A two-day workshop organised by Oral & Maxillofacial Department LUMHS was inaugurated at Dr Ishrat Ul Ibad Khan Dental Skill Laboratory LUMHS Jamshoro on Tuesday. While addressing the participants Vice Chancellor LUMHS Professor Muneer Ahmad Junejo expressed that the main objective of the dental curriculum is to provide students with knowledge, skills and attitudes required for their practice.
He said that dental skills laboratories are educational facilities that have the potential benefit for undergraduate and postgraduate dental students. They provide a safe and protected environment in which the learner can practice clinical skills before using them in real clinical settings. These skills laboratories help to ensure that all students can acquire the necessary techniques and are properly assessed before practising on real patients.
In charge Dental Skill Laboratory LUMHS Professor Shahjahan Katpar expressed that the Dental educators must create learning environments that promote critical thinking, decision making and transfer of knowledge from didactic to clinical settings in order to enhance the knowledge, skills and performance of their students. In addition, due to a rapidly changing health care environment, dental education has been plagued with increasing quantities of complex information with waning numbers of academics.
Adding to the challenge, the expectations of new graduates in dentistry and oral health differ from those in other health professions because students must be fully prepared for clinical practice at the time of graduation. Dr Feroz Ali Principal Institute of Dentistry LUMHS Jamshoro, Professor Mervyn Hosein Dean Zia Uddindin University Karachi, Professor Abdul Qadir Khero Dean Isra University Hyderabad and Dr Inayat Ullah Padhiar Editor "Journal of Pakistan Dental Association" also shared the views on the dental education and skills.