Dental education has experienced major changes in the last twenty years, which greatly affect the training and experiences of today's dental students. New educational models must function with less support, however, in a much more complicated dental world than ever before. Dental Students have also changed dramatically, and the personality profile of today’s students is amazingly different than the previous generation of learners. How can excellence survive in this new environment? Dr. Stevenson’s presentation will highlight the current dental school milieu and discuss some functioning teaching innovations, which address these challenges.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the major trends in the changing dental patient population.

2. Understand the differences in dental students, comparing the last two generations.

3. Understand the Faculty shortage in dental education and what the future holds for the entire dental educational system.

4. Understand what types of innovative teaching systems may improve the quality of the dental student learner of today and beyond.