Behavioral and Social Sciences

Resilience, sustainability as a student and future health professional will be presented.  Managing student debt, stress management, effects of social media, interpersonal relationships, and ethics in student practice will be discussed.  The problems of drug and alcohol abuse will be shown.  Respect in the University including cultural, gender, and sexual conduct issues will be presented.  Students will be made aware of resources to promote student wellbeing.

The fundamentals of dental and medical ethics are presented including beneficence and non- malfeasance.  The Helsinki statement and other aspects of human research guidelines are presented including the role of Human Studies committees.   The care of animals in biomedical research is discussed as well as the ethical use of human tissue in clinical care, transplant medicine etc.  Ethical financial relationships and the underlying law behind them in clinical practice is discussed.  The role of the criminal, tort system, the Board of Dentistry of California, and the ADA in dental ethics is presented.

In this course aspects of clinical psychology of importance in dental practice is presented.  Cased base learning will include:  minor and major psychiatric illnesses impacting on oral health and the provision of oral health care; elder, spousal and child abuse; dental fear; and, dental phobias.

The fundamentals of public health are presented including health and public health measures for health protection, protection from disease and health promotion.  The surgeon general’s report, 2000, updated 2019, on the status of oral health in America is presented.  WHO assessment of oral health globally is presented.  Population based initiative to improve oral health are discussed with a focus on clean water and fluoride exposure.

Addressing issues of student debt, career path, and modes of practice will be presented.  Operating a dental practice via solo or group practice model and in health systems based practice will be discussed.  Issues including human resources management, the actions of the care team in practice and financial responsibility and accounting will be presented.

Affiliated health systems based practices will accept CNU students into their care teams where senior students will provide clinical care under the supervision of Volunteer Community-Based Faculty in those sites.  Suitable transportation and housing will be arranged for where needed.  The purpose of the course is to provide community engagement with the constituencies served, to gain experience in community-based clinical care and to interact with the interprofessional and intraprofessional care team

This weekly seminar develops through cased based discussions led by student teams the public health issues in oral health in California and globally including access to care, social determinants of oral health, scope of practice issues, insurance and payment systems for oral health, access to fluoride, immunizations especially for HPV, and health protection for vulnerable populations such as children and elderly.

The simulation of dental practices in various models will be developed by students in groups including addressing issues of hiring, overhead, interaction with vendors, staff development, marketing, accounting and all operations in dental practice.  The regulatory environment for pricing, dental insurance, health insurance will be reviewed as well as all aspects of the operation of dental practices.

This course will be at a second community-based rotation site to elaborate on the activities of the first rotation and engage a new community and a new clinic.  In addition to comprehensive care experience, the student will compare and contrast communities and clinical care entities and provide a reflective essay on their community care experience.

D4 students will select from additional clerkships available at clinical sites either discipline based or comprehensive care in odontology, oral and maxillofacial studies or human studies.  Examples include comprehensive care at a remote clinic (odontology), dental specialty clerkship in oral maxillofacial surgery (OMFS), clerkship in internal medicine (Human Studies), or population health study abroad or in the United States (BSS).