Presenting a patient-centered dental education model with an approach based on Grounded theory

Introduction: One of the goals of dental education is to train capable dentists, so to improve the efficiency of the educational system towards this goal, changes in the educational system are necessary. The aim of this study was to design a patient-centered dental education model. Methods: In this study, which was performed by qualitative method (Grounded theory approach), semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposeful snowball sampling with the participation of 21 dental education experts. The coding steps were analyzed by Strauss and Corbin. The validity of the research was validated, transferable and verifiable. Results: The data obtained from the analysis of the interviews were coded in 66 categories into 50 sub-categories, 17 main categories and 8 categories as the central code. The extracted categories were formed under the headings of "Current Situation Analysis", "Student Efficiency", "Evaluation", "Educational Strategies", "Participation Power", "Patient", "Planning and Management" and " Structure Preparation ". Conclusion: In order to train capable graduates, we need to make changes in educational strategies and evaluation methods by preparing the ground and proper planning and using the experiences of experts and external and internal partnerships, and finally find a way of education. Make sure that more efficient graduates are ready to provide appropriate services to the patient. Keywords: model, dental education, patient-centered, Grounded theory