The Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations (JCNDE), in partnership with Prometric, has implemented the Dental Licensure Objective Structured Clinical Examination (DLOSCE).
The DLOSCE is a professionally developed, content-valid examination built specifically for clinical licensure purposes that assesses candidates’ clinical judgment and skills using sophisticated 3D models without the need to involve patients, the JCNDE said.
Teams of dental subject matter experts meticulously designed the lifelike computer models and constructed questions to mirror situations in clinical practice with high fidelity, the JCNDE said.
Prometric worked with the JCNDE to deploy the DLOSCE and serves as its primary administrator in the United States.
The new technological aspects of the DLOSCE represent a significant leap forward in the standardized assessment of aspiring dentists, according to the JCNDE.
Unlike current clinical dental licensure examinations and consistent with examination trends in medicine, nursing, and other health professions, the JCNDE said, the DLOSCE does not require candidates to perform procedures on patients.
By replacing patients with advanced 3D models in a controlled virtual environment, the JCNDE said, the new DLOSCE avoids many of the weaknesses and disadvantages of traditional clinical examinations, increases validity, and significantly decreases the risk of exposure to COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens for all involved.
“The DLOSCE provides a comprehensive evaluation of the clinical judgment that is necessary to safely practice dentistry, advancing assessment technology, and helping to address ethical concerns with current clinical licensure examinations,” said Dr. Kanthasamy Ragunanthan, chair of the JCNDE.
“We are confident that the DLOSCE will prove to be an invaluable tool to support the work of state dental boards in their mission to protect the public health. This examination promotes clinical fidelity, fairness, objectivity, and validity at a time of great need in our country,” said Ragunanthan.
At its core, the JCNDE said, the DLOSCE is designed to help dental boards protect the public health and to do so far more effectively than existing clinical licensure tools.
“The DLOSCE is the first dental licensure examination to employ a laser focus on clinical judgment to help protect the public,” said Dr. William F. Robinson, a former member of the Florida Board of Dentistry who also served on the DLOSCE Steering Committee.
“That’s a key reason why it was quickly accepted in six states, all within six months of its release. This is an unmatched advancement in dental licensure and will ultimately have a positive effect on the oral and overall health of the public,” Robinson said.
The DLOSCE has benefited greatly from some important relationships, the JCNDE said.
“From our initial development through the first examination administration last June, the partnership with Prometric was instrumental in making the launch of the new DLOSCE a great success,” said Ragunanthan.
“We are proud to partner with the JCNDE to make this groundbreaking advancement in dental credentialing a reality,” said Prometric chief client officer Sean Burke.
“By collaborating closely with the JCNDE, we have been able to ensure that the infrastructure supporting DLOSCE administrations is sound and reliable and that the new examination format can be seamlessly and securely deployed on Prometric’s testing platform, positioning the dental field to provide cutting-edge assessment capabilities for the 21st century dental candidate,” Burke said.
Related Articles
UNLV Dental Students Learn from Plastinated Human Specimens
Collaboration Ensures New Dentists Are Licensed During the Pandemic
Southern Illinois Class of 2021 Achieves 100% First-Time Exam Pass Rate
