The Newcastle Dentistry course

Teaching mixes lectures, seminars, practical laboratory classes and clinical demonstrations. Some laboratory demonstrations are shown on closed-circuit TV, and some topics use computer-assisted learning packages you work through at your own pace. Directed self-study is a major part of the course: time is set aside for it in the working day, but you will also need to study in the evenings and at weekends.

In Stages 1 and 2 the science is taught with dentistry always in view. Clinical staff teach alongside scientists and use clinical examples, so you can see where each topic will be needed later. Stage 2 then turns to oral biology, oral health and what goes wrong in disease.

From Stage 3 the course is built around clinical attachments. You are placed continuously in most of the Dental Hospital's clinical departments, with blocks of time in oral surgery and dental sedation. Clinical skills courses in the simulation unit prepare you for the main types of treatment first. Each clinical subject is taught separately at first, but as your cases grow more complex you combine them into one plan of care.

Starting in Stage 3, lectures and further practical courses cover subjects such as radiology (X-ray imaging), preventive dentistry, periodontology (the treatment of gum disease), crown and bridgework, and advanced root canal treatment. They also cover oral medicine, which means diagnosing and treating diseases of the mouth without surgery. A course on Professionalism and Personal and Professional Development runs through all five Stages. Clinical work also stops for compulsory Clinical Governance Afternoons on the safety and quality of patient care, which students attend within normal hours.

Anatomy of the Head and Neck is one of the Stage 1 courses. The first two Stages cover normal structure and function across the whole body, with the most detail on the structures that matter in dental practice. The GDC notes that Year 1 also introduces oral and dental anatomy, and a further course, Applied Anatomy, follows in Stage 3.

Anatomy is taught through lectures and linked practical sessions with anatomical specimens and tissue sections. Dentistry is one of the courses that use the university's Anatomy Laboratory. The lab is licensed under the Human Tissue Act 2004 and regulated by the Human Tissue Authority, the regulator that oversees how donated human bodies and tissue are stored and used. It also teaches with anatomical models and 3D software such as Complete Anatomy and Virtual Human Dissector.

You meet patients early, but only as an observer at first. Later in Stage 1 you shadow senior students in the Dental Hospital clinics, watching simple procedures such as fillings and root treatments. In the early Stages you also practise simple examinations on fellow students.

Stage 2 adds a Plaque Growth Project, which gives you further clinical experience. Its third term is mainly the Key Clinical Skills course in the simulation unit. Working on phantom heads, you learn periodontal management (treating gum disease) and the first stages of root canal treatment. You also study dental materials and how disease is managed, and practise communication and reflecting on your own work.

The Key Clinical Skills course is assessed through written reflections and single best answer papers (multiple-choice questions where you pick the best option). It also uses In-course Simulated Clinical Assessments (INSCAs), which are practical tests in the simulation unit. Students with consistently good INSCA results can be excused the end-of-course clinical exam. Everyone else must pass it to enter the patient clinics, and failing it twice means repeating the whole Key Clinical Skills course.

There are also safety checks before patient work. You have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) criminal record check when you start and again before clinical teaching begins in Stage 3. You are screened for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV early in the course, and the school pays for your hepatitis B vaccination.

Stage 3 opens with an intensive Clinical Introduction Course, then you start managing your own patients, giving simple treatment under close supervision. Patients refer themselves or are referred by their dentist onto waiting lists, and clinicians match them to the skills students need. Volunteer patients are treated free of charge.

Supervision tightens as procedures get harder: for more complex treatment the ratio goes up to one supervisor for every two students, or one to one. The Stage 4 oral surgery block focuses on surgical extractions. Across Stages 4 and 5 you are also introduced to orthodontics (correcting the position of teeth, for example with braces), dental implants and intravenous sedation (calming medicine given into a vein).

Each of Stages 1 to 4 ends with exams you must pass to move on, with continuous assessment during each term. There is no compensation: a strong result in one area cannot make up for a fail in another. Each Stage is recorded as a pass or fail, but merits and distinctions are awarded for excellent first-attempt results.

Written and online exams mainly use single best answer and structured short answer questions, which test knowledge, problem solving and clinical reasoning. Objective Structured Practical Examinations (OSPEs) test knowledge together with observation skills, and OSCEs test clinical skills at a series of short timed stations. Academic results are graded Merit, Satisfactory, Borderline or Unsatisfactory, and only the first two are passes.

Clinical skills are also checked through in-course clinical competency assessments (INCCAs), which you must complete to progress. These and the MOSLER are generally graded from 1 to 4 against the safe beginner standard. A 3 means you are at that level and would need only minimal supervision next time; a 4 means you are above it.

Other assessments include written assignments, group work, project and case reports, portfolios, case-based discussions and presentations. Professionalism is assessed throughout, drawing on your attendance, tutor feedback and approach to clinical work, including whether you follow the GDC's standards. Student Progress Appraisals review your behaviour alongside your marks.

If you fail, you normally have two resit chances. The first is within the same year; failing that usually means repeating the year. Resit grades are capped at Satisfactory. In Stages 3 to 5 there are no in-year resits for clinical assessments, so failing one at first attempt means repeating the year. No more than two extra repeat years are allowed across the whole course.

Stage merits and distinctions earn points: 3 for a distinction and 1 for a merit. With 6 points and a merit in both the academic and clinical sections of Final BDS, you graduate with a BDS with Honours. Ten points with a merit in either section also qualifies.

Newcastle Dental Hospital, where you do most of your patient work, is run by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the Royal Victoria Infirmary site. The course is attendance-based and mainly face to face at the city campus and linked clinical locations. Sessions planned as face-to-face teaching cannot be swapped for online study.

Inside the hospital you rotate through oral surgery, restorative dentistry, child dental health, oral medicine, radiology and the dental emergency clinic. Specialist clinics also cover oral and maxillofacial surgery and orthodontics. In February 2025 the university said its students treat around 30,000 patients a year across the Dental Hospital and clinics in the city.

The school names clinics around the city in Arthur's Hill, Byker, Kenton and Walker. In Stage 3, outreach means oral health education with community groups. In Stage 5 it is a clinical attachment treating patients away from the main hospital clinics.

The GDC's November 2025 inspection found the school had lost some outreach placements because of funding difficulties, so most clinical experience now comes from the hospital, with short placements adding to it. Inspectors judged that students still get enough experience to graduate as safe beginners, and students said they were content. The GDC asked the school to consider bringing back more primary care outreach. The school is reviewing its options, and progress will be checked in 2027/28.

With no optional modules, the elective is your main chance to follow your own interests. At the end of Stage 4 you have up to eight weeks to travel, attend clinics in the UK or overseas, or do research, and the school says most students take some elective study.

Recent students have watched research at European universities and given simple dental care in Latin America, the tropical Pacific and the Amazon basin. Others observed cosmetic dentistry in New York or took on projects closer to home.

A limited number of students can take a special care elective in the region. Special care dentistry looks after people whose disability, illness or circumstances make routine dental treatment harder.

Intercalation means taking an optional year out of the BDS to study for a separate, related degree, often with your own research project, before returning to dentistry. Newcastle dental students can do this at two points.

You can study at Newcastle or, if the Senior Tutor for Intercalation agrees the programme is suitable, at another university after Stage 2 or Stage 4. Newcastle cannot help fund study elsewhere.

• After Stage 2: the final year of a Newcastle bioscience degree, leading to a BSc Honours in Biochemistry, Biomedical Genetics, Biomedical Sciences, Pharmacology or Physiological Sciences.
• After Stage 4: a Master of Research (MRes) in a Biomedicine subject, a Master of Public Health (MPH), a master's in Medical Education or a Master of Arts (MA) in History of Medicine.
• Also after Stage 4: a Master of Science (MSc) in Health Services Research, Bioinformatics, Computational Neuroscience and Neuroinformatics, or Synthetic Biology.

The school has library and computing facilities and lecture theatres on site, and you can also use the facilities of the main university campus. It belongs to the Faculty of Medical Sciences, which also covers medicine, biomedical sciences, psychology and pharmacy.

The simulation facilities were funded by the university and the Office for Students. Besides the phantom heads and digital equipment, they hold space for training in dental prosthetics (making dentures, crowns and bridges) and an X-ray department. A separate postgraduate suite, for dentists in further training after qualifying, has operating microscopes for learning advanced techniques.

Treatment in a demonstration surgery can be streamed live into a seminar room, so a whole group can watch a procedure close up.

Other teaching spaces include a conservation clinic (for fillings and root treatments), a children's clinic and a dental learning resource unit. The school also has research laboratories in oral biology and dental materials science, and a clinical research facility.

An academic adviser from the staff supports you through the whole degree with academic and personal issues and career choices. In your first year, fellow students act as peer mentors to help you settle in.

Your iDentity e-portfolio records your clinical work, assessment results, reflections and personal development plan across all five years. Your personal tutor uses it in regular meetings and to draw up action plans if needed. When you graduate you can download it as evidence for employers, and you keep access to it in your first period after qualifying.

In the Key Clinical Skills course, students flagged by ongoing assessment get targeted support before the end-of-course exam and before any resit. Stage Tutors also meet students where needed, for example before final examinations.