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A survey of cariology education in U.S. dental hygiene programs: The need for a core curriculum framework
Martha J McComas1, Michelle Hurlbutt2, Margherita Fontana3
1Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, Division of Dental Hygiene, School of Dentistry, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Objective:
Dental hygienists play a key role in dental caries prevention and management. As the evidence of dental caries risk, prevention, and management becomes more complex, it is essential that dental hygiene (DH) programs have a strong cariology curriculum. This project aimed to assess current cariology content in U.S. DH programs, how content is taught, and interest in development/implementation of a common/core cariology curriculum framework.
Methods:
Directors of 336 U.S. DH programs were invited to participate in a voluntary online survey using Qualtrics. The survey consisted of 41 items including demographics, details about the program's cariology content, and how it was delivered, and items related to a core cariology curriculum.
Results:
The overall response rate used for analyses was 27.3%. Some findings include: 61.6% stated their program had a defined cariology curriculum, 35.2% did not have an individual cariology course, 61.5% had preclinical hands-on experiences in cariology, 79.7% are teaching management strategies related to salivary gland hypofunction, 68.3% are teaching use of silver diamine fluoride (SDF), and 64.2% felt cariology was adequately being taught. Only 17.7% are teaching the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) system. 87.3% indicated support for developing a core curriculum framework for teaching cariology in DH programs.
Conclusions:
This study indicated that, although DH programs reported that cariology concepts are being taught both didactically and clinically, discrepancies between concepts taught and the literature exist. Therefore, there is a need to create a more standardized curriculum framework for all U.S. DH programs.
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