The influence of COVID-19 on dental school education in the United States: emerging and future challenges
Date
2020-11
DOI
Authors
Sonkar, Jyoti
Saxena, Debashree
Kong, Celeste
Version
OA Version
Citation
Sonkar J, Saxena D, Kong C. Influence of COVID-19 on Dental School Education in United States: Emerging and Future Challenges. Journal of the Massachusetts Dental Society, Volume 69, Number 3, Fall 2020
Abstract
Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a rapidly emerging infectious disease pandemic with the potential of transmission from animal-to-human and human-to-human which has grappled the current world into fear. Public health, trade, travel and numerous economic sectors have come to a standstill. Higher education has been struggling to adapt to the new rules and regulations proposed in response to the current dynamic situation. Per the Center for Disease Control, as of March 30, 2020, there are over 140,094 COVID-19 cases diagnosed in the United States with a total of 2,045 deaths. Due to the high-risk nature of dentistry, dental schools have been tasked with a challenging role of delegating a majority of their responsibilities remotely and shutting down non emergent patient care to safeguard their dental students, faculties and personnel. This is causing a delay in providing optimal dental care, especially to the aging population due to the magnitude of their susceptibility to the disease. As a teaching institution, the dental school must not only navigate through the challenge of managing and providing optimal patient care, but also address scholastic responsibilities. The aim of this article is to review and explore some of the emerging issues such as impact of virtual learning, increasing xenophobia, didactics and clinical protocols during and post lockdown, safety requirements and dynamic strategic policies safeguarding the mission and integrity of the dental schools during this hardship.
Description
License
Copyright 2020 Journal of Massachusetts Dental Society. The published version of this article appears in OpenBU by permission of the publisher.