Macdonald M E. It's time to make dental education 'grief literate'. J Dent Educ 2021; DOI: 10.1002/jdd.12753. Online ahead of print.

Dental students would benefit from training

Grief and grieving are a part of life. Grief can devastate, fester and recur over many months and may co-exist with happiness. Grief may exacerbate existing ailments or produce new ones and may follow human death, the death of a pet, divorce and other losses, even tooth loss. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought experiences of loss into sharp relief.

Dental students are social beings, in overlapping relationships with educators and other clinicians, with patients and with families and peers. Within any one of these, they may experience grief either in themselves or in others.

Clinical teachers should listen carefully to cues from students and be willing to listen to them in a confidential space. Students need to learn how to be grief-literate for their patients and how to respond to, for instance, a patient who informs them they have recently had a miscarriage. An understanding of the loneliness of loss can help members of the dental team to support each other.

The whole dental team will be exposed to issues of death, loss and grief at some point in time. Preparation for such exposure is essential.