Essential Skills for Dentists

This book is directed primarily at undergraduate dental students and the newly-qualified dentist but it will also be of value to medical and dental educationalists. In its concept and content it is closely aligned to recent developments in dental education in the United Kingdom by reference to the General Dental Council's recommendations for the Undergraduate Dental Curriculum and the Quality Assurance Agency's Benchmark Statements for Dentistry. This facilitates the description of Essential Skills for Dentists in the light of contemporary documentation, and the authors of the various chapters have been chosen on the basis of their clinical and educational expertise within the dental establishments of Great Britain and Ireland. The book is divided into three main sections dealing with generic skills, discipline specific skills, and integrated skills respectively, thus enabling comprehensive coverage with cross-referencing as appropriate. The core function of the book is to facilitate learning and by clearly defining the learning outcomes, using checklists for in-course formative assessment of defined clinical competencies and the use of mind maps to facilitate revision, the book aims to integrate the complementary relationship between learning and assessment. The topic-oriented layout of the book allows the graduate or trainee to dip into specific topics or subjects on a stand-alone basis, and references and further reading are provided to facilitate exploration of the subject in greater detail if desired.

Table of Contents:
Part 1. Generic Skills 1.1: History taking and examination 1.2: Ethics and Law, Consent and Professionalism 1.3: Communication Skills 1.4: Health and Safety 1.5: Infection control in dentistry 1.6: Dental Public Health and Epidemiology 1.7: Medical emergencies 1.8: Human disease and therapeutics 1.9: Pharmacological Management of Pain and Anxiety 1.10: The identification and behavioural management of the dentally anxious adult and child patient 1.11: Dental radiology and imaging 1.12: Prevention 1.13: Patient referral 1.14: Isolation and moisture control 1.15: Impression-making - general and special circumstances 1.16: Dental materials science Part 2. Discipline Specific Skills 2.1a: Paediatric Dentistry: Treatment of primary and mixed dentition 2.1b: Pulp Therapy in the Primary Dentition 2.1c: Paediatric dentistry: dental trauma 2.2: Special care dentistry 2.3: Orthodontics 2.4: Periodontology 2.5: Restorative Dentistry 2.6: Endodontics 2.7: Prosthodontics 2.8: Surgical dentistry 2.9: Oral medicine 2.10: Oral pathology Part 3. Integrated Skills 3.1: Key skills in integrated dental care 3.2: Assessment 3.3: Teamwork

About the Author :
Peter Mossey is a Professor of Craniofacial Development at University of Dundee Dental School. Dr Gareth Holsgrove is a Medical Education Adviser, The Royal College of Psychiatrists Elizabeth Davenport is Professor of Dental Education at Barts and The London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry . David Stirrups is a Professor of Orthodontics at University of Dundee, Dental School.

Review :
Overall, this book is quite remarkable and will be of enormous value not only to students and young practitioners, at whom it is aimed, but also to older practitioners as a guide whereby they can check their competency levels, especially in those areas where they have not recently sought to update themselves. As such, it is worth having on the shelf of any dental practice library as a reminder of all those competencies that need to be honed further and those that have been forgotten. For those involved in developing curricula of study or carrying out assessments at any level, the book is a resource full of useful material, presented in a manner that is itself an interesting demonstration of educational style. Primary Dental Care, April 2007 Overall, this is an invaluable guide to what is expected of undergraduates as they work towards becoming competent, ethical and caring members of our profession. It can also provide a very useful reference for existing practitioners as they seek to appreciate and implement the requirements of clinical governance. Dental Update, December 2006