History in context: teaching the history of dentistry with rare materials

Background: History and health humanities instruction offers a framework for professional students to examine the arc and development of their profession as well as develop cultural competencies. Exploring ideas, themes, and health care practices and approaches through historical instruction can show students how culture influences health care and practice, therefore providing a context for further development of cultural competence skills. Case Presentation: This case report describes a collaboration among a dentistry course instructor, a liaison librarian, and curators of a rare book collection. Working together, this team offers an active learning class that examines the historical arc of the dental profession. We aim to have students use primary source materials to examine the experiences, research, and narratives of their profession. Discussion: Using a World Cafe with thematic tables allows students to safely examine rare materials and artifacts and have meaningful conversations about themes that are critical to dentistry’s past, present, and future. Students reported that engaging with artifacts and historical materials provided a different way to understand history and enhanced their learning experience. Engaging students in this work builds critical thinking skills that are essential to evidence-based practice.