Dental Therapy & Hygiene BSc at Kings College London

Overview

Dental therapists and hygienists work to promote oral health and restore tooth function.  From oral disease prevention strategies to direct restorations, you’ll experience the intellectual challenges of diagnostics and the technical challenges of treatment in this demanding and hugely rewarding field of healthcare. 

Our Dental Therapy & Hygiene BSc course combines the latest thinking in dental education with early clinical experience. Taught by internationally-renowned staff, you will be exposed to a rich breadth of skills and knowledge in a diverse clinical environment. 

The course is designed to integrate with the undergraduate Dentistry BDS programme, offering students the opportunity of co-training, and preparing you for employment as a GDC registered professional as a key member of the dental practice team

Key benefits 

• Ranked 1st in the UK and 2nd in the world for Dentistry*, the skills and experience of King's graduates are highly valued by practice employers. 
• Co-train with Dentistry BDS students, learning from our highly experienced teaching staff. 
• Rich practical experience with the diverse patient populations of King's College Hospital. 
• Preparation for GDC registration and employment as a dental therapist/hygienist.
• Inter-disciplinary student-selected components - to acquire skills such as languages and business management. 
• Outreach placements in South East London from year 2 for broad clinical and team-working experience. 

Description

Teaching

The BSc (Hons) Dental Therapy & Hygiene course will train students to be safe beginner clinicians, prepared for registration with the GDC and employability as a dental therapist.  The programme is studied over three years full-time.  It offers a spiralled modular curriculum using a variety of inspiring evidence-based teaching and assessment methods.   

Blended learning unites acquisition of knowledge with development of clinical skills and professional values.  Scholarship is student and patient-centred, designed for students to experience authentic training through approaches such as enquiry and problem-based learning, embedding employability.  Workplace learning ensures students are prepared for a primary care career and are provided with foundations to develop skill-sets in secondary and tertiary care settings, as well as translational career pathways. 

Year one establishes the foundations on which clinical practice lie, namely biomedical sciences and developing clinical skills in a simulated setting.  This is paralleled by development of personal and professional skills, such as communication strategies and their role in social responsibility. 

Year two builds on this skill-set, enabling students to apply it in the real-world within our excellent network of clinical placements and introduces them to the dental specialties, where they will garner appreciation of local and global context.

Year three consolidates learning and fosters competence in technical and leadership skills, whilst developing research skills. Innovation and entrepreneurship is encouraged through self-selected, independent project-based learning in education, business development or research methods. 

Our integrated model, where Dental Therapy & Hygiene BSc students are trained with Dentistry BDS students, widens the benefits of inter-professional learning and reinforces the value of Dental Therapists/Hygienists.

Career prospects

The BSc (Hons) Dental Therapy & Hygiene programme embeds employability throughout teaching, learning and assessment which is critical to developing graduates that are ready to enter the healthcare workforce.   

Graduates have a breadth of career opportunities, from the more explicit, such as clinical service or academia, for example, in research and education in higher education institutions, through to the less well trodden.  These might include working in public health for government organisations, e.g. Public Health England and local authorities; regulation and quality assurance, e.g. working for the General Dental Council; or the third sector, e.g. the Oral Health Foundation; as well as private enterprise.