Major Long‐Term Factors Influencing Dental Education in the Twenty‐First Century

With evolutionary advances in oral science over the long term, clinical reliance on chemotherapeutics, bacterial replacement therapy, and immunization will necessitate a broader background in medicine. The dramatic increase in the old age population will also require a much stronger medical background. By 2050, those over fifty-five years of age will represent 56 percent of the population, and 25 percent of these will be sixty-five years of age and older. The merging of dental and medical education is predicted to occur within the twenty-first century. Other topics addressed include research activities, with recommended strategies to enhance the integration of scientific and clinical dental approaches; the problem of dental faculty isolation; and the implications of financial constraint and accountability.