Essential functions

Preparation and training to become a dentist requires each student to understand and meet the technical standards required for admission, continuation and graduation as identified below.

Faculty have developed course requirements and activities to provide critical elements of training. It is expected that students will participate in all course activities and must not be subject to any legal condition that would bar participation (including but not limited to lectures, seminars, laboratories, clinics, physical examinations, patient procedures) and adhere to individual clinical site rules and regulations as well as Bitonte College of Dentistry policies regarding these activities.

A candidate for the D.D.S. degree must be able to demonstrate intellectual-conceptual, integrative, and quantitative abilities; skills in observation, communication, and motor functions; and mature behavioral and social attributes. Technological compensation and/or reasonable accommodation can be made for some disabilities in some of these areas, but a candidate should be able to perform in a reasonably independent manner without a trained intermediary. The use of a trained intermediary means that a candidate’s judgment must be mediated by someone else’s power of selection and observation.

Purpose

The following Essential Functions describe the non-academic requirements for admission, progression, and graduation from the College of Dentistry program at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). The NEOMED College of Dentistry provides this description of the Essential Functions to inform prospective and enrolled students of the skills, expectations, physical abilities, and behavioral characteristics required to successfully complete the requirements of the dental education program at NEOMED and to provide oral health care services. Preparation and training to become a dentist requires each applicant and current student to carefully review, understand, and meet the Essential Functions identified below without or with a reasonable accommodation(s) that does not fundamentally alter the curriculum.

NEOMED embraces diversity and recognizes the value that individuals with disabilities add to the student body and institution and has included disabilities specifically in its diversity statement. As such, the College of Dentistry complies with the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and will endeavor to make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities who are otherwise qualified to perform the essential functions of the curriculum. Applicants and students who would like to request accommodations to perform the essential functions should contact Accessibility Services at accommodations@380cebbe0d.nxcli.io or call 330.325.6756.

A candidate or student, (hereafter referred to as “student”) for the Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) degree must be able to demonstrate intellectual-conceptual, integrative, and quantitative abilities; skills in observation, communication, motor functions; ethics and professionalism; and mature behavioral and social attributes. While technological compensation, interpreters and/or other reasonable accommodation may be made for some disabilities, a student must be able to perform in a reasonably independent manner using his or her own intellect, judgment, and diagnostic reasoning skills.

Behavioral/social

General: A student must possess sufficient behavioral, social, and emotional skills and the psychological health required to meet their own needs and the needs of others, the full use of their intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to the diagnosis and care of patients, and the development of mature, sensitive, and effective relationships with patients, faculty, staff, and classmates.

Specific:

• Endure physically and emotionally taxing workloads and function effectively under stress to maintain a healthy status.
• Adapt to changing environments, display flexibility, and learn to function in the face of uncertainties inherent in the clinical problems of patients.
• Collaborate effectively with others as a member of the team and appropriately delegate responsibilities in the academic and patient care setting.
• Demonstrate compassion, concern, and empathy for others and interrelate with others with honesty, integrity, respect and without discrimination.
• Continuously hone interpersonal skills including the ability to accept criticism and to modify behavior for the purpose of personal and professional growth.

Communication

General: A student must be able to communicate effectively, sensitively, and efficiently with patients, faculty, staff, peers, and all members of the health care team.

Specific:

• Demonstrate sufficient facility with English to elicit, retrieve and understand verbal and nonverbal information and communicate concepts on written exams and patient records; elicit patient backgrounds; describe patient changes in moods, activity, and posture; and coordinate patient care with all members of the health care team.
• Communicate in lay language so that patients and their families can understand the patient’s conditions and, thereby, be more likely to comply with treatment and preventive regimes.
• Observe patients to elicit information, describe verbal and non-verbal changes in mood, activity, and posture, and to develop a health history in a timely manner.
• Establish and maintain a positive and productive therapeutic rapport with patients.

Ethics/professionalism

General: A student must maintain and advocate for the standards of conduct for ethics and professionalism as set forth in the American Dental Association’s Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct and the NEOMED Expectations of Student Conduct and Professional Behavior, as well as the policies, procedures and protocols as outlined in the NEOMED Compass.

Specific:

• Act in the best interest of the patient and society even when there is a conflict with the student’s personal self-interest.
• Conduct oneself as a trustworthy and responsible citizen and act with impeccable integrity in the interactions with the public, patients, faculty, staff, and fellow students.
• Care for others in a respectful, non-discriminatory, and effective manner, regardless of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender, disability, or any other protected status identified by NEOMED.
• Practice honesty and ethical behavior, take responsibility for one’s own behavior, and be open to feedback from academic instructors, clinical instructors, University staff and supervisors.

Intellectual/executive functioning

General: A student must be able to develop intellectual, cognitive, conceptual, and executive functions and apply these skills in measurement, reasoning, analysis, synthesis of information, problem solving and critical thinking at the level required of a health care professional.

Specific:

• Critically interpret, assimilate, analyze, and apply information from the didactic, preclinical and clinical curriculum and apply it to patient care in a timely manner.
• Participate in and learn from diverse teaching modalities including lecture, small group and team-based activities, technology to facilitate learning, question and answer, and presentation.
• Comprehend three-dimensional relationships and understand the spatial relationships of structures.
• Work both independently and in a collaborative and interprofessional group.

Motor

General: Students must possess sufficient motor functions, physical mobility, strength, equilibrium, and coordination required to perform basic and advanced tasks that are requirements in the didactic, preclinical, laboratory, and clinical settings or essential to providing oral health care to patients. 137

Specific:

• Possess the motor skills to perform palpation, percussion, auscultation and other diagnostic maneuvers, basic laboratory tests, dental and diagnostic procedures in a timely manner. Such actions require coordination of gross and fine muscular movements, equilibrium, and functional uses of the senses of touch and vision.
• Be certified in and perform basic life support including CPR, transfer and position patients with disabilities, physically restrain adults and children who lack motor control, and position and reposition himself or herself around the patient and chair in sitting and standing positions for prolonged periods of time.
• Promote and support the ability of coworkers to perform prompt care.
• Operate controls, use high-speed or low-speed dental handpieces for tooth preparation procedures, and use hand instrumentation including scalpels for surgical procedures.
• Provide all aspects of patient care within a timeframe as determined by the faculty to simulate real-time professional dental care and that maintains safety and comfort of the patient in live patient care settings.

Observational/sensory

General: A student must be able to acquire a predetermined level of required information through demonstrations and experiences in basic and dental sciences courses including didactic, preclinical, laboratory and clinical activities.

A student must be able to observe a patient accurately, at a distance and close up, interpreting nonverbal communications while performing dental operations or administering medications. Observation necessitates the functional use of the sense of vision and somatic sensation and is enhanced by the functional use of the sense of smell.

Specific:

• Observe and assess oral health conditions with acuity.
• Detect subtle changes in radiographic density and normal/abnormal variations in oral soft and hard tissues.
• Observe tissue conditions and changes.
• Distinguish depth and width accurately.
• Acquire information from written documents, microscopic slides, projected images, and video. Such information includes, but is not limited to, information conveyed through 1) physiologic and pharmacological demonstrations in cadavers; 2) microbiological cultures; 3) microscopic images of microorganisms and tissues in normal and pathologic states; and 4) demonstration of techniques using dental models, articulators and manikins, lecture, and seminar presentations.
• Acquire information from written documents, and evaluate information presentedas images from paper, films, slides, or video.
• Interpret x-ray and other graphic images and benefit from electronic and other instrumentation that enhances visual, auditory, and somatic sensations needed for examination or treatment.
• Perform dental examinations, simulations, and treatments that require the use of sight, touch, and sound; be able to see fine detail, focus at a variety of distances, and discern differences and variations in color, shape, texture, and depth that are necessary to differentiate normal and abnormal soft and hard tissues.
• Use tactile senses to diagnose directly by palpation and indirectly by sensations transmitted through instruments.
• Possess the visual acuity to read charts, records, radiographs, small print, and handwritten notation, and be able to distinguish depth and width accurately.
• Work efficiently and effectively in a noisy, busy environment and verbally communicate effectively with patients.