The Curtin Oral Health Therapy course

Curtin designs the course so that each year's theory, simulation and clinical units run at the same time and feed into each other. Because of that, the handbook expects you to study full time and follow the set structure. Most units carry 25 credits, while DENT1003, DENT2011 and DENT3007, built around simulation and clinical practice, carry 75 or 100.

Year 1 is broad. Its five non-dental units are run by other Curtin schools, such as the School of Population Health, and are open to students from other courses. MEDI1000, for example, admits students from biomedical science, nutrition and laboratory medicine degrees. These units teach through lectures, science laboratories, tutorials and online learning.

From Year 2, dental science is taught mainly in weekly seminars. DENT2014 adds problem-based learning tasks, in which you work through a clinical case and research what you need to know to explain it. The year-long clinical unit puts the theory to work with patients at the same time.

Final year is more self-directed. DENT3008 is built on independent study, with optional consultation and support sessions and sit-down-and-write sessions, while DENT3009 uses lectures, community engagement, project work and reflection. Both run beside your final-year clinical work.

Curtin says contact hours are high. From Year 2, the weekly dental science seminars sit beside supervised clinic sessions and simulation lab work.

Clinical work is physically demanding. Curtin's inherent requirements, the abilities every student needs to complete the course, include doing dental work for five to six hours with breaks, and standing while using both hands for a task.

The handbook gives each unit a tuition pattern, which it treats as a guide; exact details come in each unit's outline. The patterns for Semester 1 of Year 1 are listed below.

• CMHL1000: a 2-hour tutorial each week.
• MEDI1000: eleven 2-hour lectures and ten 2-hour science laboratory classes across the semester.
• HUMB1000: 2 hours of structured online learning, a 1-hour workshop or practical and a 1-hour tutorial each week.
• DENT1003, which runs across both semesters: a 3-hour seminar each week, plus six-hour simulation lab sessions and a 30-hour skills block.

Anatomy is spread across three units. In Semester 1 of Year 1, HUMB1000 starts with anatomical terms and how cells, tissues and organs relate, then covers the circulatory, respiratory, digestive and excretory systems. HUMB1001 follows in Semester 2, linking the structure and function of six body systems and their nervous and hormonal control, with a weekly 1.5-hour science laboratory.

The anatomy closest to your future work comes in Semester 1 of Year 2. DENT2010 Oral Health Sciences covers head and neck anatomy and histology, the study of tissues under a microscope. You learn how baby and adult teeth differ, how teeth develop and come through, and how baby teeth are shed. You also study how pain is perceived, which is the basis for local anaesthesia.

You start on manikins and classmates, not patients. In Year 1, DENT1003 trains you on a manikin in two core skills. The first is non-surgical periodontal instrumentation: removing plaque and hardened deposits from teeth, including below the gum line. The second is restorative dentistry, repairing teeth with fillings. You also learn infection control and how to take dental X-rays, called radiographs.

Curtin requires you to practise techniques on one another before you treat patients. The handbook says clinical experience starts in Year 2, and DENT2011 is the first unit in which you treat patients, children and adults, in a range of clinical settings. Under clinicians' supervision you assess each patient's risk of oral disease, examine them, plan their care, make diagnoses and judge how the treatment worked. You also put local anaesthesia into practice and refine your radiography, including the OPG, a panoramic X-ray of the whole mouth.

Responsibility grows in Year 3. In DENT3007 you treat people with oral disease of varying complexity, special care needs such as a disability, and complex medical histories, working across your full scope of practice. You learn to prepare referrals to other dental and health practitioners, get ready to plan care on your own, and manage your time in clinic so care stays good and efficient.

The three units built on simulation and clinical work, DENT1003, DENT2011 and DENT3007, are graded Pass or Fail. The other 13 units are given a grade and mark. Each unit's assessment tasks are set out in its unit outline.

Your clinical performance is assessed longitudinally, meaning it is tracked over time. The handbook names six domains: safety and professionalism; communication and teamwork; knowledge; information gathering and treatment planning; technical clinical skills; and prevention and health promotion.

Hours alone are not enough. You must complete at least 800 clinical placement hours, but the handbook says that does not by itself prove competence. You must also show you can safely carry out an appropriate range of procedures and patient care within an oral health therapist's scope.

A targeted review the ADC ordered in August 2024 found that the new curriculum and PebblePad, an online portfolio system, had made student progress clearer. It still had concerns about students' access to enough patients. But it was satisfied that assessment, including access to simulated patients, made sure students reached the competencies before graduating.

In August 2025 the ADC found a gap at OHCWA. Supervisors employed by the clinic gave students spoken feedback and sent written feedback through PebblePad to unit coordinators, who decided competency without seeing the work. Academic staff also could not use the clinic for teaching. The ADC required Curtin to define both groups' roles and to make sure whoever decides competency watches the skill being performed. Its February 2026 update records these conditions as met.

Curtin says the course is taught in three places: the Bentley campus, OHCWA in Nedlands and the Dental Health Services clinic at Mount Henry, so some travel between them is part of the course. The handbook adds that practical sessions run in a range of settings, including the program's own clinic, OHCWA, community clinics and private dental practices.

The ADC's August 2025 report describes clinical placements at OHCWA and Mount Henry, where formal agreements are now in place. It praised the School for widening placements through a social responsibility clinic, an autism clinic, Clontarf Aboriginal College and Brightwater aged care. It also called a pilot at the Curtin Early Childhood Centre promising, and urged formal agreements so these placements continue if staff change.

A targeted review ordered in August 2024 praised the chances to work with other health professionals but was concerned that students had few chances to work in a dental team. The 2025 report found the same gap and required a formal approach to working with other dental practitioners, a condition later judged met. It also asked Curtin to check that every student gets enough restorative work on patients of all ages. Staff and students, it said, needed more notice of timetables and placements, especially those involving travel.

Placements do not stop when semesters do. The handbook and course page both say extra clinical hours are required in the breaks between semesters. In the 2027 calendar, the Year Long study period that holds DENT2011, DENT3006 and DENT3007 runs from 18 January to 26 November. That is about four weeks before Semester 1 begins on 15 February, and two weeks after Semester 2 ends on 12 November.

Before your first placement you must meet Curtin's fieldwork requirements, including criminal record screening, immunisation, hand hygiene and manual handling training, and screening for communicable diseases. You pay for the checks, vaccinations, and first aid and manual handling courses yourself.

Carriers of blood-borne viruses cannot perform some procedures on patients, so blood tests must be done before or during your first semester. The handbook requires a Senior First Aid Certificate before the second semester of Year 2; one line on the course page says before your second semester, so it pays to do it early.

Every unit in the 2027 structure is compulsory, so there are no electives or selectives. Your choices sit inside units: in DENT3008 you pick the topic of your literature review based on your clinical or placement experience, and DENT3009 includes project work.

Intercalating means taking a year out of your course to earn an extra degree. No intercalated, Honours or research year sits inside the course, and your research training comes through DENT3008 in final year. After graduating, the handbook says you may qualify for entry to a Bachelor Degree with Honours and to some graduate certificates, graduate diplomas and master's degrees.

OHCWA is a dental teaching centre in Nedlands, near the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, run jointly with other tertiary education providers. Curtin's page on the centre, last updated in 2023, names the partners as the University of Western Australia (UWA) Dental School and North Metropolitan TAFE. It lists clinical facilities, laboratories, and clinical teaching and computing facilities.

Curtin runs an Oral Health Student Clinic at OHCWA, staffed by oral health therapy students under the supervision of qualified staff. In 2023 it offered check-ups and cleans, X-rays including OPGs, in-office tooth whitening and white fillings at prices well below private practice, and took appointments from Monday to Wednesday.

Mount Henry is a clinic of Dental Health Services, whose mission includes supporting the training and education of oral health professionals. The ADC's 2025 report acknowledged the support given by the Mt Henry Dental Health Services staff, and encouraged continued work together on professional development.

The ADC has watched these facilities closely. In 2023 it said OHCWA's dental equipment needed significant investment. At the targeted review it ordered in August 2024, an agreement for simulation lab access at Mount Henry was still unsigned. By 2025 formal agreements were in place with both sites. A Clinic Manager had also been appointed at OHCWA, and the ADC said better governance, operations and patient flow had increased the clinical experience available to students.

In 2025 an upgrade of OHCWA's clinical facilities was being planned without a fixed timeline. Curtin was required to report progress to the ADC each quarter up to August 2026, and the February 2026 update records the November 2025 and February 2026 reports as met. The ADC also asked Curtin to show it had enough staff, facilities, placements and patients for the planned increase in enrolments to 50 from 2026, and records that requirement as met.

Curtin acknowledges that oral health therapy students face significant out-of-pocket costs, especially in first year. Its Oral Health Therapy Uniform Bursary, introduced in 2026, subsidises the required uniforms for every first-year student. Donors fund it: the Australian Dental Association (WA Branch), the Australian Society of Orthodontists (WA Branch) and One Dental.

If you have a disability or health condition, Curtin says reasonable adjustments may be made to help you meet the inherent requirements, and its AccessAbility Services can advise. Dental Practitioner Support, a national health and wellbeing service, is also open around the clock to dental students.