Teaching dental public health to undergraduates using community profiles and patient case studies.

OBJECTIVE

Provide an example of how dental public health can be taught to undergraduates.

RESEARCH

DESIGN

Educational case study.

CLINICAL

SETTING

General dental practice.

INTERVENTION: Dental outreach placement and supporting project work. One project required students to study patients in the context of their environment via the social history.

RESULTS

The student learned about the social determinants of health and differentiated between the causes of disease in the patient and the determinants of health affecting the practice population.

CONCLUSIONS

Outreach training can help students learn about the social determinants of health. Dental schools may have missed an opportunity to use outreach to help their students learn from and about their environment and its impact on the health of their patients.