Association for Dental Education in Europe

Learning together to improve oral health and quality of life

Sustainable Dental Education in a Changing Food Environment: Integrating Environmental Awareness with Clinical Dietary Guidance

Thursday, 21st August 2025 - 14:00 to 15:30
Add to Calendar
Timezone: 

Dublin (IST, UTC+1)

Venue: 

Tangent. TCDBS

Pre-register as part of your ADEE 2025 meeting registration
Session synopsis: 

The global food system faces unprecedented challenges from climate change, requiring healthcare professionals to understand and respond to these emerging pressures. These challenges demand new approaches in healthcare education and practice to address both individual and environmental health outcomes. This focused workshop brings together experts from nutrition science, dietetics, medicine, and dentistry to explore innovative approaches to preparing dental professionals for their crucial role in promoting both individual and planetary health. Through shared interprofessional experiences, we will examine teaching strategies that prepare dental students to provide evidence-based dietary guidance while considering broader environmental impacts. Our goal is to develop practical frameworks and strategies for integrating sustainability concepts into dental education, enabling future oral health practitioners to address the interconnected challenges of oral health, nutrition, and environmental sustainability in their clinical practice and patient education.

Programme: 

14:00 "Global Food Systems in Crisis: Why Healthcare Education Must Respond"

14:20 "Transforming Dietetic Education: Lessons from Implementation"

14:35 "Medicine's Response: A Model for Dental Education"

14:50 "Bridging the Gap: Nutrition Education in Global Dental Practice"

15:05 Discussion and debate 

15:25 Closing remarks 

Chair: 

Michael Crowe

Faculty
Dublin Dental University Hospital Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Dr Crowe teaches Food Science, Nutrition and Oral Health at undergraduate and postgraduate level and supervises PhD and DChDent research projects. Dr Crowe's research aims to understand interactions between diet and oral health with a view to developing personalised, sustainable, healthy nutrition strategies. A key focus is the application of data science techniques for both the collection and analysis of cohort data at the patient and population group level. Ongoing research includes collecting dietary information and carrying out oral health assessments of specific at-risk subgroups such as elite athletes, chronically ill patients and the elderly. The main aim is to identify the contribution of specific risk factors to poor dental health and poor nutrient status within different subgroups. A secondary aim includes informing recommendations, tools and interventions for optimal oral health that will support dietary behaviour change to sustainable healthy diets. His recent publication on the ‘Implementation of a food science and nutrition module in a dental undergraduate curriculum’ could act as a framework for the development of this proposal.

https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.elib.tcd.ie/doi/10.1111/eje.12822

Learning Outcomes: 

Participants will gain:

  • Understanding of how sustainable food systems and nutrition principles connect with oral health education
  • Strategies for incorporating sustainability concepts into dental curriculum without compromising clinical training
  • Practical approaches to teaching sustainable dietary counseling in dental settings

Stay up to date