Oral Health Sciences BSc at University of Dundee

A degree in Oral Health Sciences allows you to register as a dental hygienist and therapist. You’ll become a skilled professional who is part of the dental team. Dental therapists care for oral health by preventing disease, promoting healthy lifestyles and treating gum disease and dental decay.

You will learn the fundamentals of the sciences that support dentistry and how they apply to clinical situations. You'll be practising skills in a simulated clinical environment and by the end of the first semester you will be ready to meet your first patients. You will be able to communicate professionally with them, understand their health issues and treat gum disease.

You will also have the opportunity to work on Thiel cadavers. The Thiel method of embalming preserves cadavers with life-like flexibility and tissue quality.

In the annual Discovery Week you get to explore a topic of your own choice. It gives you time away from normal teaching activities to explore a dental topic, in areas of science such as:

• biomedical

• behavioural

• engineering

Our curriculum is integrated with the 4D dentistry curriculum (4D stands for Dentistry at Dundee, Driven by Discovery). This means that for the first two years you will largely learn, practise, and be assessed together with dental students.

This approach to learning is different from traditional lecture based courses. You are encouraged to work in small groups to consider clinical problems and discover evidence based solutions.

Career

Once qualified you may choose to work in general dental practice (NHS and private), the community dental service, hospital practice, the armed services or in industry.