Bulletin of Dental Education

Delegates from across the United States gathered in Washington, DC in mid December for the fifth White House Conference on Aging.

Several things came together to provide the impetus for ADEA to create CCI. In 2004, the Council of Sections approached the Board of Directors about developing foundation knowledge guidelines to assist test construction committees with Part I of the National Boards. The Council of Sections also recommended updating the ADEA Competencies for the New Dentist, originally adopted in 1997. The time was right to take a much broader look at dental education.

With the dental school faculty shortage expected to grow in the future, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and the American Association of Dental Research (AADR) have joined forces to launch an innovative faculty recruitment program that will encourage and prepare students to enter academic dentistry. Designed to reach students attending all U.S. and Canadian dental schools, the new Academic Dental Careers Fellowship Program is being established with $100,000 in support from the American Dental Association Foundation (ADAF), the charitable arm of the American Dental Association.

The ADEA House of Delegates, meeting at the 2005 Annual Session, voted to change the Association’s membership model to one of open membership. Under the new system, every faculty member, student, and administrator at an ADEA member institution will be eligible for individual membership in ADEA at no additional cost.

Actions at the Opening Session of the House of Delegates 2005

On February 17, a standing-room-only crowd of congressional staff and media packed a room on Capitol Hill to hear the results of the latest stem cell research being done by dental scientists.

Over the past couple of years, ADEA has been at the forefront of efforts expected to result in a major change in dentistry and dental hygiene: the transition from a system of disparate state and regional testing for clinical licensure to a uniform national exam. Since dental and dental hygiene graduates must pass licensure exams before they can practice, this development has significant implications for schools and students, as well as the public the system is designed to protect.

Twenty ADEA Leadership Institute Fellows lobbied their respective Capitol Hill delegations on September 21, seeking support for legislative issues of importance to academic dentistry.

By becoming involved in policy advocacy, dental students play an integral role in securing results that directly affect our lives as not only students but as future community leaders, practicing dentists, and dental educators.

In my senior year, however, the uncertainty of the licensure examination process convinced me that, at a minimum, a postgraduate year (PGY-1) was a good “safety net."