Best Practices for Dental Sealants in Community Service‐Learning

Abstract

Community service-learning (CSL) in predoctoral dental education might be an effective tool for increasing sealant use by dentists-thus benefitting underserved children while facilitating students' learning of a clinical procedure in a real-life setting. This study reviewed the scientific literature on this topic in order to 1) evaluate the reasons for low sealant use among dentists, 2) consider important aspects of sealant use in community settings, and 3) identify best practices to use as guidelines for CSL regarding sealant use. As background, the MEDLINE database was searched with the key words "dental sealants" for human and laboratory studies in the English language. A total of 205 relevant articles were identified and overviewed. We found that the low use of sealants relate to dentists' orientation toward restorations rather than prevention, distrust in sealant treatment, lack of confidence in caries risk assessment, and concern about sealing over caries. The aspects to consider in the CSL projects are acquisition of knowledge and necessary skills of operators, cost-benefit approach to sealant placement, and meticulous sealant placement procedures, including the necessity for a short-term recall.

A scoping review on social justice education in current undergraduate dental curricula

“…The 18 studies addressing dental ethics and social responsibility encompassed topics such as ethics pedagogy, ethical commitment, professionalism, ethical reasoning, and curricular incorporation of these topics. We identified that ethics education was associated with professionalism and social responsibility in these studies . One of these studies supported the continuous instruction of ethics throughout the dental program to better produce clinicians who can identify and understand the needs of their community .…”

“…A large number of studies discussed introspection and self‐reflection. These are fostered through reflective writing and learning exercises, as well as through the use of critical incident reports that promote students’ self‐evaluation of their experiences and potential biases …”

Demonstration of payer readiness for value‐based care in a fee‐for‐service environment: Measuring provider performance on sealant delivery

“…This would ensure maximum sealant performance “credit” would be given to the provider. Accounting for a deferment period between a PDV and sealant placement was necessary, due to the potential clinical, behavioral, or scheduling reasons for delaying sealant applications during a PDV 18,19 . In cases where children saw more than one dentist for a PDV, their eligible teeth were counted under each dentist seen in the study period.…”

“…Accounting for a deferment period between a PDV and sealant placement was necessary, due to the potential clinical, behavioral, or scheduling reasons for delaying sealant applications during a PDV. 18,19 In cases where children saw more than one dentist for a PDV, their eligible teeth were counted under each dentist seen in the study period. In the event a child had more than one PDV to the same dentist in the same year, his or her eligible teeth were counted on the last PDV of the fiscal year.…”

Fissure sealant therapy as a portable community‐based care in deprived regions: Effectiveness of a clinical trial after 1 year follow‐up

“…One potential strategy to increase the coverage of school-based programs is the integration of the application of fissure sealant into the curriculum of dental students through the community-based learning (CBL) modules. Such CBL modules provide opportunities for students to be socially responsible, culturally competent and aware of the determinants of health in underserved communities (Aleksejūnienė et al, 2010).…”