Designing a dental curriculum for the twenty-first century

A healthcare curriculum must be up-to-date, fit for purpose and relevant to the population it serves wherever that population might be, worldwide. In this paper we describe the rationale for the design and implementation of a curriculum in a new dental school in UK. We assessed the general and dental health needs of our local population and proposed a set of core skills our dentists will need on graduation and in the future. This core learning falls into three domains of learning. The psychomotor domain covers the learning of technical skills for which we use the shorthand 'hands'. The affective domain covers empathy and behaviour management, that is the 'heart'; and the cognitive domain including critical thinking, the 'head'. The three domains require different ways of learning but all are delivered in context in an integrated, case-based spiralling curriculum building in complexity year on year. Students treat patients from half way through year 1, which helps them appreciate the relevance of the 'hands', 'heart' and 'head' of dentistry as they begin to build their knowledge and experience.