King's College London

The purpose of the BSc (Hons) Dental Therapy and Hygiene is to prepare registrable and adaptable dental professionals, through a university education that integrates the knowledge, skills, attitudes, ethics and behaviour relating to Clinical, Interpersonal and Emotional Skills, Professionalism and Self- Management domains. The intention is to produce dental professionals who are fit to practise as safe practitioners at the end of the programme. They will be able to recognise and accept professional responsibilities for the provision of high quality, effective and safe contemporary person-centred care, reflecting on their practice and appreciate the need for continuing professional development.

The programme also aims to develop and equip students with a range of professional leadership, teamworking and management skills so they can work as part of an oral healthcare team in primary and secondary care.

Our programmes aspire to be world-class and recognised internationally by meeting and exceeding the necessary educational standards and quality benchmarks. As a research-enhanced institute, the programme benefits from the institutional research and offers the opportunity for students to be involved in, and appreciate, the breadth of research in the faculty and the wider university. The programme is studied over 3 years, full time.

The curriculum is formulated around the General Dental Council (GDC) Safe Practitioner Framework (2025). This is the framework for all UK education and training programmes that lead to registration with the General Dental Council (GDC) as a dental professional. The descriptions under the four domains in the framework together summarise the GDC’s expectations for new dental professionals, or ‘safe practitioners’.

Clinical Knowledge and Skills
Possesses the skills and underpinning knowledge to undertake routine clinical and technical procedures and tasks. This includes the ability to apply that knowledge and those skills to specific contexts and situations, patients, and stages of treatment including, where relevant, assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning and onward referral

Interpersonal skills
Uses interpersonal skills and emotional awareness to enable effective communication with all patients and colleagues which is underpinned by behaving in a caring, compassionate, empathic, and respectful way. Demonstrates effective teamwork and helps foster wellbeing of others.

Professionalism
Demonstrates professionalism and integrity by behaving ethically, shows leadership and social accountability. Is committed to advocating for oral health, promoting good oral health and understands the importance of sustainable service provision in the population and across communities, and addressing priority health needs for the communities.

Self-management
Can self-manage, adapt, and respond to different situations using insight and reflection. Plans and manages their time and keeps up to date with continued learning and development.

These are achieved through the following teaching/learning methods and strategies:

1. Lectures: Mixed-mode or blended learning combining face-to-face and digital technology (e.g. digital and online resources)
2. Participation in seminars, practical laboratory classes, workshops, which require prior preparation, High and Low fidelity simulation.
3. Participation in clinics to develop principles of thinking and reasoning inpatient management; identification of health at the level of the patient, as well as comparison of normal with diseased and/or treated tissues.
4. Self-directed learning (narrated presentations, recorded online tutorials, online formative assessment)
5. Clinical observation to supplement, consolidate and broaden what has been taught
6. Assessment: Examinations, coursework. Assessment will be formative and summative. Formative assessments will, as far as possible, be designed to include dialogic feedback, peer-assessment and self-assessment linked to reflective practice.

Blended learning affords opportunities for practice knowledge and professional values to be embedded in clinical practice. 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 authentic learning ensures students are prepared for a primary care career and are provided with foundations to develop skills 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 these skills enabling students to apply it in the real-world authentic context within our network of clinical placements and introduces them to the dental specialties. Year three consolidates learning and fosters competence in clinical, leadership, communication and research skills.

Delivering a partially integrated model whereby dental therapy and hygiene students are trained together with dental undergraduates widens the benefits of inter-professional learning and reinforces the value of the dental therapists and hygienists.