The King's College London (KCL) Dentistry course

The BDS is divided into modules worth 600 credits in total, 120 in each of the five years. King's counts one credit as roughly 10 hours of work, so each year represents about 1,200 hours of teaching, clinics and study. Every module is a core module, meaning compulsory. Two strands run through the course: a professionalism module in each of years 1 to 4, and the Integrated Care modules from year 2 to year 5.

How you spend your time changes sharply. In year 1, 30% is timetabled teaching, 66% is guided independent study and 4% is on placement. Year 2 is similar, at 34% teaching, 56% independent study and 10% placement. From year 3 placements dominate, at 55% of your time, then 57% in year 4 and 62% in year 5. By final year, independent study has dropped to 7%.

In year 1 lectures are given in person, supported by online resources. From year 2 they become blended, with part of the teaching delivered online. Seminars, workshops and practical laboratory classes expect you to prepare beforehand. You also get chances to take part in research across the faculty and the wider university.

The course is built around the GDC's learning outcomes for new dentists, now set out in its Safe Practitioner framework, which describes what every new UK dental professional must be able to do. It groups these outcomes into four areas: clinical knowledge and skills, interpersonal skills, professionalism, and self-management. By the end of year 5 you must show that you meet all of its learning outcomes, so that you are safe to start practising.

Anatomy has its own module in year 1. Oral Biology, Body Systems & Craniofacial Anatomy, worth 30 credits, covers how the tissues of the mouth and the structures of the skull and face develop, how they are built and how they work. It sits beside Body Systems, the biggest module of the year at 45 credits.

You also meet tooth anatomy in the simulation labs. Students can scan real human teeth and teaching models, then practise on 3D versions that model each layer separately. These layers are the enamel, the dentine, the pulp and the periodontal tissues, meaning the gum and bone that support each tooth.

In year 1, the module Foundations of Clinical Practice & the Relevance of Biological Science introduces basic clinical skills, infection control and how to assess a patient. The GDC's 2021 inspection report summarised year 1 as clinic attendance and shadowing, which means watching qualified staff treat patients.

Year 2 is when simulation training begins in earnest. The 30-credit module Simulated Clinical Skills & Dental Materials teaches procedures, dental materials and instruments on phantom heads and haptic simulators before you treat patients. Year 2 is not simulation alone, though. About a tenth of the year is on placement, and the 30-credit Integrated Care module covers diagnosis, treatment planning and patient care.

Simulation continues in year 3 with a larger 45-credit module, Simulated Clinical Skills & Dental Materials II, which introduces more complex procedures. The GDC's 2021 report placed the start of direct patient treatment in year 3, when placements rise to more than half your time. By the end of year 3 the aim is that you can manage a patient's care on your own, under supervision.

Year 4 adds children's dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery and community-based work. Year 5 is designed to prepare you for dental foundation training (DFT). This is a year working in a training practice under supervision, and King's says it is how most new graduates enter practice.

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust runs student clinics on the 21st, 25th and 26th floors of Tower Wing at Guy's Hospital. Students there carry out routine treatment supervised by a senior member of staff: fillings, simple gum treatment, selected crowns and bridges, dentures and root canal treatment. Complex work such as implants, orthodontics and treatment under sedation is not offered. Care is free for adult patients judged suitable to be seen by students, and runs in term time only.

When the GDC inspected in 2019, under the curriculum King's replaced from 2020, the school told it that GDC-registered staff supervised all clinical work by students. Registered dental nurses also supported students in the Dental Hospital. During its 2021 visit, which focused on final-year students, the GDC noted ratios of one supervisor to four students, and one to two in some cases.

You are assessed through coursework plus written and practical exams, and together these make up 100% of your final mark. Alongside them run competence assessments, in simulation and on clinic, which check that you can carry out procedures safely. You must pass these to move up a year, but they add nothing to your mark. Years 3, 4 and 5 each have a dedicated competence assessment module.

Formats include short-answer written papers, online multiple-choice exams, poster presentations, special projects and reports. There is also an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), a circuit of short timed stations where examiners mark you on a practical or communication task. A structured clinical reasoning examination tests how you think through a patient's case. Final year includes BDS Finals, a 30-credit module.

In 2021 the GDC made a targeted inspection of the King's BDS, prompted by the pandemic's effect on clinical training. It visited because the evidence it gathered beforehand had not yet satisfied it that the final-year students would be safe beginners, meaning new dentists ready to register and practise safely. After the visit it concluded that the 2021 graduates would meet that standard.

The report also described how final-year students were assessed at that time. Case presentations followed a real patient's care over one to two years. Tutor-marked assessments of clinical work needed a satisfactory or outstanding rating, and a Competence Assessment Form combined the student's own reflection, peer feedback and a tutor's sign-off. A Progress Committee then reviewed each student's clinical record before signing them up for finals.

All clinical work on the BDS is compulsory and happens with three partners: Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT), King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (KCH) and the University of Portsmouth. Up to and including year 4, everything takes place on GSTT and KCH sites. In years 4 and 5 you also rotate to outreach clinics, where you treat patients much as a general dentist would.

The dental hospital at Guy's is the base for just over 80% of BDS students, split into three main teams. It provides secondary and tertiary care, meaning specialist treatment for patients referred by other dentists and doctors, as well as training in every recognised dental specialty. Across KCH's dental services, undergraduate placements are mainly in oral surgery, children's dentistry, orthodontics and primary dental care.

In year 5 the cohort is split in two. One group is based at KCH's Denmark Hill site and the West Norwood Health & Leisure Centre. The other goes to the University of Portsmouth Dental Academy, set up by the University of Portsmouth, King's and the NHS. There you work in the academy and in a range of community settings.

Expect to travel. In years 4 and 5 you travel between Guy's and Denmark Hill. In final year you pay your placement travel costs upfront, whether you go to Portsmouth or West Norwood, and claim them back afterwards.

The BDS includes two elective modules, each worth 15 credits, or roughly 150 hours of work. Dental Elective I comes in year 3 and Dental Elective II in year 4. In each one you choose a specialised area of dentistry that interests you and study it with an emphasis on independent learning.

To intercalate means to take a year out of your dental degree to complete a separate one-year degree, here an intercalated BSc (iBSc), before returning to the BDS. It is optional. King's iBSc programmes include your own experimental research project, and the university presents them as a way to explore an area you might want to specialise in later.

To be eligible, BDS students normally need to have passed year 2 at the first attempt, and year 3 or 4 as well if they apply later in the course. King's says a pass at the second attempt may still be considered, at the admissions tutor's discretion. Its current list of iBSc programmes includes Anatomy, Developmental & Human Biology; Cardiovascular Medicine; Global Health; Healthcare Genetics and Genomics; Neuroscience; Physiology; Primary Care; Regenerative Medicine & Innovation Technology; and Women's Health.

The Regenerative Medicine & Innovation Technology iBSc is taught jointly by the dental faculty and the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at Guy's Campus. It covers the repair, replacement and regeneration of tissues and organs, and how microbial communities affect human disease, with opportunities for laboratory research.

The dental simulation labs are on floors 18 and 20 of the Tower Wing at Guy's Hospital. The floor 18 suite has twelve augmented reality stations made by SIMtoCARE. Each has a real handpiece and mirror handle, a 3D screen showing a virtual mouth inside a mannequin jaw, a foot pedal and an adjustable chair. Staff follow your work on a linked iPad and can send any station's view to a large screen for demonstrations.

The floor 20 labs, known as Fidelity Labs A to D, hold 90 A-dec phantom heads, 10 intra-oral scanners and five milling machines. An intra-oral scanner is a handheld camera that builds a 3D model of the teeth. Every student station can scan, design and mill digital restorations such as crowns, and you can watch a teacher's live demonstration on your own screen.

Both floors have surgical microscopes with camera links, so a procedure under the microscope can be streamed live, and a lecture capture system that records sessions run across the two labs.

When the GDC inspected in 2019, under the previous curriculum, each student had a personal tutor and could track their clinical progress online. A Progress Committee reviewed students' results and contacted anyone struggling to offer support or extra teaching. Students could also turn to a Director of Student Welfare, and older students could train as peer supporters for younger years.

Both the 2019 and 2021 inspections described Student Liaison Officers on the clinics. Their job was to steer patients who needed particular treatments towards students who still needed that experience, so that everyone could complete the range of work required. Students told the inspectors in 2021 that they valued this role.

According to the 2019 report, how to raise concerns about patient safety was taught in the first week of the course, and students could also report concerns anonymously through the online student portal.