Evolution of the scientific basis for dentistry and its impact on dental education: past, present, and future

Abstract

Science is the fuel for technology and the foundation for understanding the human condition. In dental education, as in all health professions, science informs a basic understanding of development, is essential to understand the structure and function of biological systems, and is prerequisite to understand and perform diagnostics, therapeutics, and clinical outcomes in the treatment of diseases and disorders. During the last seventy-five years, biomedical science has transformed from discipline-based scientists working on a problem to multidisciplinary research teams working to solve complex problems of significance to the larger society. Over these years, we witnessed the convergence of the biological and digital revolutions with clinical health care in medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, and allied health care professional education. Biomedical science informs our understanding, from human genes and their functions to populations, health disparities, and the biosphere. Science is a "way of knowing," an international enterprise, a prerequisite for the health professions, and a calling and adventure to the curious mind. Science, the activity of doing science, is in the national self-interest, in the defense of a nation, and critical to the improvement of the human condition. In the words of Vannevar Bush, "science is the endless frontier."