Pre-clinical lab upgrade would better simulate real practice, help students practice perfect posture from Day One
By GREG HACK
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Brock Buzbee worked on practice dentures in his Operative Dentistry II Lab. He kept his back ramrod straight and his feet comfortably planted under his chair.
“The faculty really push you on proper positioning,” said Buzbee, a second-year student from Springfield, Missouri. Good ergonomics and the importance of posture are stressed from the outset of their training.
But as good as his own posture was, Buzbee was able to twist the partial “head on a stick” he was working on in unrealistic ways. His setup didn’t give him a simulation of the positioning he will need in actual practice.
Nearby, classmate Cassandra Shannon from Omaha leaned over her lab bench and agreed, saying, “We can kind of cheat the system.” Students’ finished work has to be just right, she said, from crown preparations and partials to drillings and fillings, “but the ergonomics aren’t right.”
To change that, a campaign is underway to raise funds to overhaul the School of Dentistry’s pre-clinical lab, the vital training area where first- and second-year students spend hundreds of hours. The campaign will finance 110 ergonomically correct dental simulators, complete with head-and-torso simulated patients, and a much-needed refurbishment of the lab space and its air-handling system.
Dean Marsha Pyle, seeing the acute need for the upgrade and the reality of tight state financing, launched the fundraising drive. The campaign is halfway to its goal, and it got a big boost when Dean Pyle took her case to the UMKC Dental Alumni Association.
The association formed a committee to study the request, led by Dr. Jim Trotter, DDS ’76, treasurer of the association, and including Dr. Jack Nelson, DDS ’82, MPA ’78, past president of the Dental Alumni Association.
Dr. Trotter said, “When we did our due diligence, looking at the need and the costs, it wasn’t too difficult a decision — for the committee and then for the alumni board to approve matching the next $125,000 in contributions.”
One of the first to answer the fund-raising call was Dr. John Killip, who might know better than anyone the importance of the lab and the need for an upgrade.
“I was in charge of the lab for 25 years,” said Dr. Killip (DDS ’68), professor emeritus of restorative clinical sciences and retired associate dean of student programs. “Some of it still dates to when the current building opened in 1971. I was there for the lab’s only renovation, in the mid-1990s,” when dental lighting was installed and work surfaces were lowered to a realistic height for dentistry.
“When the school appealed for money for another upgrade,” Dr. Killip said, “I responded very rapidly.”
He hopes more alumni will follow him and be inspired by the alumni association’s contribution. Though financing the new lab won’t give the one-on-one connection that one gets from, say, financing a scholarship, Dr. Killip said the lab improvements will benefit every student directly in their training and throughout their careers.
Dr. Trotter and Dr. Nelson also are directly aware of the lab’s needs. Dr. Trotter is clinical assistant professor in the Department of Restorative Clinical Sciences, and Dr. Nelson is clinical associate professor and vice chair of that department.
Dr. Nelson said alumni and other supporters of the School of Dentistry should not hesitate to contribute now, though discussions have begun on a possible new dental school building some years down the road. The work stations could be moved to a new building, and the air-handler renovation is needed now.
Ergonomics and more
Over the years, research has confirmed what too many dentists know first-hand: The stresses and repetitive motions of dentistry can lead to physical problems. A 2018 Journal of Occupational Health review of 49 studies found “health-related problems are still prevalent in current dentistry practice,” and the reviewed studies highlight “a need to improve clinical practice aspects of dentistry curricula.”
Dr. Nelson said with the new lab stations, “We will be able to teach them proper positioning and techniques from the outset. If you do not have bad habits, then it’s a lot easier to teach you ideal habits. And most if not all of these students have never practiced these procedures before.
“You want students to know how to use their mirror and explorer while sitting properly so they can have a longer, more productive dental career. With proper technique, they’re much less likely to develop back problems and neck problems, and more likely to avoid carpal tunnel and other issues.”
Dr. Nelson said he had been fortunate to avoid such issues, and wanted the same for the next generation of dentists. But his colleague, Dr. Trotter, said he was “very aware of the cost of poor ergonomics to a dentist over time. I’ve had four surgeries, two specifically related to poor ergonomics.”
Dr. Trotter continued: “We can’t show all the proper techniques that we want to show. Students really need to appreciate how easy it is to slip into bad habits. Ergonomics are critical to create long and rewarding careers.
“Reducing or eliminating these injuries also will reduce health care costs. Teaching proper technique from the outset also will improve the quality of patient care. We work better when we’re not under physical stress.”
Dr. Trotter also foresees another benefit from the upgrade: more-inspired students.
“Having these realistic work stations also should give a motivational boost,” he said. “I notice that the earlier I can give students a close-to-real-life experience, the more excited they get about their education. It’s not just the technical piece; it’s getting their juices flowing and seeing them put more energy into their learning.”
Staying competitive
In making her pitch for matching funds from the Dental Alumni Association, Dr. Trotter said Dean Pyle also emphasized “that we are falling behind some other dental schools in the four-state area that have new or remodeled pre-clinical labs.”
“For as long as I can remember, UMKC has been regarded as a top clinical dental school, able to attract the highest quality students,” he said. “But in the past four or five years, we’re concerned that we might have lost a few of those cream-of-the-crop recruits. Students now see new or refurbished labs at the surrounding dental schools, and some opt to go for the newer facilities. We want to keep getting those top students.”
Dr. Lance Godley, DMD, M Ed, who this fall was in charge of the Operative Dentistry II Lab, saw one of those competing labs at Creighton University in Omaha. He described the shiny new facilities as “almost over the top.”
Dr. Godley was in Nebraska for a meeting of the Consortium of Operative Dentistry Educators, and he said several other Midwest members of the group also had new or upgraded labs, including the University of Iowa, Southern Illinois University and A.T. Still University in Kirksville, Missouri.
He said an upgrade at UMKC could bring advantages both granular and sweeping: “It would be helpful to have air and water and working vacuums at each station. We are limited in the procedures we can do. The students have to drill dry, for example, and it gets dusty. Wet drilling is also more realistic.”
More broadly, the revamped lab will make it possible to integrate the use of patient records and biomedical science into the pre-clinical training.
“With work stations including computer screens,” he said, “we could get students thinking about the whole person, and have them applying their skills in a setting that’s more like evaluating and treating a real patient.”
Dr. Nelson added, “I think dentistry is on the cusp of being dramatically changed by technology. Updating our lab will be a good step toward the future of teaching dentistry.” •
Cassandra Shannon works on her “head on
a stick” typodont in pre-clinical lab. A plan
to upgrade the lab includes more realistic
lab simulators.
“I notice that the earlier I can give students a close-to-real-life experience, the more excited they get about their education.”– DR. JIM TROTTER
How You Can Help
DONATIONS FOR REFURBISHING the pre-clinical lab can be sent to the Rinehart Foundation at 650 E. 25th St, KCMO 64108. Or give online through the Rinehart Foundation website at dentistry.umkc.edu/foundation.
Questions? Ask Hilary Wheat at 816-235-2173 or wheath@umkc.edu.
The UMKC Dental Alumni Association is matching the first $125,000 in contributions. When you make a gift, the match from the alumni association wil double its value and allow it to go even further. Don’t miss the chance to double your impact.
New patient simulators will include an
ergonomically positioned torso form,
air and water syringes, and hand-piece
and suction brackets.