Concepts Editorial: Where Have All the Teachers Gone?

Editorial:

Some of you, like me, are old enough to remember a hit song by the Kingston Trio entitled, Where Have All The Flowers Gone? The first stanza of the lyrics goes:
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Picked by young girls every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
A similar scenario could be applied to the departure of teachers in dental schools today. The lyrics might go:
Where have all the teachers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the teachers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the teachers gone?
Gone to practice every one.
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
While this song will never be a hit of the year, the truth still stands. Today we are in a crisis in dental education and in our profession. We are not on the verge of crisis, we are there NOW. Good oral health and hence good overall health is in jeopardy for the first time in modern history because we now have a critical shortage of dental school faculty. This crisis threatens the entire profession of dentistry, but it is particularly damaging in the discipline this publication addresses, TMD and craniofacial pain. In most dental schools there are no more than one or two teachers who have the background and experience to give students a meaningful foundation in diagnosis and treatment of TMD and craniomandibular pain. What do you suppose will happen when these blessed few teachers retire or go into private practice? Thanks to many wonderful individuals and organizations that embrace and support our field of practice, much of our education is obtained after graduation from dental school. However, if the dental school based foundation for learning in our field gets watered down, we will face an impossible educational task.
You might ask, does this crisis really exist and if so, why? The answer is a resounding YES, it does exist.  Faculty vacancies in dental schools have been hovering at around 300 for several years now and it isn’t getting better. Why? There are several reasons: Financial support of dental education is not improving, in fact quite the contrary. Many schools in recent years have experienced double-digit financial impoundments and the trend is continuing. While the average net income of a solo, full-time private general practitioner has increased 78% over the past ten years, faculty salaries have risen on the average of 25% to 30%. It is no wonder that 53% of the faculty who leave teaching go into private practice.  Student debt now averages over $100,000 upon graduation, so new graduates must, by necessity, look for a means of meeting their financial obligations. As a result, less than 1% of graduating dental students pursue a career in teaching. Presently there are 56 U.S. dental schools. Growing demand for dental care in certain areas of the country precipitated the opening of three new dental schools since 1997 and at least one more is underway. While expansion of dental education is necessary to meet public need for good oral health, the fact remains, all schools compete for the same limited number of full-time teachers. In addition, 55% of full-time faculty today are fifty years of age or older, so we can accurately predict a significant increase in the number of faculty separations due to retirement over the next decade. Think of this, 20% of the current full-time faculty in dental schools today are sixty years of age and older. If these teachers should retire in the next decade, their retirements alone will create 900 vacancies. 
Dr. Art Dugoni, Dean of the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry and President of the ADA Foundation states, “Dental education in the United States is on the brink of a crisis so severe that only immediate and bold action can secure the future of the profession.” At risk of losing its most treasured asset, the best education system in the world, the profession must take decisive action NOW. 
So what can we do? The good news is that many dedicated, concerned members of our profession are working diligently to address the crisis that we face. The ADA has held several summit conferences to address what they refer to as a pending crisis; the ADA House of Delegates has passed several resolutions in support of dental education; the American Dental Education Association through the establishment of an Academic Dental Careers Network, Faculty Applicant Registry, Excellence In Teaching Award, ADEA Leadership Institute, and other programs is working diligently to address our crisis. In addition, the ADA Foundation Endowment For Dental Education has an ambitious goal of establishing a billion dollar endowment to support dental education. WOW, this is all great, and I encourage each and everyone to support these and other programs with your time, energy, and money. 
But, the crisis in NOW, so what can I do that will make a difference NOW, you continue to ask?
All organizations in our field of practice must work together quickly and with dedication and newfound enthusiasm. The American Alliance of TMD Organi-zations must be the umbrella under which we develop an educational revolution in teaching TMD and craniomandibular pain. We must:
1.    Quickly renew our efforts to introduce in dental schools a nationwide undergraduate core curriculum in craniomandibular pain supported by quality teaching modules and shared lectureships through school based learning centers.
2.    Develop and support more dental school based educational programs for practitioners with an extended series of two and three day educational experiences–   centers for advanced education.
3.    Give our personal time to dental schools as volunteer faculty.
4.    Give (like the regional organization Tennessee CRANIO) our money and time to establish visiting lectureships in dental schools to provide enrichment for a core of solid educational information.
5.    Approach this crisis with energy, enthusiasm, dedication and determination, and we will accomplish these goals this year, as we must. Perhaps then, together we can rewrite the lyrics of my song to:
Where have all the teachers gone?
All are teaching.
Where have all the teachers gone?
All still teaching
Where have all the teachers gone?
Continuing their teaching, every one,
We now will always learn.
We now will always learn.