The Dental School of the Future

Meeting tomorrow’s healthcare needs, today

Meeting the challenges of today’s healthcare landscape is a matter of educating the dental leaders of tomorrow who proactively anticipate future ones.

The educational program at A.T. Still University’s Missouri School of Dentistry & Oral Health (ATSU-MOSDOH) is dedicated to producing leaders in dentistry dedicated to increasing access to oral healthcare for the most vulnerable populations by addressing the critical shortage of dentists in Missouri and throughout the US. Only the second dental school in Missouri, its goal is to graduate dentists who have an in-depth understanding of and a desire to become caring, community minded healthcare providers serving populations in need.

Offering a doctor of dental medicine, MOSDOH’s dental program features an innovative curriculum, simulation technology, state-of-the-art facilities, service learning experiences, and leadership training. MOSDOH’s curriculum is integrative by interweaving core disciplines into the humans systems, preclinical, and dental sciences with a strong emphasis on the application of clinical medicine and clinical dentistry. Students spend their first and second year studying basic sciences and basic principles of patient care in the classroom and complete dental simulation exercises in the Kirksville campus simulation clinic. During the third and fourth years, students transition to the clinical environment by providing patient care at the St. Louis Dental Education and Oral Health Clinic (St. Louis Dental Center).

To provide the core dental clinical curriculum, ATSU-MOSDOH has partnered with Affinia Healthcare, formerly Grace Hill Health Centers, Inc., in St. Louis. The innovative partnership with Missouri’s largest community health center allows MOSDOH to focus on the educational elements of comprehensive patient care, while Affinia Healthcare manages the clinical operation. At the St. Louis clinic, third-year students work under the direct supervision of licensed MOSDOH dental faculty. During the fourth year, students spend 16 weeks in the St. Louis clinic, and the other half of the year in community health centers and other safety net clinics in St. Louis and throughout the Midwest, all under the supervision of MOSDOH adjunct faculty. Additionally, students who have not obtained either a certificate or master’s degree in public health with a dental emphasis will earn a certificate in public health while enrolled at MOSDOH.

Simulation Clinic

MOSDOH’s 7,000+ square foot dental simulation clinic is located on the first floor of the IPE building and serves as an innovative learning environment where students learn the dental sciences with the best technology available before advancing to the MOSDOH patient-care setting in St. Louis.

The simulation clinic has 48 student workstations, each equipped with a KaVo Mannekin Simulator, LED dental light, dental instruments, and a flat screen display monitor. An instructor’s station at the front of the clinic provides space for faculty members to demonstrate techniques which can be broadcast directly to each individual student station.

In addition to student and faculty work stations, the simulation clinic houses four dental operators with digital x-ray units, a sterilization center, a dispensary and a wet lab consisting of eight sinks and stainless steel work space.