Scholarship and dental education: new perspectives for clinical faculty

Dental faculty in clinical departments can develop as scholars and researchers while enhancing their value as educators. The obstacles created by inadequate training and background for research, lack of appropriate role models, and competing demands on the faculty members' time are all significant. There are ways of dealing with these problems, however, and the greatest obstacle often is our unwillingness to solve the problem. In better times, clinical dental faculty needed neither to change nor justify what they did. But times have changed, and the demands of the academy, of the dental profession, and of society require new responses. Clearly, dental education could gain greatly from moving forward with the new emphasis on scholarship. There will undoubtedly be some losses. The overall effect, however, will be positive to the extent that we as dental educators are able to take hold of the situation and define our own goals and criteria for performance. Otherwise, we will have to resign ourselves to living with goals set by someone else.