DH 260 - Community Dental Health

Credit Hours: 2

General principles in the field of public health will be addressed with an emphasis on health care delivery systems. Principles and techniques in assessing data will be discussed in relation to product evaluation and interpretation of research. Principles in the epidemiology of oral diseases will be reviewed. Ways and means of developing dental health programs will be studied in conjunction with a field experience aimed at a target population in the local community. A service learning opportunity in this course will provide students with the ability to interact, self-reflect and critically think about implementing a small scale community health program for a target population. Minimum passing grade is “C-.”

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

demonstrate knowledge of community oral health problems and their impact on community resources;
describe methods used to promote oral health awareness and disease prevention in the community;
identify and evaluate community oral health issues and strategies to address them;
describe human behaviors, cultural issues, political realities and technical challenges which affect community dental health initiatives;
define the skills required to act as a community dental health professional;
assess, plan, implement and evaluate community oral health programs;
evaluate journal articles and evidence-based clinical information; and
develop understanding of basic statistical principles, dental indices and use of computers in dental research and community dental health.

Prerequisites: All fall, second-year courses in the Dental Hygiene curriculum must be passed.
Corequisites: All required final-semester courses in the Dental Hygiene curriculum.
S (N)