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Brame JL, Mitchell SH et al. J Dent Educ 2015;79: 616–625

It is argued that intraprofessional dental education nurtures team working that in turn facilitates effective patient care. But do student dental care professionals consider intraprofessional education useful? Judging by the number of junior dental students and dental assisting students who volunteered to attend the 'focus group' component of the study, the answer is no. So few students from these particular groups agreed to participate, the investigators were not able to complete fully this arm of the study.

In the survey component, 'dental hygiene students had more positive responses about intraprofessional education than the dental and dental assisting students'. This study makes depressing reading for the dental educator. For example, when first-year dental hygiene students were asked to rank intraprofessional communication (1 = poorest to 10 = the best), all students scored 2 except one that ranked it 1. This study was carried out at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry. One of their stated core values is to 'Provide a stellar student experience...'.