Gerodontology. 2017;1–8. | 1 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ger Accepted: 17 March 2017 DOI: 10.1111/ger.12269 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Dental students’ reflections about long-term care experiences through an existing model of oral health Mario Brondani | Komkham Pattanaporn © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S and The Gerodontology Association. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Correspondence Mario Brondani, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Email: brondani@dentistry.ubc.ca Objective: The aim of this study was to explore students’ reflective thinking about long-term care experiences from the perspective of a model of oral health. Materials and methods: A total of 186 reflections from 193 second-year undergradu- ate dental students enrolled between 2011/12 and 2014/15 at the University of British Columbia were explored qualitatively. Reflections had a word limit of 300, and students were asked to relate an existing model of oral health to their long-term care experiences. We have identified the main ideas via a thematic analysis related to the geriatric dentistry experience in long-term care. Results: The thematic analysis revealed that students attempted to demystify their pre- conceived ideas about older people and long-term care facilities, to think outside the box, for example away from a typical dental office, and to consider caring for elderly people from an interprofessional lens. According to some students, not all domains from the existing model of oral health were directly relevant to their geriatric experience while other domains, including interprofessionalism and cognition, were missing. While some participants had a positive attitude towards caring for this cohort of the popula- tion, others did not take this educational activity as a constructive experience. Conclusions: The nature of most students’ reflective thinking within a long-term care experience showed to be related to an existing model of oral health. This model can help to give meaning to the dental geriatric experience of an undergraduate curricu- lum. Such experience has been instrumental in overcoming potential misconceptions about long-term care and geriatric dentistry. KEYWORDS geriatric dentistry, geriatric education, model of oral health, reflective thinking, undergraduate dental curriculum 1 | INTRODUCTION As people live longer and healthier, and retain their natural teeth for life, 1,2 there is an increased demand for preventive and curative ser- vices for older people, particularly those who are frail. 3,4 Such services call for dental professionals who are knowledgeable about ageing and capable of treating humanly and interacting meaningfully with elderly people, particularly those who are frail and/or reside in long- term care facilities. 5 More importantly, they should be able to work holistically when planning and delivering oral health care. 6 According to Yellowitz and Scheneiderman, the dental profession must be pre- pared “to meet the challenges of providing oral health services to the increasing numbers of medically compromised and cognitively impaired older adults whose care is often complicated by functional, behavioral, and situational factors” (page 191). 7 In turn, an overarching goal of an undergraduate geriatric dental education is on graduating dental professionals with positive and grounded attitudes towards older people. Different countries have approached the undergraduate