II. Read the text. It gives information about current educational principles. Express your attitude towards 8 educational principles, given in the text. Give substantiation of your own position.

CURRENT EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES

During training, medical in particular, the role of the educational supervisor is very important. Establishing a supportive and constructive atmosphere in which learning can take place is essential.

These principles are vitally important in relation to the current devel­opments in education and are applicable to medicine and dentistry alike.

1. The learner is the focus for current approaches to education.

2. Learning itself is much more than acquiring information; it is qualitative as well as quantitative.

3. The early stages of learning are crucial.

4. It is essential to resolve by discussion what the learner wants to learn and what the teacher sees as his needs.

5. The teacher must acquire the skill to negotiate the learning objec­tive.

6. The climate in which education occurs is very important and the teacher has a central role in this. The atmosphere must be con­structive and conducive to learning and the learner's emotional state has a big influence on motivation: equally important for undergraduates and seniors.

7. The learner needs to develop the ability to carry our self-appraisal, acknowledge strengths and weaknesses and see the educational gaps (this applies to us all, no matter how senior).

8. The teacher's role is to organise learning events, to facilitate learn­ing and not to act just as a transmitter of information.

III. Read the text. The following statements are not accurate. Make

them more precise.

1. Dental technicians may provide dental treatment including making fillings.

2. Dental auxiliary personnel may perform preventive aspects of den­tal care.

3. A hygienist works without a registered dentist present.

Training hygienists as auxiliary dental personnel

In the UK only a few well defined procedures may be delegated by den­tal surgeons to auxiliary personnel. This position is actively maintained by the General Dental Council and written into the Dentists Act 1984.

The degree of delegation of duties to auxiliary staff in dentistry is a fraction of that practised by our medical colleagues. Dental technicians are entrusted with the laboratory aspects of providing dental treatment, encompassing the construction of appliances, prostheses and restorations; dental surgery assistants have become indispensable in their supportive role in the dental surgery. These two groups are described as non-operat­ing auxiliaries.

A small number of intraoral dental procedures may be delegated by a dentist to auxiliary personnel. These procedures are mainly limited to preventive aspects of dental care such as oral hygiene instruction and supragingival scaling and polishing and are carried out by qualified den­tal hygienists who have undergone a period of theoretical and practical training at a recognised school of hygiene and have passed an exami­nation. Successful candidates receive the Certificate of Proficiency in Dental Hygiene, awarded by the General Dental Council. Currently there are 15 schools of hygiene in the UK functioning within a dental teaching hospital and two schools run by the forces.

The scope of a hygienist's work is carefully and strictly demarcated. He or she works to the prescription of a registered dentist who has exam­ined the patient and indicated the course of treatment to be provided. Only in July 1991 did it become possible for a hygienist to work without a registered dentist present on the premises. This change in the regula­tions facilitates domiciliary visits to be carried out by hygienists in order to improve the dental care for housebound patients.

There are also a small number of dental therapists working in the UK: 378 at present. This group of auxiliaries was trained along the lines of the New Zealand School Dental Nurse. They are allowed to carry out, to the prescription of a directing dentist, a number of preventive and restorative procedures on children and priority groups. They may also extract decid­uous teeth. They must however work within the public health domain, either in the community dental services or the hospital services.