School of Dentistry offers hand skills course to international dentists

This July the School of Dentistry began offering a new continuing education hand skills course to international dentists seeking future admission to an International Dentist Education Program. The four-day, 32 hour workshop is designed to assist international dentists prepare for the bench assessment required when applying for admission into advanced standing programs. Under the guidance of seasoned dental faculty, the first cohort of fourteen trainees participated in lecture and hands-on sessions to review both fixed and operative psychomotor skills in a state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Simulation Laboratory. The group also received information on how to build a more competitive application and how to assess the programs they plan to apply to. Upon the conclusion of the course, participants undertook a mock bench assessment and received feedback from faculty as well as a certificate of completion. “The course was very well received,” said Poornima Mensinkai, BDS, PhD, MS, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry and director of the course. “Participant feedback showed that the course met all expectations and there were several requests to conduct the course more often.” One participant praised the curriculum as “highly beneficial for international dentists” while another wrote that the experience helped to “boost my confidence.” Dr. Mensinkai is planning four hand skill workshops a year, to start, and will be increasing enrollment to twenty attendees a session. Interested participants can find updated registration information at Smile.uthscsa.edu.