Using a Dental Student Exercise on Shear Bond Testing to Both Provide Skills Practice and Demonstrate a Research Process.

This article describes an exercise with junior dental students at the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry designed in part to serve the requirement for dental accreditation Standard 6-3 ("Dental education programs must provide opportunities, encourage, and support student participation in research and other scholarly activities mentored by faculty"). The exercise has been conducted for seven years and has been found to provide a distinctive and important experience to the education of these dental students. The exercise has three aims. First, it is an exercise in which students practice their skills with dental bonding; second, it serves as a tool to give immediate feedback on these skills that is otherwise not possible in a real patient situation; and third, it demonstrates to the students how data from the exercise with the students as subjects can be used in a research study. The project thus serves as an innovative way to use a skill-building exercise to educate students about research at the same time.