Standardized patients for teaching geriatric dentistry.

Effectively managing geriatric dental patients requires behavioral, communication, and assessment skills which are not easily taught or evaluated by traditional methods. Standardized patients (SPs) are persons trained to simulate real patients. The advantages of using SPs instead of real patients are that student experiences can be realistic, yet predetermined and controlled. In a program at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry, SPs are used to provide practice and to evaluate dental students regarding their performance in managing specific geriatric dental patients. In the past three years, over 1500 student-SP interactions specific to geriatric dentistry have been conducted with a wide variety of cases, including examination, diagnosis, and treatment planning. Additionally, program outcomes are discussed.