Challenges of dental education: Challenges of dental education

Summary

Introduction: teaching-learning processes in dentistry must permanently adapt to social, demographic, scientific and technological changes, in order to train professionals with a graduation profile based on comprehensive knowledge, skills and attitudes, connected to the reality and needs of society, which positively impact the health system. The purpose of this narrative review was to analyze the main challenges of dental education reported in the literature and propose concrete actions to address them. Methods: through a consensus method, a panel of nine experts selected the main areas where these challenges occur, and then carried out a search for scientific information in English and Spanish, consulting the MEDLINE databases via PubMed, ERIC (EBSCO ), Scopus, SciELO and Google Scholar. Results: the four challenges for dental education analyzed were: social responsibility of education, graduation profile in different contexts, teaching-learning methodologies and evaluation systems, degree and certification processes. Conclusions: the actions that support the main changes required at the national and international level in dental education need the transversal support of governmental, scientific, social organizations and the higher education institutions themselves, through collaborative work. This path is vital to achieve the training of dental surgeons who will be real agents of change, fully prepared to insert themselves into a system that guarantees quality, safety, effectiveness and equity in oral health.