The president of the Central Regional Dental Testing Service mixes his message in his December letter to the editor regarding board exams, and should divide the question into two parts.
First, there is a legitimate argument whether boards are even necessary. I happen to believe that state governments have a legal obligation to protect their citizens by independently monitoring the dental education and accreditation system to ensure standards are maintained.
But second, does that mean we have to be the only healing arts profession to be forced to use human subjects as part of their examination? Absolutely not. Modern simulators (not mannequins), which have been used in many dental schools for years, are technologically more than adequate to test for minimum competence. Ask any first-year operative instructor.
Ask any board instructor (off the record) and they will admit that every exam produces six to eight "bad outcomes" for patients. This is not just an embarrassment, it is inexcusable.
We teach our students to "put the patient first," but that never applies during and before boards. Taking unnecessary X-rays, paying patients to have incipient lesions replaced with gold inlays, giving them pre-med diazepam, using long-acting anesthetics and making patients wear rubber dams for hours on end—how does this simulate private practice? Because of the artificial pressures placed on candidates in our current archaic testing system, so much inappropriate behavior takes place below the examiners’ radar screen.
The ADA, through Resolution 64H-2000, calls for change. It is time to save dental students a lot of time, money and guilt by using a fair, standard exam on simulators—even before graduation. These premier grad students deserve to be given their licenses and diplomas on the same day. And they deserve to be proud of their profession from day 1 in dental school.
