majority used self-reported surveys and questionnaires (66%), while the remaining used interviews (9.5%), student reflections (16%) and focus groups (5.5%). Studies included dental students only (78%); dental students with dental hygiene students (5.5%) or faculty/staff (4.1%); dental students in year 1 (17%), year 2 (1.6%), year 3 (1.6%), year 4 (14.2%); first- and second-year students (3%); third- and fourth-year students (1.6%); all years of study (20%); and academic year not specified (41%). The study areas included "learning in dental school," "experiencing dental school," "focusing on cultural competency," and "addressing dental ethics and social responsibility."

Three major research gaps were identified: no discussion of a social contract between dentists and society, no explicit social justice-oriented topics within undergraduate dental curricula, and no standardized tool to measure these topics. Further research is necessary to understand how such topics can be included in dental curricula to form socially competent dentists.