Community dentistry in Nordic dental schools

Approximately a decade after the first plans for the teaching of community dentistry were made in the Nordic countries, a questionnaire survey of Nordic dental schools was conducted to find out to what extent community dentistry subjects had been introduced in undergraduate curricula. Replies were received from the 12 dental schools in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. These schools admitted 915 students in 1982-83. Seven had a department of community dentistry, and at least two others had plans to start one. About 100 h of teaching were given on community dentistry subjects during the 5-yr course of study, mostly on the traditional subjects of epidemiology, statistics, law and ethics. In some schools health education and other behavioral sciences subjects received a large amount of curriculum time. Decisionmaking theory and political science were not reported taught at any school. Three departments had attached clinics, with widely differing functions. The Nordic textbook in community dentistry was widely used, and separate examinations were held in community dentistry at most schools. Full-time postgraduate courses were offered at three schools. Although schools in all four countries expected the number of dental students to decrease in coming years, several schools expected community dentistry to expand with regard to curriculum time and staff, in keeping with trends in other countries.