Introduction: Portfolio with a collection of evidence has become popular in higher education, including dental education. It is valuable to study the experiences of the use and implementation processes. Meta-ethnography can be a suitable method to analyse, synthesize and construct interpretations of qualitative research. Our aim was to explore experiences from the use of a portfolio/e-portfolio in dental education, from the students' and teachers' perspectives.

Materials and methods: A systematic search in the databases PubMed, Scopus and ERC was performed, and the established seven steps of a meta-ethnographic review were used. 278 papers were initially identified, and seven were included in the final analysis.

Results: Two themes (Issues to Address and Consequences) and five subthemes (Purpose, Roles, Support and Structure, Challenges and Enablers, and Gains) were constructed.

Discussion: Our synthesis reflects various challenges, yet the learning gains are recognized and expressed to be important once the students and teachers have overcome early thresholds. Beyond the conclusions drawn in each paper, our synthesis provides new perspectives on the complexity of an implementation process and the balance of not seeing the woods for the trees being overwhelmed by technical and other practical aspects, reducing the opportunity for learning.

Conclusion: The portfolio implementation in undergraduate dental education should address clarification to all stakeholders of the purpose and role, presenting a purposeful portfolio structure and timely support.

The FDI World Dental Federation suggests that "dentistry, as a profession, should integrate Sustainable Development Goals into daily practice and support a shift to a green economy in the pursuit of healthy lives and wellbeing for all, through all stages of life." This article reports on the recent activity of the Association for Dental Education in Europe Special Interest Group for Sustainability in Dentistry. Following on from the group's previous activities, which explored current educational practice, this work aimed to reach a pan-European consensus on a number of learning outcomes for environmental sustainability, in order to (i) support institutions in designing and delivering their curriculum, and (ii) to further harmonise the delivery of oral health professional education across Europe. This article presents specific learning outcomes relating to environmental sustainability and recommendations relating to curriculum development, including methods of teaching and assessment.

Background

For implementation of new assessment strategies, an evidence-informed approach is desired. Thus, the assessment method should be supported by current evidence, and similarly the implementation process could be informed through research. Implementation research can be done using various approaches and research methods. However, it seems that interview studies are an important source of information. To utilize previous qualitative information, one may simply read the papers to be informed by each individual study. However, another approach may be to search the literature systematically and analyse the qualitative information as a data source. Several ways of conducting literature reviews are available, but it seems that the analysis of qualitative studies is less common. In this presentation we would like to present how meta-ethnography can be used as a method to develop knowledge on the implementation of e-portfolio.

Summary of work

Meta-ethnography is a systematic literature review through seven steps described by Noblit and Hare (1988), and further elaborated on by Britten et al (2002) and France et al (2019), in brief consisting of a systematic review, a stepwise qualitative analysis and synthesis. Four different databases were used for our literature search.

Summary of results

Through the seven steps, we analyzed the data both from “first order information” (published quotations) and “second order information” (researchers’ interpretation, analysis, and discussion) to reach a “third order interpretation” (our synthesis). We will present the steps and our findings, using our search on implementation of e-portfolio in dental education as a model. Our analysis and synthesis yielded two main themes and five sub-themes with aspects important to consider when implementing e-portfolio.

Discussion, Conclusion & Take-Home Message

We found meta-ethnography to broaden our knowledgebase beyond each separate study and believe it could add to the understanding of other aspects of assessment as well, in areas where primary studies are using qualitative methods.

References

Noblit, G.W., et al., Meta-Ethnography: Synthesizing Qualitative Studies. 1988: SAGE Publications.

Britten, N., et al., Using meta ethnography to synthesise qualitative research: a worked example. J Health Serv Res Policy, 2002. 7(4): p. 209-15.

France, E.F., et al., Improving reporting of meta-ethnography: the eMERGe reporting guidance. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 2019. 19(1): p. 25.

BACKGROUND: At our dental education, the examination failure rate among students has increased, resulting in subsequent involuntary dropouts. One of the main problems seems to be that the students struggle with taking the necessary responsibility for their learning, as required by the problem-based learning (PBL) methodology.

AIM: To describe the background to, and the transition process from, pure PBL to case-based teaching and learning (CBT) with flipped classroom seminars at the dental program at [anonymised for peer review].

METHODS: In this position paper we describe our observed problems with the PBL methodology, as implemented at this faculty, and the potential benefits of a change towards CBT. The current implementation of CBT is presented, along with educational research supporting the choice of activities.

RESULTS: Tentative findings are that the flipped classroom seminars and the clearer instructions appear to be successful with higher levels of activity, engagement and attendance among the students, and the students has evaluated the seminars as very good learning activities.

CONCLUSION: Tentative findings suggest that the current implementation of CBT may be a fruitful way of teaching in dental education today. Most of the teaching staff have been reawakened to teaching, and as a result, the content of the courses are being reviewed and improved. The students appreciate that what is expected of them has been made clearer and that there is a variety of learning activities.

The aim of this systematic review is to present an up-to-date review of available publications investigating the cellular mechanisms initiating the development of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw caused by zoledronic acid. Electronic searches of MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus were conducted on the 3 June 2019. A total of 804 publications were identified, of which 11 met the inclusion criteria and were, therefore, included in this study. All the included studies were in vitro studies investigating various human cells. The current review found that zoledronic acid in various concentrations increased apoptosis and decreased migration and proliferation of epithelial cells, fibroblasts, osteoblasts, endothelial cells and dental pulp stem cells, which can affect local tissue homeostasis. The consequences of zoledronic acid were found to be both time- and dose-dependent. The pathophysiology of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw is likely a multifactorial process involving prolonged wound healing, chronic inflammation and altered bone remodelling following the administration of zoledronic acid. Further research is needed to identify the exact pathophysiology to optimise management and treatment.

WNT 5A is a secreted signaling protein that promotes migration and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma ( OSCC ) cells through activation of non‐canonical WNT signaling. Here, we examined expression of WNT 5A, β ‐catenin, and E‐cadherin by immunohistochemistry in 21 human diagnostic incision biopsies that each had regions of oral mucosa with a normal appearance adjacent to the affected tissue, dysplasia, and OSCC . We also investigated the effect of recombinant WNT 5A ( rWNT 5A) on expression of the cell‐adhesion proteins E‐cadherin and β ‐catenin by western blot analysis. No expression of WNT 5A protein was present in oral mucosa with a normal appearance or in mild grade dysplasia. However, expression of WNT 5A increased along with increasing grade of dysplasia, and the highest expression was detected in OSCC s. Expression of membranous β ‐catenin and of E‐cadherin was lower, whereas expression of cytoplasmic β ‐catenin was higher, in OSCC s than in non‐cancerous regions. However, there was no correlation between expression of WNT 5A and expression of either β ‐catenin or E‐cadherin. Furthermore, treatment of OSCC cells with rWNT 5A had no effect on the expression of β ‐catenin or E‐cadherin. Taken together with previous results, we conclude that WNT 5A influences the progression of OSCC without affecting the canonical WNT / β ‐catenin pathway and without down‐regulating E‐cadherin. WNT 5A may have potential as a biological marker for malignant transformation of dysplasia to OSCC.

WNT5A is a secreted, noncanonical WNT signaling protein that has been reported to promote progression of several types of cancer, including oral squamous cell carcinoma. Many WNT5A antibodies are available commercially for immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot analysis. Validation of the primary antibodies, however, is often neglected. We characterized antibodies for detecting WNT5A by IHC and western blot analysis. We evaluated one polyclonal and three monoclonal commercially available WNT5A antibodies. After optimization of the IHC assay, all four antibodies showed cytoplasmic WNT5A expression in tissue samples; in contrast, only one antibody detected WNT5A in western blots. A pre-absorption test with recombinant WNT5A showed that AF645 and 3A4 antibodies specifically detected WNT5A in different assays. We suggest that the monoclonal 3A4 antibody is the most appropriate for use with IHC, while the polyclonal AF645 antibody is the best for western blot analysis.

Oral focal mucinosis (OFM) is regarded as a very rare clinical entity with only 62 cases previously reported in the literature. The majority of these cases have been present on gingiva and only 3 cases have been diagnosed on the tongue. The clinical appearance of OFM is relatively non-specific and resembles other and more prevalent conditions like fibroepithelial hyperplasia or other reactive mucosal lesions. The present case report describes OFM in the tongue in an 88-year-old woman. The report addresses the diagnostic considerations of OFM, but also if the lesion is really as rare as the literature indicates.