Diet and Nutrition Integration in Dental Education: A Scoping Review

Since diet is a core area for the prevention and management of several oral diseases, dental professionals should receive solid foundations during their training programmes. However, the incorporation of diet and nutrition in dental curriculum remains underexplored.

To map out the existing literature on how diet and nutrition are incorporated into dental education programmes and propose a brief framework for curriculum implementation.

We conducted a scoping review following the PRISMA extension of the Scoping Reviews. Using a PCC format question, a systematic search was performed across three databases (Medline, SCOPUS and Web of Science). All types of studies published since 2000 were included. Data selection and extraction were independently performed by two researchers.

From 752 titles, 17 articles were included. The majority were cross-sectional (47%), review-based (35.2%) or longitudinal (17.6%). Most studies (58.8%) were published in the last decade, with 76.4% conducted in the U.S. Topics included nutrition education (64.7%), obesity (17.6%), and interprofessional training. Challenges identified included insufficient curricular time, lack of standardised frameworks and limited faculty expertise. Opportunities for improvement include interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential learning and technology-based approaches.

Although diet and nutrition are growing in importance in dental education, there is a gap in integrating them into dental education. Interprofessional work and collaboration, curriculum standardisation and faculty training are priorities to reduce this gap. The proposed framework could help to integrate diet and nutrition into dental curriculums.