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Results of a mail questionnaire received from 59 United States and ten Canadian dental schools indicated a potentially serious problem in obtaining and maintaining dental teaching patients. Most schools report at least one shortage that could eventually compromise the clinical education process. Future projections indicated a continuing problem due to perceived reductions in disease incidence. The importance of addressing this problem is accentuated by the dental schools' educational mission to provide sufficient clinical experiences in all subject areas of dentistry. The information derived from the questionnaire should provide background for dental administrators as they respond to the patient availability problem.

Questionnaires were distributed to adult patients in a representative national sample of nine dental schools to solicit information on patient demographics, use of services, and perception of the care received. Responses from 2,346 patients were analyzed and compared to findings from various local studies. Results indicate: age range of patients and type of dental needs available to students is extremely variable among schools, the major referral system is through friends and relatives, most patients pay for all of their care and seek care at dental schools because of reasonable costs, transportation and parking pose significant problems for some patients, the majority of respondents had been patients for two years or less, and many patients want all of their clinical and interpersonal dental needs met in the school setting. Dental schools seriously need to consider such factors in light of current and projected teaching patient shortages.

An interview survey of the primary care practices of a class of dental school graduates was conducted in 1977 as a part of a longitudinal study that was begun 11 years earlier, when these individuals entered dental school. Primary care was defined by the variety of dental treatment procedures used by the dentist and by his or her participation in interdisciplinary aspects of health care. The study showed that: (1) the urban or rural location of the practice was not associated with primary care; (2) the dentists' position in the practice (sole practitioner, group owner, and so forth) was associated with the variety of treatment procedures used; (3) predental school values, dental aptitudes, and dental school achievement were significant predictors of primary care practices; and (4) the two measures of primary care were uncorrelated, and there were several patterns of primary care being practiced.

This paper examines and predicts the effects of societal and professional forces on the future of graduate dental education. Among those factors analyzed are professional developments, paraprofessional changes, public initiatives, and government policy and legislation. The paper concludes with a proposal that suggests the creation of a balanced and flexible dental care delivery system. This system incorporates the concept of the “supergeneralist” and “superspecialist” and uses the auxiliary as the flexible portion of the work force. Advantages of the system as well as the difficulties that might be encountered if such a system were adopted are given.

This paper investigates value changes in dental students and dentists over a ten‐year period through a cross‐sectional study of all dental students at the University of Minnesota in 1966 and 1976, and a ten‐year longitudinal study of a class of dental students who entered in 1967. Findings in both studies showed significant differences in values over the ten‐year period, but they could not be attributed to the dental school experience. Findings also showed that the values of the dentists in the longitudinal study changed significantly over the ten years from 1967 to 1977, to resemble those of dental school freshmen in 1976. Comparisons of the two studies indicated that changes in social values and the social pressures of professional role development could have accounted for the findings.