AUT - Oral Health Research
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Oral Health Research
Oral Health Studies Programme
The School of Oral Health was established in 2002 in response to an extreme shortage of dental therapists in New Zealand but particularly in Auckland and Northland. The students' education in the BHSc (Oral Health) programme is provided by skilled AUT lecturers and clinical educators seconded from Auckland Regional Dental Service (ARDS). The students have access to a newly developed on-site 12 chair clinic, a laboratory for pre-clinical learning and four ARDS community clinics. This provides students with a wide range of clinical experience before they graduate. The first groups of students to graduate from this programme from 2006-2008 are qualified to register and work as dental therapists. From 2009 onwards, the students will graduate with two scopes of practice and be able to register both as dental therapists and dental hygienists. With their BHSc (Oral Health) qualification, graduates can work as dental therapists in schools, hospitals and community clinics as well as in private practice, treating children and young adults up to the age of 18 years providing examination and preventative services and such treatments as: fillings, stainless steel crowns, pulpotomies and extractions (all on primary or 'baby' teeth) as well as fillings for permanent teeth. The dental hygiene qualification offers opportunities to work with all age groups including the elderly, in consultation with a dentist, to provide, for example, periodontal debridement and prophylaxis, oral health education and promotion, preventive and bleaching procedures.
AUT also offers a Certificate in Dental Surgery Assisting which is an intensive six-month course which educates students in dental surgery management, communication skills, human structure and function and appropriate dental sciences.
The Oral Health Programme at AUT aims to produce well qualified graduates who are able to go into the community to raise awareness and improve the oral health of New Zealanders.
Oral Health Research
Currently, the School of Oral Health is undertaking a partnership project with the Ministry of Health to develop and evaluate a dually qualified dental therapist-hygienist education model for New Zealand. This project includes an evaluation of how the new multi-skilled therapist can support recommendations of the School Dental Service Review and Māori Oral Health Service Review.
Dr Theresa Madden is leading an oral health research project focusing on motivational interviewing. Dental education has developed highly useful simulation educational laboratories for acquiring the specific skills of cutting teeth with rotary instruments, cleaning teeth with hand instruments, and restoring lost tooth structure with dental filling materials. Lagging behind in dental education are useful teaching tools in motivational communication skills for students to practice prior to meeting their real human patients. This study will train students in motivational interviewing and in doing so will produce an interactive DVD and Online video learning tools for such a purpose and in a format that will be generalisable to non-oral health education at AUT.
The contact for the Oral Health Programme/Research is Dr Susan Cartwright.