MAKING THE MOUTH TOP OF MIND: INTEGRATION OF ORAL PATHOLOGY AND HEAD & NECK ANATOMY INTO MEDICAL CURRICULUM lilliangordon@hsdm.harvard.edu

 

MAKING THE MOUTH TOP OF MIND: INTEGRATION OF ORAL PATHOLOGY AND HEAD & NECK ANATOMY INTO MEDICAL CURRICULUM

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United States

Oral only

The expansion of oral health training in medical education is crucial for addressing the continent's unique healthcare challenges. This presentation explores the critical experiences and outcomes of interdisciplinary integration of oral health education within medical schools, focusing on odontogenic infections and their systemic implications. By examining key topics such as abscess management, the movement of oral microbes through fascial spaces and vasculature, and surgical procedures like cleft lip and palate repairs, we aim to underscore the importance of integrating oral health education into broader medical curricula. Using a UGHE approach and underscoring medical curriculums such as Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Dental Medicine, I hope to emphasize the necessity for collaboration across disciplines as countries build their medical workforce.

The University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) curriculum integrates a three-week oral health module in partnership with Harvard School of Dental Medicine, combining didactic, skills lab, and clinical competencies in UGHE’s state-of-the-art simulation laboratory to transform the training of future physicians by emphasizing essential concepts in dental anatomy, disease processes and prevention, and the oral manifestations of systemic diseases such as infective endocarditis and bacterial pneumonia. Students understand importance of early detection and prevention of late-stage oral cancer diagnosis. Co-teaching with local faculty, this model emphasizes capacity strengthening necessary to maintain program sustainability. Rather than expanding scope of practice, this teaching increases collaboration between medical and dental professionals to strengthen horizontal systems in a growing healthcare workforce.

This interdisciplinary approach enhances skills of medical students to promotes a primary care model that recognizes the interconnectedness of oral and systemic health by emphasizing prevention of oral diseases and their systemic ramifications. During Harvard students' first year, medical and dental students learn each major organ system in tandem, participating in simulations, cadaver dissections, and patient interviews. Students also attend lectures outlining the systemic manifestations of oral disease and dental procedures, working together to perform oral cancer screenings within full physical exams. Our curriculum expansion include a focus on anatomical locations of glands, arteries, and nerves with the cadaver lab, using sagittal hemisections of the head to appreciate structures in relation to the oral cavity. Investing in this training works toward prevention measures to reduce costly odontogenic emergencies and expensive dental procedures.