Shared experiences on the Master's Degree in Dentistry for children and adolescents in Villa Clara
RESEARCH PAPER

 

Shared experiences on the Master's Degree in Dentistry for children and adolescents in Villa Clara

Experiencias compartidas sobre la Maestría en Odontoestomatología Infanto Juvenil en Villa Clara

 

 

Felisa Veitia Cabarrocas1*
Isabel Ramos Hurtado1
Olga Lidia Véliz Concepción1

 

1Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences. Dentistry Faculty. Cuba.

 

*Author for correspondence. E-mail: felisavc@infomed.sld.cu

 

 

ABSTRACT

Oral health particularly influences general health in children and young people, even in growth and development. The National Program of Comprehensive dentistry Attention to the Population considers them prioritized groups; it has been shown that the improvement of society life quality is related to the levels of health that are reached in the child population. These reasons support the design of the Master ´s course in Children and Adolescent s Dentistry that is taught at Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences. The objective of the authors is to socialize their good results, obtained with the influence of a pedagogical group with high academic and scientific ranks, who have led the pupils towards the achievement of a recognized scientific production; which has contributed to the certification of this form of professional improvement, the first of the medical sciences in Villa Clara to achieve this condition.

MeSH: education, dental, graduate; faculty, dental; learning; education, medical.

RESUMEN

La salud bucal influye en la salud general particularmente en los niños y jóvenes, aún en crecimiento y desarrollo. El Programa Nacional de Atención Estomatológica Integral a la Población los considera grupos priorizados; se ha demostrado que el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de una sociedad está relacionada con los niveles de salud que se alcanzan en la población infantil. Estos motivos sustentan el diseño de la Maestría en Odontoestomatología Infanto Juvenil que se imparte en la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Villa Clara. Es objetivo de los autores socializar sus buenos resultados, obtenidos con la influencia de un colectivo pedagógico con altas categorías académicas y científicas, quienes han conducido a los maestrantes hacia el logro de una producción científica reconocida; lo cual ha tributado a la certificación de esta forma de superación profesional, la primera de las ciencias médicas villaclareña en alcanzar esta condición.

DeSC: educación de posgrado en Odontología; docentes de Odontología; aprendizaje; educación médica.

 

 

Submitted: 04/07/2019
Accepted: 02/09/2019

 

 

Oral health particularly influences general health, in children and young people who are still in the process of growth and development; its loss or alteration causes a decrease in the mastication capacity, phonetic and aesthetic functioning, which also affects the self-esteem and, therefore, its quality of life.

Dental care to children and young people must be comprehensive and systematic, not only cover the preventive and curative aspects, but also in its educational-psychological, epidemiological and researching connotation to contribute to the formation of healthy individuals for full biological, mental and social enjoyment, as established by the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) in its statutes on the rights of the child, which is also a priority objective of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).(1)

The National Program of Comprehensive Dental Care for the population,(2) consequently includes the proposal to increase the healthy population through health promotion and disease prevention, healing and rehabilitation actions, on the individual, the family, the community and the environment at all levels of care, and considers children and adolescents from 0-19 years within the prioritized age groups, since it has been shown that the improvement of the quality of life of a society is strongly related to the levels of health that are reached in the children population.

To achieve these purposes, Villa Clara Dentistry School, whose mission is the training and improvement of human resources in the different Dentistry branches , with a solid scientific-technical and humanistic preparation, finds in the academic postgraduate an ideal space for that end, and taking the experiences that contributed to the development of the masters `courses in Dental urgencies and Community Dental Care designed the Master's Course in Dentistry for children and adolescents that provides graduates of Comprehensive General Dentistry and other dental specialties, in-depth knowledge of researching methods, broad scientific culture and advanced and updated knowledge of the aspects concerning health and oral diseases of the population under 19 years old, in order to optimize dental care in this age group.

The Master's Course in Dentistry for children and adolescents developed its first edition from 2007 to 2010, the second from 2011 to 2013, and the third from 2015 to 2017, which have allowed to successfully graduating 35 master's degrees, of them 34 from the province of Villa Clara and one from the sister Republic of Nicaragua. The researches carried out by them paid tribute to the priorities of the Cuban Health System, to the Scientific Policy of the province and particularly to the Dentistry Faculty and its results have influenced the health development process in the province, demonstrating the social pertinence of the master's program, a significant number of such results were recognized in contests such as the Annual Health Prize and have been published in national and international journals.(3,4) The fourth edition is currently taught with an enrollment of 25 students.

The teaching staff, in all editions, has been characterized by its suitability and experience, it has a high scientific-technical and methodological level that is expressed in the academic maturity reached in the implementation of the program, and it is evident in its composition, which reaches 92.3 % among Ph.D in Dentistry Sciences and second-degree specialists, and 96.1% hold the master's degree, their participation in scientific research projects is extensive and their scientific productivity exceeded the established rates, with emphasis on the presentation of works in national and international events.

The Dentistry Faculty of Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences held the category of certified Degree since 2008, and in the process of reaccreditation of 2014 reached the category of Degree of EXCELLENCE, in order to continue raising the quality of the developing formative processes; following the orientation of the quality standard of Master Programs MES/(SEA-M-2015),(5,6) after having made the corresponding self-assessment of its masters course in Children and Adolescents Dentistry, requested external evaluation and submitted to a rigorous accreditation process whose result was presented to the analysis of the technical committee of the National Accreditation Board of master's degrees, which conferred the category of certificate; It is important to highlight that it is the first masters course of the medical sciences in Villa Clara to achieve this condition.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

1. Valdés Álvarez R. Manual de Odontopediatría. La Habana: Editorial Ciencias Médicas; 2014.

2. Programa Nacional de Atención Estomatológica a la Población. La Habana: Editorial Ciencias Médicas; 2015.

3. Hernández Rodríguez JM, Machado Martínez M, Véliz Concepción OL. Efecto del activador abierto elástico de klammt III modificado en pacientes con fisuras labiopalatinas. Medicentro Electrónica [Internet]. 2015 [citado 10/04/2018];19(3):[aprox. 11 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1029-30432015000300003

4. San Miguel Pentón A, Veliz Concepción OL, Escudero Alemán RZ, Calcines Ferrer ME, Ortega Romero L. Cronología de emergencia de la dentición permanente en niños del municipio de Santa Clara: Parte I. Rev Cubana Estomatol [Internet]. 2011 [citado 06/04/2018];48(3):[aprox. 10 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.revestomatologia.sld.cu/index.php/est/article/view/2716/1043

5. Junta de Acreditación Nacional. Sistema de Evaluación y Acreditación de Programas de Maestrías (SEA-M) La Habana: MES; 2015.

6. Louro Bernal IL. La acreditación aporta beneficios a la maestría en los planos ético, moral, científico y práctico. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2013 [citado 10/04/2018];5(2):[aprox. 10 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.revedumecentro.sld.cu/index.php/edumc/article/view /249/494

 

 

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

 

 

Contribution of the authors

Felisa Veitia Cabarrocas: coordinator of the publication. She analyzed the bibliographic searches and made the article.
Isabel Ramos Hurtado and Olga Lidia Véliz Concepción: they carried out the bibliographic searches and helped to shape the article.

 

 

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