WWW Resources

THE ACADEMY OF GENERAL DENTISTRY

The mission of the Academy of General Dentistry is to serve the needs and to represent the interests of general dentists and to foster their continued proficiency through quality continuing dental education in order to better serve the public. The vision of The Academy of General Dentistry is to improve the quality of comprehensive dental care. We are motivated and united by the core human values of integrity and compassion.

THE AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION

The ADA homepage has four major links: News Updates, Practice & Profession (career and practice-related issues ), Products and Services and Consumer Information. The News section includes e-versions of the ADA News and Abstracts of JADA articles, and a Cybernews area (warehouse of articles on the Internet and Organized Dentistry). Another important link in the News section and the home page is MORE WORLD WIDE WEB SITES which includes the majority of State societies, Dental Schools and Specialty / Special Interest groups site links. The Products and Services area has links to an on-line catalog of print material sold by the ADA, products with ADA seal of approval listing , and ADA library services. Another useful feature is JADA Literature search capability, providing keyword search of JADA by topic, author, dates which returns abstract of article (actually through Silverplatter WWW link). The Consumer Information section provides universal access to ADA statements on topics of public concern such as use of amalgam and fluoride as well as patient education material (sealants / caries prevention, practice guidelines / accepted dental therapies).

THE AMERICAN DENTAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

The American Dental Education Association site contains relative information related to services offered by the American Dental Education Association as well as email links to all organizational leaders, offices and their staff (e-mail links to those individuals). Also provided is direct access to members of the executive committee through e-mail links. Additional links include those to Consortium For Clinic Information Systems and the Curriculum Database Consortium and the ADDSoft database. Additional areas include Meetings and News announcements, the Student Applicant process, and Publications which are available in hard copy. This ADEA site has links (see Dental Education Programs on home page) to all member dental schools.

USAF DENTAL
INVESTIGATION SECTION

The USAF DIS, with the support of the American Dental Association and the Academy of General Dentistry, has developed a means for federal dental service personnel to obtain accredited continuing education (CE) through the DIS web site. The continuing education is based on downloadable dental materials notes and Powerpoint briefings that are posted on the DIS "Download" page. Tests have been written for each of the these notes and briefings. Go to this web site for access to outstanding dental CE.

PROCTOR & GAMBLE

The Proctor & Gamble site has undergone major renovations several times within the last year. This site provides patient education information, has a library of documents available to the dental profession. Proctor & Gamble site has a very good start at some very diverse types of content such as the on-line library which includes the dental hygienists publication, abstracts of current P&G related research, both posters and written presentations. Also found in the library are abstracts of articles from multiple types of journals related by subject such as computers in dental practice, management, cosmetic dentistry. Another significant area that is a solid start is the internal medicine topics area ( medically compromised patient management schemes) which could provide a good template for other types of related information. This area also has a prescription drug area which a links to an internet drug resource (exists in other locations in the site also). Of particular interest to the dental academician is the Student and Faculty Corner. This area contains case studies that for the students as well as public access to Medline and a drug index. The faculty corner contains the questions that go along with the student cases. The faculty corner is one of the newest editions to the site and contains an educational series, student handouts, and a slide library. Another interesting function of this site is an interactive database of Professional Conferences and Events, which can be sorted city and state, range of dates. The query can provide a short description of the events. It is not an all inclusive list, but the functionality by which it is set up is novel . The site also has several modular units for continuing education for dentists, with a about a half dozen courses available.

DERWEB

At DERWEB our colleagues in England have created a rich image library for dentistry and dental education. Images can be used by other educators as long as "conditions" of use are followed...so surf to it and find out what those are. This group has also used the image database in the production of Web-based instructional software, which can be functionally used ... try it out. The concept of image libraries will be critical to efficient development of computer-based software in the future.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL RESEARCH

From the National Institute of Dental Research home page, one can access News updates, Programs, Research Highlights, Research Training Opportunities, Grants and Funding Process through the Program Announcements with full text display of all announcements as well as email links to NIDR scientist responsible for each project. The site also includes instructions on the grant application process. Through www access to a database, one can search and review current funded projects by investigator, state, project domain, grant number as well as review comprehensive summaries of funding to individual institutions.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

The National Library of Medicine site lists services provides locally and electronically, funding opportunities and announcements, links to special projects supported by NLM such as Telemedicine projects and the Visible Human Project (see below), and articles on standards related to data dictionaries. Literature search capacity is provided through Grateful Med / Medline if you are a subscribed user (most of you will have access through local university library, however you can apply for account on-line). Some NLM Publications are available on-line. Similarly to NIH, Current Grant Programs information and guidance in the grant application process is presented to the browser.

RXLIST

On the RXList website one can search the top 200 drugs with a simple user-friendly screen and get very detailed information concerning pharmacological properties of the drugs in the database (indications, interactions). This readily available information can be useful in patient management and clinical care. Neophyte providers need exposure to this form of data but should not rely on this tool exclusively. Never the less it is a useful tool and would probably be used by students if it were available to them.

THE VIRTUAL DENTIST

The "Virtual" Dental Site provides access to an extensive listing of dental related information to include: Dictionaries and Glossaries, Current Literature, On-Line Journals, Dental Schools and their curriculums, Teaching Files in all specialty areas, Courses and Tutorials, Imaging, Dental Associations, References and a plethora of additional general dental information.

MEDSCAPE

Medscape is the leading interactive, multi-specialty, commercial Web service for clinicians and consumers. At this site you will find thousands of articles that are Web-enhanced for online browsing. The articles can also be downloaded if you prefer to do your reading offline. Many services can be found here to include clinical medicine articles, access to MEDLINE, AIDSLINE AND TOXLINE, Drug Search, daily medical news, self-assessment features, continuing education resources and Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary online.