Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Making Contact: The Key to Dental Inclusion

2018; Elsevier BV; Volume: 76; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.joms.2017.12.011

1531-5053

Thomas B. Dodson,

Dental Education, Practice, Research

It's not easy being green.—Kermit the Frog These days, academic institutions labor to articulate their commitments to diversity and inclusion. Many of us can still remember a time, not long enough ago, when restrictions and quotas determined the profile of a dental school class. Affirmative action programs introduced in the 1960s targeted certain groups for opportunities in order to catch up with benefits previously available to some but not all. These programs were ushered in with enthusiasm and later flushed out with claims of reverse discrimination. Our society has a wide variance from the mean of advantages and disadvantages, whether measured by gender, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Since the product of educational institutions is what many see as the key to success in today's society, more and more colleges and universities are fighting for social justice by taking leadership positions on diversity and inclusion. At my dental institution, we have a program called Partners in Diversity that raises scholarship funds to benefit those from underserved ethnic and socioeconomic areas who wish to pursue dental education. Through this program, I met a young student from a Native American tribe in northeast Washington who told a touching story of how he discovered his interest in a dental career. As a 12-year-old boy, he met an itinerant dentist who visited his community, providing basic screening, hygiene, and restorative services. It was his first ever exposure to a healthcare professional. He was moved by the knowledge and skills that this professional possessed, but even more so by this one person's ability to have such a dramatic and immediate effect on the health and welfare of his tribespeople. With the support of his community, he completed college and dental school and has now returned to his remote area as a dentist to serve as its sole provider of healthcare. While I marveled at the character and commitment of this young man, I could not help but recognize how his story resonated with my own. I am by no measure an ethnic minority, but coming from a small remote community of around 2000 people, I, too, was drawn to dentistry by the shining benevolence of a single dentist in my hometown. In this man, I saw the stature that education and training could bring. I admired his ability to bring health and comfort to a broad range of people. And he was gracious enough to allow me to observe him at work, where I secretly hatched my plans for the many years of education that were to come. Exposure to dentistry at a young age made the difference between a future in a lumber mill and the career I've been fortunate enough to enjoy. I think of Dr Pinnock often. His kindness guides my hand while working with residents. One never knows when a teachable moment could become a lesson of a lifetime. While these are just two among many poignant tales, they help to underscore the importance of exposure in broadening opportunities among those in underserved populations. Most educational institutions' efforts at diversity and inclusion focus on eliminating the barriers that begin at their own front doors. Indeed, achieving gender- and ethnic-blind admissions processes was a hard fought battle. However, there is still so much more to do. For instance, many schools are just beginning to address the soaring cost of dental education and the burden that student loans place upon the futures of our newest graduating dentists. We will never solve the problem of inclusion and diversity in dental education, however, if we focus only on those who have the wherewithal to arrive at the thresholds of our dental schools. Exposure to dental professions must be addressed much farther upstream, perhaps as early as during primary and secondary education. This is the window of time when educational building blocks are sorted out and the trajectory of a science-based career is set in motion. Already, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs are breaking barriers for women and people of color in a range of science-oriented careers. With active sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and high tech firms, those encouraged to study STEM subjects are most likely to be exposed to career opportunities in aerospace, transportation, communication, energy, and defense. What are the dental professions and schools of dentistry doing to make the connection between STEM education and career paths in dentistry and dental specialties? And why should we care? Precisely because there is more at stake here than our institutions' complying with some arbitrary social standard of diversity. There is an opportunity to expand the service mission of our dental institutions, recognizing that underserved communities are also home to those who are most likely to be under-represented in our profession and our specialties. Exposure means casting a wider net, and by doing so we begin to formulate a more comprehensive approach. Diversity isn't a just problem to be solved. Lack of diversity in dental education is a symptom of a larger issue in our thinking about social justice. As I have been challenged to contemplate the question of diversity and inclusion in dental education, I've come to the conclusion that we can serve as much as ambassadors of our profession as we are caregivers. We never know when a young patient is having a moment of first exposure, or when a young mind internalizes what we do in terms beyond the procedure itself. Let's keep in mind that as we do, we also teach. Something as simple as how we explain what we do with a young patient can make all the difference between a “Marathon Man” moment and enlisting an enthusiastic new dental recruit.