Background: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mission statements continue to be adopted by academic institutions in general, and by dental schools around the globe in particular. But DEI content seems to be under-developed in dental education. Objectives: The objectives of this study were two-fold: to extract information from all the PBL cases at University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Dentistry curriculum in terms of the diversity, equity, and inclusion of patient and provider characteristics, context, and treatment outcomes; and; to compare these findings with the composition of the British Columbia census population, dental practice contextual factors, and the evidence on treatment outcomes within patient care. Methods: Information from all the 58 PBL cases was extracted focusing on patient and provider characteristics (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity), context (e.g., type of insurance), and treatment outcomes (e.g., successful/unsuccessful). This information was compared with the available literature. Results: From all the 58 PBL cases, 0.4% included non-straight patients, while at least 4% of BC residents self-identify as non-straight; there were no cases involving First Nations patients although they make up 6% of the British Columbia population. Less than 10% of the cases involved older adults who make up almost 20% of the population. Only Treatments involving patients without a disability were 5.74 times more likely to be successful compared to those involving patients with a disability (p<0.05). Conclusions: The characteristics of the patients, practice context, and treatment outcomes portrayed in the existing PBL cases seem to differ from what is known about the composition of the British Columbia population, treatment outcome success, and practice context; a curriculum disconnect seems to exist. The PBL cases should be revised to better represent the population within which most students will practice.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

There was no IRB approval as this study does not deal with human subjects or partcipants.

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I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

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Full data cannot be shared publicly because they are part of a series of PBL didactic cases from the UBC's FoD dental curriculum, and belong to the creators - instructor. Partial data are available from the first author (MB) as one of the creators of the PBL cases.