Curriculum content for Environmental Sustainability in Dentistry

(i) To identify suitable strategies and opportunities to embed Environmental Sustainability (ES) within an existing Oral Health Professional (OHP) curriculum through a series of focus groups with students and academic staff and (ii) To create high-level evidence-based and subject-specific ES content through an approach grounded in evidence and collaboration with key stakeholders in OHP education.

Focus groups were used to explore academic staff and student views on appropriate teaching and assessment methods for ES. Content statements were developed from an extensive literature search, mapped to curriculum subjects, and validated through consultation with students, discipline-experts and education-experts.

Five themes were identified from the focus groups: ES transcends all disciplines of dentistry and oral healthcare; baseline knowledge transmission with relevant practical application; viewing and modifying existing teaching and assessment events through a different lens; normalising the topic of ES to support attitude and behaviour change and safeguarding against misinformation and disinformation. Forty-four content statements were developed and mapped to nineteen curriculum subjects.

This study identifies for the first time a comprehensive strategy for the inclusion and delivery of ES (method and content) in the curriculum. A novel method to define and map curriculum content has been explored and validated using a range of complementary methodologies. A comprehensive and robust list of evidence-based and subject-specific educational content statements have been defined in the field of Environmental Sustainability in dentistry and oral healthcare.

Oral healthcare has a significant environmental impact, the key to all mitigation strategies is educating the profession at all levels.