Case Study | UW (Dentistry)
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON | School of Dentistry
SEATTLE, WA — Through a revised curriculum and workforce training grant, educators from the University of Washington are capitalizing on opportunities to address obesity in the predoctoral oral health curriculum. In the future, much of the educational content developed by UW faculty will be available for training predoctoral dental students and prelicensure dental hygiene students at other institutions.
Obesity is related to several aspects of oral health, such as caries, periodontitis, and xerostomia. There is concern about how best to manage oral hygiene and preventive measures (e.g. fluorides) given the poor quality and increased frequency of food consumption among Americans. Dental visits are a prime opportunity to identify and initiate care for nutrition and weight-related diseases among pediatric and adult populations. There is increasing agreement that oral health professionals should play an active role in identifying children at risk for obesity and dental caries and providing education and referrals as appropriate to reduce these risks.1 Although most dentists offer information or interventions to address consumption of sugary drinks, only 1 in 5 pediatric providers offers obesity interventions.2 Surveys of U.S. dental schools and pediatric dentistry residents indicate that obesity is often inadequately addressed in pre-doctoral dental school and dental hygiene program curricula.3,4 Support for formal training in this area is encouraged in part by findings that providers from programs with formal curriculum on managing obesity report feeling more prepared care for patients with obesity in clinical practice.4,5 When faculty redesigned the curriculum for the Dentists of the Future, leaders from the UW School of Dentistry broadened the focus beyond dental procedures to include instruction on disease prevention, empathic communication. and behavior-change strategies that improve oral and overall health. In 2017, the UW School of Dentistry received a grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) – to develop and pilot the Early Childhood Oral Health Training Program (EChOTrain) – that includes supplemental funding to explore how oral health professionals can play a role in addressing the challenge of childhood obesity. Dentists of the Future: Obesity-Related Educational Objectives in the Revised Curriculum Graduates should be able to: The revised curriculum and EChOTrain grant begin to close an important training gap by capitalizing on opportunities to address obesity in the predoctoral oral health education through experiential learning approaches. Obesity is incorporated into both core and elective components of UW’s predoctoral curriculum. This pediatric-focused program will enhance the training of UW dental students through a new video series, five learning modules, and community-based pediatric clinical rotations that address childhood obesity prevention and nutrition, interprofessional team care, and cultural competence. The EChOTrain team will also develop learning modules for possible nationwide dissemination to dental and dental hygiene students at other schools. UW School of Public Health faculty developed learning modules to show students how to present nutrition information to children and families. Students learn counseling skills, how to take body mass index readings, and how to do focused interventions. UW School of Dentistry faculty developed material on cultural competence and social determinants of health. Students are introduced to the concept of social determinants of health to gain a more in-depth understanding of the epidemiology of the disease of early childhood caries and preventive strategies. This adult-focused module covers the causes and complications of obesity, how common obesity treatments may affect oral health and dental care, consequences of weight bias and stigma, treatment strategies for dental patients with obesity in general practice, and tips on welcoming office design. The module was first introduced in Spring 2019 and is incorporated into the Advanced Topics in General Dentistry course for 4th-year students. *indicates optional component of module
Early Clinical Immersion (Y1, summer) Energetics and Homeostasis (Y1, spring) Health Promotion and Disease Prevention & Communication The HRSA grant provides important funding to support ongoing evaluation and improvement of EChOTrain activities, with metrics developed and overseen by faculty from the Department of Biomedical Informatics & Medical Education and School of Pharmacy. Future outcomes of interest may include : Although the obesity-related components of UW’s updated predoctoral curriculum have not been evaluated comprehensively, these enhanced training opportunities expected to improve future dental professionals’ ability to care optimally for both adult and pediatric dental patients with or at risk for obesity.
This course provides incoming dental students with an introduction to clinical dentistry. Students learn fundamental clinical information, including the basic components of a healthy diet and the interaction between nutrition and oral health. Applying this knowledge, students perform nutritional assessment and dietary planning in patient simulations and in clinical situations.
This course covers energy metabolism, nutrition, obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal/ liver physiology, and endocrinology. Topics include physiology and pathology of digestion and hepatic function, clinical nutrition, endocrine integration of metabolism, and clinically important endocrine pathophysiology. It also covers relevant anatomy, histology and pharmacology of Endocrine and GI Systems.
This thread begins by teaching students to be active and empathetic listeners. It also provides instruction on behavior-change strategies that improve oral and overall health. As students progress, they have opportunities to demonstrate sophisticated and complex interactions with patients, which faculty, peers and patients evaluate at every step.