Reimagining Oral Health Education: Voices, Transitions, and Transformations

Dental students navigate multiple transitions - from prior studies into dental education, from pre-clinical coursework to clinical care, and finally into independent practice. Each stage brings unique challenges that can disrupt learning and wellbeing. Research suggests that fragmented curricula, where disciplines are taught in silos and theoretical knowledge is poorly integrated with clinical practice, contribute to persistent theory-practice gaps. These structural issues may hinder students’ confidence, engagement, and readiness for real-world care. Compounding this is the limited use of participatory approaches that meaningfully involve students, patients, and community at large in shaping the educational experience. Without these perspectives, dental education risks becoming disconnected from both learner and community needs. Reimagining dental education requires us to break down these silos, centre lived experiences, and foster a more integrated, responsive, and humanistic approach to learning and professional formation.

The need for this Research Topic is underscored by the persistent lack of evidence that critically examines and challenges the traditional, silo-based structure of oral health sciences education. Despite growing awareness of the theory-practice gap, few studies have meaningfully explored its roots or proposed integrative solutions. This collection aims to bring together diverse perspectives and empirical findings from initiatives that seek to bridge these divides and reimagine dental education as more connected, participatory, and practice-informed.

To structure this exploration, we propose a three-pronged framework: People, Concepts, and Methods. Under “People,” we highlight multi-vocality—centering the voices of students, patients and their communities, educators, and practitioners to ensure all stakeholders are actively engaged in shaping the educational experience. Under “Concepts,” we seek deeper insights into the lived experiences, challenges, and constructs (such as identity, wellbeing, and professionalism) that underlie theory-practice gaps. Finally, the “Methods” arm showcases innovative strategies that foster integration, including participatory research, curriculum reform, and emerging tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), which offer new ways to synthesize knowledge and align learning with clinical realities.

Together, these contributions aim to dismantle silos, promote equity and engagement, and inspire transformative change in oral health education.

• Empirical participatory research methods that illustrate the process and outcomes of engaging dental school patients and/or the community patients in the design and delivery of their student-led oral health services
• Empirical studies that describe innovative pedagogical approaches to facilitate the students’ transitions into oral health sciences programs, into clinical years, and into independent practice
• Empirical studies that engage students as partners in innovative teaching and learning methods, activating their role design and delivery of their dental education experience
• Empirical and/or review studies exploring the perspectives of graduate students and oral health practitioners towards the theory-practice gaps they have experienced following graduation
• Policy briefs, preliminary evaluation results, and other outcomes of knowledge translation activities that aim to move the knowledge from available evidence in the dental education literature into the classroom, clinic, and/or community.
• Briefs that include small-scale studies and/or pilot studies that may have limited outcome data of any theme mentioned above are also welcome.
• Philosophical inquiry and/or empirical studies exploring the concepts that shape the students’ and patients’ experiences in oral health sciences education, including but not limited to wellbeing and professional identity formation.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Dental education, theory-practice gap, curriculum integration, participatory approaches, student transitions, wellbeing

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.