Digitalization and the progressive implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in numerous scientific fields has led to a radical transformation in the field of dentistry. Although AI is still in an early phase in this area, more and more professionals are betting on this tool to offer personalized treatments to their clients, reduce planning times, help define diagnoses and, ultimately, improve patient care. Faced with this paradigm shift, universities already include in their academic programs content that helps future professionals acquire the necessary skills in digitalization to face the challenges and opportunities that arise in the dental sector.
Specialized teachers and state-of-the-art infrastructure and resources are essential to motivate, facilitate and enrich student learning in the field of digitalization. Without forgetting analog knowledge, the use and application of digital tools undoubtedly contributes to generalizing excellence.
Digital radiography, machined digital prosthetics, CAD/CAM technologies, 3D printing, and virtual reality simulation laboratories are just some of the advancements that have come about thanks to digitalization. Although the concepts are the same in conventional dentistry as in digital dentistry, “better visualization, planning and simulation of the results allows students to internalize these concepts much better,” according to the president of the Conference of Deans and Academic Leaders of Faculties. and Dental Schools of Spain and dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at UIC Barcelona, Lluís Giner Tarrida. Once these concepts have been assimilated, students transfer them to preclinical simulation, where they gain confidence in the diagnostic and therapeutic processes that they will subsequently face in their clinical activity.
In addition to degrees, university master's degrees also work with digital tools that allow specialization in a wide range of situations. An example is the permanent training master's degree in Digital Dentistry and New Technologies, transversal to all areas of knowledge, offered by UIC Barcelona on its Sant Cugat Campus, with high-level equipment and resources for future professionals.
Apart from the implementation of new digital and AI tools, research in dentistry is essential to continue advancing in knowledge, better understanding oral diseases and finding new strategies for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these problems. For this reason, encouraging the participation of students in the scientific activity of the Faculty, from the first year of their degree, helps to awaken their interest in research.
The university teacher also plays a determining role in this sense. Having top-level researchers who can contribute their knowledge and professional experience fosters interest in the scientific field, helps students question every step they take and always look for the proven option.
The constant connection with the business world, through chairs and agreements, also allows them to closely follow how their research cooperates in the transfer of knowledge to the company and society. UIC Barcelona, which has among its priorities to promote scientific activity and introduce the culture of knowledge transfer to industry in the university community, has two research groups and five chairs in the field of Dentistry.
In a global society like the current one, the training of students also involves opening their minds to change, being flexible and knowing other languages and cultures. The internationalization of universities is a great opportunity for this and most faculties, such as the Faculty of Dentistry at UIC Barcelona, offer double degrees with prestigious foreign universities. Furthermore, at this university 40% of the master's degrees in Dentistry are taught entirely in English, which attracts a high number of foreign students.
In addition to excellent scientific training, future dentists must acquire the necessary skills to deal with patients during their years at the Faculty. Dentistry has a dimension of personal care in which the interaction with the person is constant and the human aspect can never be left aside. Aware of this, dental schools convey to students from the first day of class that good communication between professional and patient is essential for the treatment to be successful and to reduce the anxiety that many people suffer when going to the consultation.
Beyond the clinical dimension, dentistry requires the ability to communicate with the patient and their family, commitment, ethics, critical thinking and the ability to work as a team to meet the needs of an increasingly aging society that requires highly qualified professionals. qualified in all areas. All these aspects are the center of different lines of research, such as those promoted by the Faculty of Dentistry at UIC Barcelona.
