Look mom! No dentists!

The IU School of Dentistry has a long and celebrated history. In the early 1950s, biochemist Harry Day, with the help of Joseph Muhler and William Nebergall, developed the first toothpaste to combine the effectiveness of a matted abrasive cleaner with the protection of fluoride and didn’t taste like poison. Crest went on to manufacture and market the toothpaste using the now-famed slogan: “Look, mom! No cavities!” The royalties from the massively successful product funded the construction the Oral Health Research Institute in Indianapolis. \nIU dentistry has less to be proud of now.\nLast week, 46 students at the IUPUI-based school of dentistry were disciplined for their involvement in a cheating scandal that has tarnished the long-respected program. Some students gained unauthorized early access to test materials, radiographs of patients’ mouths, before the start of the final exam, while others withheld knowledge of the incident from administrators. The pictures were electronically sent to the students in encoded files before the test to avoid any technical difficulties, thus providing ample time to crack the password using commercially available software, or simply by guessing. Nine students were expelled, 29 were suspended, and 16 more were issued letters of reprimand for not reporting the scheme. \nCheating is on the rise across academia, and the high percentage of students who attempted to crack the password only accentuates the problem. School of Dentistry Dean Dr. Lawrence Goldblatt said the students worked independently to gain access. This information begs for an answer to the question: If half of this DDT program was cheating, how many other students out there didn’t get caught? It’s a fairly disheartening prospect for all of us who regularly get our teeth cleaned.\nGiven the students’ level of determination to cheat, the punishment seems more than fair. But even so, it’s hard to dismiss the incompetent negligence of the test administrator. The professors should have known better than to send confidential material, secured with such low-grade encryption techniques, to technologically savvy and highly competitive students. With the pressure to be the best, especially in a doctoral program like dentistry, many students would do anything for that little leg up on their classmates, and when presented with such a deliciously easy advantage, the temptation is too great. Cheating is an unhealthy but all too common compulsion in a university setting, and the good faith of the test proctors does nothing to alleviate that. \nNevertheless, there can be no excusing the actions of the self-serving dentists-in-training. This scandal is, by every measure, a cavity in the incisor that is IU and will only be repaired after a long, agonizing root canal of rectitude. By spurning their studies, these future members of the medical community not only endanger the integrity of the entire University, but the teeth, mouths, and even lives of their future patients.