Undergraduate clinical pedodontic education: an overview of two teaching systems

This paper compares and contrasts two clinical teaching systems in undergraduate pedodontics: the block system and the total patient care system (TPC). Descriptions and rationales are given for specific block and TPC systems at two universities. Theoretical advantages and disadvantages are reviewed. Clinical data are presented that represent experiences of the graduating classes of 1978 at The University of Iowa (block) and the University of North Carolina (TPC). From this limited sample there appears to be little quantitative evidence that one system is better than the other when examining clinical experiences in the two schools studied.