Early Clinical Immersion
Course Director: Diane Daubert
Credits: 6
Quarters/Yr of Program: Summer / 1
Course Overview
This course introduces incoming students to clinical dentistry. They will learn from lectures and didactic activities to gather and manage fundamental clinical data and information necessary for dental clinic procedures. In addition, students will learn about the following complementary topics: basic tooth morphology using waxing techniques; cultural competency, cultural humility, and ableism; histology; pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics; neurophysiology; and an introduction to the human body.
Learning Objectives
The student who successfully completes this course will be able to:
1. Explain aseptic procedures in a clinical setting.
2. Apply correct dental anatomy terminology to a simulated dental examination.
3. Write a treatment note in SOAP format, incorporating the components of the dental record and the ethical and medical/legal implications of proper treatment notes.
4. Illustrate how to take a medical history and input this information into a dental record.
5. Identify the training requirements and duties of each member of the dental healthcare team.
6. Assess the effectiveness of oral hygiene techniques.
7. Describe methods for the prevention of dental trauma.
8. Apply principles of nutrition and oral health to nutritional self-assessment and dietary planning in patient simulations.
9. Identify factors affecting caries risk including salivary flow and access to fluoride.
10. Describe career-path options for dentists.
11. Demonstrate professional and ethical conduct.
12. Identify signs of impairment or psychological stress in self or colleagues, the avenues for help, and the professional responsibilities for reporting.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY
1. Recognize how cultural differences impact communication with patients from diverse populations.
2. Create an overview of health care disparities associated with oral health.
3. Outline strategies for providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services in oral health care settings.
4. Outline best practices for culturally and linguistically appropriate communication.
CULTURAL HUMILITY AND ABLEISM
1. Critically self-reflect on growth as a culturally humble healthcare provider.
2. Outline strategies for addressing power imbalances in clinical settings.
3. Produce examples of how cultural humility extends beyond the patient-provider relationship.
4. Produce examples of how ableism can manifest in medical settings.
5. Describe models of disability, including medical, social, and biopsychosocial models.
6. Outline best practices for improving cultural humility with patients with disabilities.HISTOLOGY
1. Describe the histologic core concepts of the following: cell structure, connective tissue structure, nerve tissue structure, muscle tissue structure, epithelium structure, bone structures, blood-blood cells, lymphoid cell structures, and skin structures.
PHARMACOLOGY
1. Explain the core concepts in pharmacodynamics including affinity, potency, efficacy, and drug dose-response curves.
2. Compare agonists and antagonists.
3. Describe the properties of full and partial agonists, competitive and non-competitive antagonists, and positive and negative allosteric modulators.
4. Explain the principles of drug toxicology including LD50, therapeutic index, and therapeutic window.
5. Identify the core concepts in pharmacokinetics including drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
6. Recognize mechanisms and effects of the types of drug-drug interactions.
7. Determine how pharmacogenetic diversity in the population affects drug pharmacokinetics.
8. Identify current DEA drug scheduling rules.
NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
1. Examine the core concepts of membranes, ion channels, and electrical signaling; action potential generation and propagation; synaptic transmission; and sensory receptors.
DENTAL ANATOMY
1. Reproduce basic tooth morphology through waxing techniques.
2. Discuss the components of tooth morphology.
3. Correctly utilize waxing instruments.
4. Discuss the relationship between a sound dentition and dental health.
INTRODUCTION TO THE HUMAN BODY
1. Define the main anatomical terms for directions and planes.
2. Explain the types of bony articulations and how they differ with respect to structure and function.
3. Explain how muscles act on joints and how to predict muscle actions based on origin, insertion, and orientation.
4. Explain the major functions and structures of the cardiovascular system.
5. Explain how blood flows through the heart and how these pathways comprise the pulmonary and systemic circuits.
6. Describe the major branches of the aorta and which regions of the body they supply.
7. Describe the major veins that return blood to the heart from different regions of the body.
8. Explain the portal system and how it differs from the caval system.
9. Explain the major functions and structures of the lymphatic system.
10. Describe the gross anatomical structures that comprise the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system.
11. Describe the structural and functional differences between the somatic and autonomic nervous system.
UWSOD Competencies: C-01, C-02, C-04, C-05, C-06, C-07, C-08, C-09, C-10, C-11, C-12, C-13, C-15, C-19, C-20, C-22, C-30, CE-02, CE-06, CE-07
Date last updated: 2022-07-22