The world needs better oral health knowledge. With this simple step, we can end the spiralling problems associated with poor oral health during this century.
Dental professionals are highly skilled, communicative and capable of driving forward new initiatives to improve world oral health - but what they need are the skills to lead the way forward.
Unusually, unlike other professions, leadership in dentistry is not a skill that is emphasised. But without leadership skills, how can we hope to drive forward change?
The Global Child Dental Fund (GCDFund) and the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) have accredited an online comprehensive course in Advanced Dental Leadership – an enterprise we believe will equip dental professionals to become first class leaders and advocates for oral health, driving oral health knowledge levels up around the world.
The key problem is that there is a gulf between dental professionals and the populations needing access to oral health the most. We need to bridge the gap between our vast knowledge and resources as a profession and the global population requiring dentistry. If we can actually improve the oral health knowledge level of the world, then we can sustainably prevent the suffering that accompanies dental caries.
There are 4 levels to this programme. You will learn how lead, organise, empower and motivate yourself and others, how to influence and persuade your team and patients with your words and how to respond to difficult social situations. Building on this knowledge you will then start to expand your creativity and think about how to give effective evidence-based oral health advice so your patients actually understand you. You will then join a network of other dental leaders to lead and share effective communication and advocacy around the world.
We have already established a successful leadership programme for senior dental leaders, however the emerging generation of global dentists have an extremely meaningful role to play in delivering high quality dentistry and ensuring that the public is receiving positive and engaging oral health messages. Our Advanced Dental Leadership programme is the first step in this direction.
This programme provides unique and high-level guidance to dental professionals for developing their leadership, management and communication skills, aiming to build an empowered network of next-generation global dental professionals that have the skills to lead the future for dentistry.
We hope you enjoy the course.
ADL Level 1 – Personal Management for Dental Leaders – Get Yourself Empowered
This first level is a core grounding of general leadership skills. You will see the big picture and learn about the leadership qualities that lie in everybody. You will become efficient at organizing and managing your own thoughts and actions. You will become motivated to achieve goals, and gain confidence and empowerment through knowing your strengths and weaknesses.
ADL Level 2 – Communication for Dental Leaders – How to talk the talk
You are now organized and empowered from Level 1. This Level will teach you how to communicate effectively. You will be able to combine your knowledge from both levels to become more effective in your daily work. You will be able to positively influence your team and patients through the power of your words and actions, and know how to respond to different personality types and situations in dentistry.
ADL Level 3 –Spreading the Message– Debunking oral health for everyone
You now know how to communicate like a pro from Level 2. Now you will learn WHAT to say. You will combine your leadership skills, communication and clinical knowledge to become skilled at advocacy. This Level will start you on the road to presenting evidence based oral health in clear, simple terms. We will present some key points that patients commonly get wrong and provide examples how to communicate the message in a way that people actually understand.
ADL Level 4 – Join the Platform –Global Leading and Sharing in Action
You are now a spokesperson for global oral health. Advanced Dental Leadership is all about constantly improving your skills and it is a two-way path. Here we ask you to join our forum to add your tried and tested evidence based messages (made simple and creative) that have the potential to transform oral health among all our patients. We invite you to share oral health advocacy projects in your area and other communication tips and hints to help the world get better oral health! We will use your examples to grow and update our programme.