👤 Benjamin Godder

Catastrophic preparedness should be incorporated into the dental school curriculum. The experience at New York University College of Dentistry is that a combination of catastrophic preparedness elements integrated within existing courses with a short, meaningful capstone course dedicated to all hazards preparedness can be accomplished successfully and meet proposed competencies for training in the dental curriculum. The roles and responsibilities in catastrophic response preparedness and response of dentists are actively being discussed by the dental profession. An element of that discussion has to include the "what" and "how" of education and training for dentists at the predoctoral level and after dental school graduation. The concepts presented in this article should be debated at all levels of the profession. Show less

This article describes an integrated fourth-year course in catastrophe preparedness for students at the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD). The curriculum is built around the competencies proposed in "Predoctoral Dental School Curriculum for Catastrophe Preparedness," published in the August 2004 Journal of Dental Education. We highlight our experience developing the program and offer suggestions to other dental schools considering adding bioterrorism studies to their curriculum. Show less