The BDS curriculum produces dental practitioners who are highly skilled, reflective and caring, and who are capable of making a major contribution to the health of the communities in which they will work.

Year 1

You will be introduced to all aspects of clinical dentistry, supported by the teaching of clinical medicine, patient management and health promotion, and biomedical sciences such as anatomy, physiology and microbiology.

Year 2

In the second year you will be introduced to the theory and practice of the subjects that form the clinical basis of dentistry: operative dentistry, prosthodontics and periodontics. As part of the introduction to operative dentistry you will learn about the treatment of dental caries, carried out in a simulated clinical setting.

At the same time, knowledge from the first year of the programme is built upon by further study of biomedical sciences, clinical medical sciences and patient management/health promotion.

In the second year you will also begin the management and treatment of patients.

Year 3

The third year builds on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous two years and provides extensive clinical experience in the various clinical dental subjects. You will expand your skills in all aspects of restorative dentistry and will also carry out your first extraction. You will attend outreach placements in paediatrics and will also visit clinics in a general hospital for observation of a variety of specialties.

Other teaching includes a comprehensive head and neck anatomy course, the dentist’s role in providing smoking and alcohol advice, initial preparation for the provision of sedation, and self-directed work within various subject areas on computer.

Year 4

You will continue to work in the Dental School and in the community at various outreach centres and will have an opportunity to develop your clinical skills through exposure to patients in all the dental disciplines.

Teaching includes oral medicine, sedation, orthodontics fixed appliance course, and further aspects of patient management/health promotion.

At the end of fourth year you are required to undertake a four-week period of elective study. This is an opportunity for personal and professional development. You will choose your own subject from one of the following broad categories of study:

• a humanitarian project (in a remote or developing country or in socio-economically challenged parts of the UK)
• an audit project
• an educational comparison
• a research project (quantitative or qualitative)
• other types of experience such as veterinary dentistry or learning a foreign language.

You will have a supervisor to help you plan your study, which will be written up as a report at the beginning of fifth year.

Year 5

The aim of final year is to consolidate and enhance the clinical skills you have developed to this point. You will spend half your time in the Dental School and half working in the community. There will not be any lectures; instead you will attend eight sessions in the Dental School in each of the following core units:

• Crown and bridge
• Minor oral surgery
• Endodontics
• Paediatric dentistry
• Prosthodontics
• Periodontics
• Consultant clinics (1)
• Consultant clinics (2).

There will be no teaching on Wednesdays, to compensate for a full working day on Wednesdays in a community clinic. Every other week you will commute to one community clinic and also attend a residential location.

You may have the opportunity to take a relevant BSc Honours degree in one of several life sciences. Intercalated degree programmes last for one or two years and are taken after either the second or third BDS year. On completion of the BSc degree programme, you will return to the BDS programme.

During the elective period at the end of fourth year, you will choose a topic to study in greater depth, either in Glasgow or elsewhere. Many students take the opportunity to travel abroad and the University provides organisational and limited financial support.

98% of our dentistry graduates are either in work or further study (Unistats 2010).

Most dental graduates become general dental practitioners. Other possible careers lie in the hospital service or the community dental service. In all spheres of dentistry, education is recognised as a lifelong experience and continuing education is increasingly recognised as important for the professional development of a graduate.

Choosing a career in NHS general dental practice requires you to undertake a period of vocational training designed to ease the transition between dental school and general dental practice. This vocational training period lasts one year. However, in some parts of the country, it has been voluntarily extended to a two-year period of general professional training, to provide experience in the provision of dental care in both primary and secondary settings.

Fitness to Practise

Where a programme of study requires the student to act in the course of practical training in a quasi-professional role in relation to patients, children, clients or service-users or where the qualification provides a direct licence to practise, the University has a duty to ensure that the student is fit to practise. Fitness to Practise is assessed not only in terms of academic attainment but also in accordance with relevant professional concerns and expectations. Students registered to study dentistry are subject to separate Fitness to Practise procedures. A copy of the Code of Professional Conduct and Fitness to Practise will be made available to BDS students.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a serious blood-borne virus (BBV). This can be passed between a dentist and patient. Healthcare workers must ensure that they do everything possible to protect themselves and their patients from this infection.

Students must complete a full course of immunisation against the Hepatitis B virus. The immunisation process can take up to nine months and applicants are therefore advised to commence this process at the earliest possible opportunity. However, it is not a requirement for students to have completed the immunisation process prior to registration. Please also note that your GP is NOT under obligation to immunise you.

Confirmation of a student’s Hepatitis B Surface Antigen status is identified by the University’s Occupational Health Unit’s screening programme, prior to registration in September. No student will be registered without having this blood test. Carriers of Hepatitis B may be precluded from registration to Dentistry because of the nature of the clinical procedures undertaken during training.

If you are concerned you may be at risk of being a carrier of the Hepatitis B virus or any other BBV you should have this checked immediately, and if positive, you must contact the Dental School as soon as possible so that discussion can take place on whether reasonable modifications would be required to be made within the undergraduate programme.

Hepatitis C

Guidelines from the Department of Health recommend that those embarking on training in certain healthcare professions in which invasive procedures are undertaken (including dentistry) must be screened for Hepatitis C prior to registration. Applicants who are carriers of this infection will not be allowed to enter training unless they respond to treatment. All new dental students will be screened for Hepatitis C. The University undertakes this during pre-entry health screening in September.

HIV

New guidance from the Department of Health requires all dental students to be screened for HIV prior to entry. Further information will be provided to applicants at the appropriate time.

Disclosure Scotland

If you are admitted to the BDS programme you will be required to undertake a Criminal Convictions check prior to registration. It is your responsibility to pay for the check.