How to Learn about Oriental Medicine in Dental Education

Objectives: At present, only two of all the dental schools in Japan have a Department of Oriental Medicine and curriculum for oriental medicine in dental education. One of them is our Osaka Dental University. A course called “Oriental Medicine in Dental Education” was started in April 2004 for third-year students, and the cumulative total number of participants has exceeded 1,000 students. The purpose of the course is to acquire knowledge of oriental medicine and the basic skills. We present how to learn about “dental oriental medicine”, pre- and post-questionnaire data for classes, and strategies to improve the quality of education for oriental medicine.
Methods: The contents of the course are the history, concept and diagnostic method of oriental medicine to prevent of current lifestyle-related disease and accelerate curative methods, and health promotion by oriental medicine. In addition, it includes acupuncture and therapeutics for traditional oriental medicine. The methods of teaching involves lectures using Power Point as well as giving a questionnaire and post-test. Actually, hands-on-learning of acupuncture is practiced. Pre- and post-questionnaire data were collected from 132 third-year dental undergraduates and analyzed using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods.
Results: 86.4% of students were satisfied with the course and 100% of them felt in need of oriental medicine for dentistry. Pre- and post-questionnaire data indicated that teaching effectiveness is dependent on students’ interest in oriental medicine and active efforts to learn it.
Conclusions: The questionnaires reconfirmed that active learning before and after course are very useful for improvement of the educational effects. It is important for us to convey the necessity of dental oriental medicine to students, to implement strategies to improve motivation to learn, and to create an educational environment that proactively fosters studies in oriental medicine.