Review of competency-based education in dentistry

Dental education wets previously structured in such a way that students lar gely learned what teachers chose to teach them. The aim wets to produce a d entist with prescribed packages of knowledge upon graduation. This traditio nal approach was mainly disciplined-based. Increasingly, the current trend is towards competency-based education, which provides a sequence of defined learning experiences to students so that on graduation they may be conside red as qualified beginners in dental practice. The adoption of competency-b ased learning requires the re-assessment and revision of old curricula, but there remains some common ground between traditional and competency-based education.