to prevention. Others need to be reinvigorated, reformulated, or even replaced to prepare the profession for the future. Table 10.1 summarizes the key principles that guided this committee's work.

In considering the future of dental education, the committee had three basic tasks. One task was understanding and describing the current system and its evolution. A second task was trying to assess the forces that would shape dental practice and education in the future. The third was to draw conclusions about the reasonable and desirable steps that dental educators and others should take to capitalize on the positive opportunities before the profession and minimize the negative consequences of change.

Each of the preceding chapters has presented the results of the committee's work. This final chapter reviews the committee's findings about the key trends that will shape dental education and dental practice in the future, considers how the field is positioned to manage that future, and summarizes the committee's recommendations. A list of the formal recommendations is included in the summary at the beginning of this report.

The broad scientific, economic, social, and other forces that will shape dental practice are, for the most part, clear. Much less predictable are the magnitude, timing, scope, and details of devel-