This article presents a child-centered philosophy for managing young dental patients. The goals of this approach are to reduce children’s dental fear to a minimum and to encourage a positive, accepting attitude toward regular dental care. Interventions which focus on the young child’s emotional needs in the dental setting are encouraged. The dentist uses techniques designed to help the child gr...

Health sciences research is experiencing dramatic progress. How can dental schools throughout the world best make these research advances relevant for dental students, as well as providing them with the means to assess and utilize the research advances that will occur in the future? This complex question presents a critical challenge to the dental educational community. Research is clearly inte...

A review of the literature on dental auxiliaries and their utilization in the dental workforce is presented, and their future role is examined in the light of broader issues relating to changing disease patterns and service delivery. Legislative factors, productivity, quality assurance and the potential scope for dental auxiliaries in both the public sector and private practice setting are disc...

The association between blood lead level and dental caries was evaluated in cross-sectional analyses of baseline data for 543 children 6-10 years old screened for enrollment in the Children's Amalgam Trial, a study designed to assess potential health effects of mercury in silver fillings. Approximately half of the children were recruited from an urban setting (Boston/Cambridge, MA, USA) and app...

The American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM) affirms that treatment of dental patients should encompass recognition of infectious diseases that can manifest in the orofacial region, implementation of disease management, and prevention of disease transmission. Furthermore, the AAOM recommends education and training on infectious diseases and procedures that reduce the risk of disease transmissio...

In 1947, Pediatric Dentistry was formally recognized as a specialty in dentistry. There are currently over 7000 members of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Despite this large number, many people are unaware of the role they serve as health care providers [1]. The purpose of this article is to give a clearer understanding of the educational process of becoming a Pediatric Dentist, th...

background and aims. although wearing a white coat is an accepted part of medical and dental practice, it is a potential source of cross-infection. the objective of this study was to determine the level and type of microbial contamination present on the white coats of dental interns, graduate students and faculty in a dental clinic. materials and methods. questionnaire and cross-sectional surve...