Problem solving and problem-solving education in dentistry.

Abstract

Academic education in dentistry should lead to the capability to solve complex open problems. The student entering university is only familiar with closed problems. Research into the making of a medical diagnosis has shown that novices do so differently than experts. These research results are summarised and are presumed to be transferable to dental diagnosing and treatment planning. Examples of this transfer are given. Until 1 or 2 decades ago, education in problem solving was done only by extensive teacher-student interaction in clinical and scientific work. Presently, this is no longer adequate because of reduction of curriculum time for these activities. Therefore other methods have been developed in many places. These methods include the use of a problem-solving model (heuristic). Based on models in the literature, 3 new models are presented. These are intended for novices that solve a dentally relevant open problem in basic sciences, for novices that solve a clinical dental problem, and for more expert students that solve such a problem. Diagrams and examples are given.