# Geriatric Dentistry Curriculum in Six Continents
## 3 Results
### Geriatric Dentistry Teaching
In this study, 18.0% of the schools reported no funding, 11.8% had only funding for the postgraduate programs and 20.6% had support for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs funded. No postgraduate programs were reported from North America nor from Africa, and India (\(n=8\)), Brazil (\(n=6\)) and Mexico (\(n=4\)) were the countries with most postgraduate programs. From Oceania, only New Zealand reported a federal government postgraduate program. Regarding undergraduate programs, most countries reported funding from federal government and local/state government, while Oceania did not report undergraduate program funding. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **North** & **South** & **Europe** & **Africa** & **Asia** & **Oceania** \\  & **America** & **America** & & & & & \\ \hline
**Type of instruction** & \(N=10\) & \(N=30\) & \(N=24\) & \(N=4\) & \(N=13\) & \(N=2\) \\ \hline Teaching geriatric dentistry & 100.0 & 100.0 & 100.0 & 100.0 & 100.0 & 100.0 \\ As a required course & 30.0 & 16.7 & 4.3 & 0.0 & 15.4 & 0.0 \\ As a specific course & 0.0 & 6.7 & 21.7 & 0.0 & 30.8 & 0.0 \\ Lecture in another course & 20.0 & 3.3 & 21.7 & 25.0 & 0.0 & 50.0 \\ Integrated into curriculum & 10.0 & 60.0 & 26.1 & 75.0 & 46.2 & 50.0 \\ Other & 30.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Method of didactic teaching of geriatric dentistry by percentage of total respondents (\(N=83\)). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**North**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**South**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Europe**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Africa**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Asia**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Oceania**} \\  & **America** & **America** & & & & & & & & \\ \hline
**Department** & **D** & **C** & **D** & **C** & **D** & **C** & **D** & **C** & **D** & **C** \\  & **\(N=10\)** & \(N=10\)** & \(N=29\)** & \(N=28\)** & \(N=21\)** & \(N=21\)** & \(N=4\) & \(N=4\) & \(N=12\) & \(N=12\) & \(N=2\) & \(N=2\) \\ \hline Preventive, community, health ecology & 0.0 & 0.0 & 13.8 & 17.9 & 19.0 & 9.5 & 25.0 & 25.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\ Prosthodonics & 10.0 & 20.0 & 31.0 & 35.7 & 28.9 & 42.9 & 25.0 & 25.0 & 25.0 & 33.3 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\ Comprehensive care, family dentistry & 30.0 & 40.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 8.3 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\ Special patient care & 0.0 & 0.0 & 3.4 & 0.0 & 9.5 & 14.3 & 25.0 & 25.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 100.0 & 100.0 \\ Multiple departments & 50.0 & 30.0 & 41.4 & 35.7 & 28.9 & 23.8 & 0.0 & 25.0 & 75.0 & 58.3 & 100.0 & 100.0 \\ Oral medicine & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\ Other & 10.0 & 10.0 & 10.3 & 10.7 & 14.3 & 9.5 & 25.0 & 25.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 & 0.0 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Departments responsible for teaching didactic (D) (\(N=78\)) and clinical (C) (\(N=77\)) geriatric dentistry. The questionnaire also asked dental schools if they were planning to expand their geriatric programs. Fifty-one percent reported that they were currently planning on expanding the teaching of GD and these dental schools were mainly located in South America. The type of school, school location and method of presentation were not found to be associated with an increased interest in expanding the curriculum in GD (\(p=0.256\), \(p=0.276\), and \(p=0.919\), respectively). In the undergraduate dental programs, a thesis or some sort of publication was not required in all dental schools. When asked on how many thesis, undergraduate degree work, or journal article publications on gerontology, geriatrics, or geriatric dentistry have been made in the last 10 years, it was reported that there were on average 10 publications in the last 10 years, per responding dental school (\(n=57\)).