Call for submissions: advanced dental education.

This month’s article by Lam et al. (“Factors Associated with the Satisfaction of Millennial Generation Dental Residents”) and one to be published in the January issue (Itaya et al., “AEGD Programs: Why Now, Why More?”) got me thinking about the number of manuscripts that are submitted to the Journal of Dental Education that concern advanced dental education. A nonscientific scan of the JDE over the past years reveals a paucity of published articles in advanced specialty education and advanced general dentistry education. The few we have published describe new programs or report on surveys of residents. Why so few? If one looks at recent trends in dental education,1 one would think there should be a deluge of manuscripts from advanced education programs. Dental school-affiliated specialty programs have gone from total enrollments of 2,637 in 2001–02 to 3,131 in 2010–12. The largest gains are being seen in oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, and pediatric dentistry. Dental school non-specialty programs (General Practice Residency and Advanced Education in General Dentistry) have dropped slightly from total enrollments in 2001–02 of 505 to 2010–11 figures of 415, but remain strong options for students seeking additional study in general dentistry. Non-dental school-affiliated specialty program enrollments have risen from 847 in 2001–02 to 1,235 in 2010–11. And non-dental school non-specialty program enrollments have grown from 1,277 in 2001–02 to 1,495 in 2010–11. One would assume that new programs and innovative models of training have arisen and that, with the advances occurring in science and clinical practice, many advanced dental education programs have a plethora of education/clinical training outcomes that can be reported. A search of manuscripts in Academic Medicine using the term “resident” reveals forty-one articles published in 2011 and eighteen published in 2012 to date. One could scan the titles in that journal and come up with topics that may be relevant in advanced education in dentistry. For example, articles and letters on how residents learn or behave,2,3 patient safety issues in specialty training,4 changes in national boards,5 or disruptions to resident education6 would likely be of interest to the editors and readers of the JDE. The American Dental Education Association (ADEA), the journal’s parent organization, has several components that are active in advanced dental education. These include the ADEA Council of Hospitals and Advanced Dental Education Programs, as well as ADEA Sections on Postdoctoral General Dentistry, Graduate and Postgraduate Education, and for the individual specialties. In addition, the former ADEA Council of Students recently changed its name to the ADEA Council of Students, Residents, and Fellows to more clearly specify its inclusion of residents and fellows within its mandate. And let us not forget that the association’s current president, Dr. Jerry Glickman, became an ADEA leader as an officer in the Section on Graduate and Postgraduate Education, the Section on Endodontics, and the Council of Hospitals and Advanced Dental Education Programs. There should be synergies between ADEA activities and the JDE’s interests that can lead to published research of benefit to all of dental education. So advanced dental educators, program directors, and residents: let’s see more submissions of your work to the JDE!