TRAINING OF DENTISTS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27444, 2 September 1954, Page 8

TRAINING OF DENTISTS

SUGGESTED DISPERSAL IN FINAL YEAR

CRITICISM BY DEAN OF OTAGO SCHOOL

(New Zealand Press Association) PUNEDIN, September 1. Complete disagreement with any policy of dispersing senior dental students to the other main centres of New Zealand was expressed today by the Dean of the Otago Dental School (Dr. J. P. Walsh). He was commenting on the address of the president (Mr M. E. Priestley) at the opening of the conference of the New Zealand Dental Association at Auckland. - / '

“The public should realise that Mr Priestley was not speaking for the New Zealand Dental Association, but fof himself as an Auckland dentist,” Dr. Walsh said. At the dedtal school students were receiving a more comprehensive clinical experience than ever before in the history of dental education in New Zealand. There was' no shortage in clinical material, either in quantity or variety, he said. “The principle of dispersal of finalyear students is wrong,” Dr. Walsh said. “No dental school in the world has adopted that principle. In fact, the final year is the very year in which students integrate their studies. Students very rarely start practising on their own immediately after graduating. ‘ “The policy of the school in Dimedin has been to give students as broad a range of clinical experience as pdssible within the time limits of the course. The limiting factor is the time available, not the supply of clinical material.”