Bulletin of Dental Education

With the recent onslaught of congressional-enacted cuts to funds for the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), Title VII Health Professions programs, student aid programs, and the elimination of Medicaid dental benefits for millions of low-income children, what better time to initiate grassroots action?

It’s official! The American Dental Education Association’s Open Membership System roared to life at 9 a.m. on January 2 when ADEA kicked off its “Open…Wider” Campaign.

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: the Council of Deans was becoming increasingly concerned about placing the wealth of new information affecting oral health care into their schools’ curricula, the Commission on Dental Accreditation was initiating its periodic assessment of its Standards for Predoctoral Dental Education, the Joint Commission for National Dental Examinations was beginning conversion of its exam delivery and incorporating interdisciplinary questions into Part II, and the dental licensure community was developing national licensure examinations.

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.