From now on second year students will not only be experiencing the new facility but also the new DMD II curriculum. The DMD ’17 class will be the first class to be immersed in the new curriculum, put into effect during the 2014 fall semester. The changes occurred as part of an effort to overhaul the dentistry program. “The goal was to ventilate the program a little bit, give students more time to learn the fundamentals of dentistry while introducing discipline based courses”, says Dr. Shahrokh Esfandiari, the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs for the Faculty. The new curriculum follows changes made to the Fundaments of Medicine and Dentistry syllabus that students follow in their first 18 months in the DMD program. The changes were initiated to avoid redundancies, and also to address issues of sequencing, flow of materials and manageability of students work load. In total, 8 new courses have been introduced, including an Oral Health Research course which will continue for all four years of the DMD program. Beginning with the Foundations of Dentistry course, an intensive four week course introducing students to the fundamentals of head and neck anatomy, basic dental sciences and epidemiology, the rest of the courses run parallel to one another throughout the winter semester. The discipline based courses will be taken alongside the Introduction to Restorative Dentistry course, reinforcing the concepts of each discipline and creating a solid knowledge base. The semester culminates with the Transition to Clinic course, that prepares students to work chair side in their third year of studies. The new curriculum courses are outlined below. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to learn more about the new curriculum!
| Course Name | Course Description | Lecture Hours | Lab Hours | Course Director | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations of Dentistry (DENT 217) | Introduction of the head and neck anatomy, growth, development of the oral-facial complex, and glands. It also deals with the basic sciences of pain, hard tissues, cariology, and infection control. Extensive head and neck anatomy laboratory work. | 101 | 16 | Dr. Paul Allison | 7 |
| Introduction to Restorative Dentistry (DENT 220) | Introduction to pre-clinical dental activities including training in restorative dentistry, fixed prosthodontics and operative dentistry. Extensive laboratory work in a pre-clinical dental setting is involved. | 88 | 267 | Dr. Sam Abi Nader | 13 |
| Radiology (DENT 222) | Physics and biologic effects of radiation, radiation protection, imaging principles and techniques and radiographic interpretation of caries, periodontal and periapical disease. | 36 | 6 | Dr. Marie Dagenais | 2 |
| Support Tissue (DENT 218) | Introduction to the normal and diseased pathways of periodontal structures. Clinical exercises on how to assess periodontal health. | 13 | 15 | Dr. Omid Kiarash | 2 |
| Tooth Loss (DENT 221) | Introduction to the concept of edentulism, including both partial and complete restorative solutions for edentulous spaces within the oral cavity. Extensive laboratory and clinical components are involved. | 41 | 56 | Dr. Francois Seng | 5 |
| Transition to Clinic (DENT 224) | Introduction to the clinical environment following preclinical work, including the implementation of theoretical knowledge of different areas of dentistry while addressing patient care, infection control, and anesthetics needs. | 38 | 46 | Dr. Roy Raviv | 4 |
| Tooth Movement (DENT 215) | Introduction to the basic concepts of Orthodontics and management of malocclusions with extensive laboratory and clinical activities. | 34.5 | 45 | Dr. Jean-Marc Retrouvey | 2 |
| Oral Health Research (DENT 225) | Developing familiarity with oral health research, from research design to hands on experience in conducting research with relevance to clinical dental training. | 23 | 13 | Dr. Mary Ellen Macdonald | 3 |