Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme

This new programme similar to the five year BDS programme (A205) but with significant additional support. Entrants to this programme will come from widening participation schools linked to Kings College London; schools with low five A-C GCSE percentages and/or low A-level points scores. For more details, please visit the further information tab.

• Support and guidance for A206 application, UKCAT and interview
• Additional support throughout the duration of the programme
• Financial help
• Largest dental school in the UK offering entry routes to studying dentistry and graduating over 160 dentists a year.
• Offers students state-of-the-art clinical and technical facilities.
• Evidence-based, research-led degree programme with a high level of clinical experience in all areas.
• Partnership with the world famous hospitals: Guy's, King's College and St Thomas'.
• Opportunity to choose to intercalate a BSc degree.

This new programme is similar to the five year BDS programme (A205) but with significant additional support. Eligible students considering a career in dentistry will receive targeted support in years 12 and 13.

Eligible schools and entry requirement

Non-selective state schools in the South East of England (London, Kent & Medway). Entry requirements for the Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme are 3 A levels and 1 AS level; AAA/b – BBB/b. Chemistry and Biology are compulsory, at least one at A level, the other to AS level. Please contact the Health Schools Admissions Office for more details.

Funding
Year 1: £3,000
Year 2: £3,000
Year 3: £3,000
Year 5: Full NHS bursary

Dental Institute
As a dental student at King's, you would be taught by internationally renowned staff at an institution that combines teaching and research at some of the countrys most famous teaching hospitals: Guy's, King's & St Thomas'.

The Dental Institute was awarded the highest scores in all six areas of assessment when the Quality Assurance Agency carried out a subject review in 2000, with an overall score of 24/24 being awarded. It received a five-star rating for Research in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (the highest national rating). On the basis of these assessments, the Dental Institute can claim to be the best in the country.

The King's dental degree programme, in line with General Dental Council recommendations, incorporates the latest thinking in dental education, early clinical exposure, an emphasis on ideas as well as facts, integrated teaching of all subjects with an emphasis on a systems approach, and a dimension of choice of special subjects by the student. The integrated nature of the programme means that basic science teaching will relate to clinical practice and clinical teaching will be underpinned by scientific understanding. Students will have contact with patients from the first few weeks of the first year and will be encouraged to assume an appropriate level of responsibility for patient care at an early stage. The programme emphasises whole patient care, which implies consideration of the patients total dental and medical needs, rather than just the provision of items of treatment. Most of the teaching is carried out in small groups where students and staff get to know each other well. The fact that the Dental Institute is the largest in the country with a total intake (for all programmes) of 164 students brings many advantages, including expertise in all areas of dentistry.

Structure overview
The programme has three main components. The first consists of subjects common to medicine and dentistry, progressing from biomedical sciences, through behavioural sciences, epidemiology, pathology and microbiology to human disease. The second includes oral and dental aspects of the biological sciences leading to an understanding of the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of oral and dental diseases and disorders and the effects of systemic disease on the oral and dental tissues. The third component consists of the clinical and technical aspects of dentistry with the provision of comprehensive oral and dental healthcare for patients of all ages. These components are vertically integrated with a larger proportion of basic sciences at first and a larger clinical component at the end.

Throughout the five years of the programme you will, in addition to acquiring the practical skills necessary to become a dentist, acquire communication skills, personal management skills, information technology skills and an appreciation and analysis of ethical and legal issues in dentistry.

Assessment
Examinations are held at the end of each year, and a percentage of the marks for each examination are derived from in-course assessment, which may take the form of essays, practical tests or project work.

Intercalated BSc
At the end of year three, you will have the opportunity to take an intercalated BSc degree which allows you to pursue the subjects of your choice in greater depth. The advantage of studying at a multifaculty institution such as King's is that modules can be taken in a wide variety of subjects. For example, you may wish to study clinically relevant subjects and related topics such as health services management or psychology as well as more traditional subjects, such as neuroscience and biochemistry. You can even include a foreign language.

Please see BDS A205

After a one week introductory course to prepare you for study at university and on the Dentistry Programme in particular, the remainder of the year is spent studying biomedical sciences and topics relevant to the practice of dentistry. Much effort has been put into making this year absolutely relevant to dentistry. Basic topics such as molecular and cell biology, and basic human systems specific to dentistry, will be covered. Throughout the year a course on applied dental science will introduce you to the clinical aspects of dental studies and show the relevance of the basic sciences. This popular course will introduce you to all aspects of clinical dentistry and help maintain your motivation in a tough year when dentistry can seem a long way off.

Some aspects will be studied with other healthcare students, in partcular ethics and communication skills, in the provision of 'interprofessional' education.

Please see BDS programme

The second year concentrates on the introduction and development of basic clinical skills. A new state-of-the-art clinical skills facility allows the learning of necessary skills in safe and non-threatening environment. You will treat patients with minor gum problems in the first term and in the second term you will begin the restorative care of your own patients to whom you will offer dental care for your whole time at King's.

Linked to the practical clinical courses will be biomedical science subjects such as anatomy of the head and neck, and oral biology; you will also develop an understanding of all aspects of the nervous system relevant to dentistry. During the year you will begin learning about all aspects of human disease and this strand of learning will continue for the remainder of your time on the dental programme. This will include topics such as pathology, microbiology, and general medicine.

In the third year you continue to learn about all aspects of human disease. You will spend a week at a peripheral general hospital developing the applied aspects of your learning in this subject.

Another major subject area for this year is the replacement of missing teeth. You will learn how this can be done using fixed and removable prostheses. There is a technical compoment to these courses to ensure you understand how they are constructed and how to deal with problems associated with their fit and function.

Much time each week is devoted to the clinical treatment of patients in restorative dentistry that will include specific teaching in conservative dentistry and prosthodontics. You will also begin to learn about and carry out the extraction of teeth and minor oral surgery.

This is a busy year in which you really begin to establish yourself as a dentist.

In the fourth year you spend most of the week providing dental care for patients. You will continue to learn about and carry out more advanced procedures in restorative dentistry. During this year a major course in periodontology is provided to give you a strong foundation in the subject. You will be introduced to the operative procedures in the provision of implant dentistry.

Time is also spent in the clinic on the Denmark Hill campus providing comprehensive care to adult patients. This will continue in year five. This is an opportunity to treat patients from a different demographic area than that of the main campus.

As you become more proficient at extracting teeth, patients will be treated under conscious sedation.

Learning continues in the human disease strand of the curriculum and you are introduced to an ongoing course in oral disease that will incorporate pathology and medicine directly relevant to disease in and around the mouth. You will be able to treat many patients with more complex medical problems during this year, with specialist teachers on hand to guide you.

As you are now more proficient in dealing with and treating patients, in this year you will begin the provision of dental care for children. This will include learning about orthodontics.

Please see BDS programme

The final year of the programme is very much a consolidation year of all you have learned up to this time. You will continue to provide comprehensive dental care for adult and child patients. A unique feature of this programme is the opportunity to work on a regular basis at purpose built clinics distant from the main campus. At these you will work directly with a dental nurse and other professionals complementary to dentistry, in particular hygienists, learning to work as a team leader in provision of dental care for your patients.

There is an opportunity each week to spend some time learning about a chosen topic to allow you to develop knowledge of an area in even greater detail than covered in the normal programme. This could include any area in dentistry and there is also the opportunity to learn a new language through the Modern Language Centre at King's.

The final year is designed to allow you to develop as a dentist and to ease the transition, upon qualification, into vocational training and general dental practice. It also offers the opportunity to flavour the specialist areas of dentistry that may encourage you to specialise after a period of general professional training.