The Sheffield Dentistry course

You are taught by a mix of dental professionals, biomedical scientists and social scientists. Teaching combines lectures, seminars, practicals, online learning, clinical skills sessions and clinical placements, with self-directed study in between. Each year is made up of modules, and each module carries credits that show its share of the year's work.

Years 1 to 4 each mix several kinds of module, from science and clinical skills to professional development and clinic time, and some topics are deliberately paired. In Year 1, for example, you study tooth decay (caries) in depth, from the bacteria involved to how it is diagnosed and managed, alongside your first training in restoring teeth in the skills lab.

The balance shifts steadily towards patients. Years 1 to 3 pair skills-lab training with growing clinic time, and by Year 5 the whole year is two clinical practice modules of 60 credits each.

Expect a working year closer to a job than a typical degree. Sheffield says your study hours will be the equivalent of a full-time job, and you must be available on campus Monday to Friday throughout term.

In the 2026/27 calendar for current students, Year 1 follows standard university term dates, a total of 30 weeks. Years 2 and 3 last 44 weeks each, Year 4 lasts 45 weeks and Year 5 lasts 40 weeks. For 2027 entrants, Year 1 will be longer, because two modules run outside routine term dates.

Anatomy, including the head and neck, is taught mainly in Year 1, in Integrated Clinical Sciences 1a and 1b.

The University's anatomy teaching, which serves dentistry, medicine and other courses, uses labs set up for prosection and specimen-based learning. A prosection is a body part already dissected by an expert, so you study the structures rather than cutting them yourself. The collection includes plastinated specimens: real human tissue in which water and fat have been replaced with durable polymers, so it keeps its natural shape and detail.

The University has also invested in 22 Anatomage tables. These are life-size touchscreen tables showing a digital human body that you can peel back layer by layer, rotate and isolate, and use to simulate clinical conditions. The GDC's 2026 report, describing the programme current students follow, also mentions virtual, interactive dissection sessions in Year 1.

Your first clinical training happens in the Clinical Skills Learning Environment, the School's skills lab. In Clinical Knowledge and Skills 1a you learn the rules, routines and hands-on skills for working safely, and take part in simulated clinics, which are practice sessions set up like a real clinic. Passing its gateway assessments lets you start supervised patient care, beginning with preventive care and non-surgical periodontal treatment, meaning cleaning and treating gum disease without surgery.

That patient care happens in Clinical Practice 1, on supervised clinics where you learn to examine patients systematically, reach a diagnosis and plan treatment. Clinical Knowledge and Skills 1b, the largest Year 1 module, trains you in routine operative dentistry, the repair of teeth damaged by decay, and the principles of dental anaesthesia. Its gateway assessments unlock those procedures on patients.

Responsibility builds year by year. A Year 2 gateway opens up root canal treatment on single-rooted teeth, and a Year 3 gateway covers root canals on multi-rooted teeth, injured teeth and indirect restorations such as crowns. You learn extractions in Year 3. In Year 4 you start dento-alveolar surgery, which is minor surgery on teeth and the surrounding bone, and sedation for anxious patients.

When the GDC visited in March 2026, the usual supervision ratio was one supervisor to six students. Under the programme it inspected, Year 2 was the first year of patient treatment, and there the ratio was reduced to one to four. Oral surgery ran at one to two and children's dentistry at one to four. A registered supervisor is assigned to every clinical session to cover emergencies, and trained dental nurses work on the main clinic.

You are assessed in several ways: written exams on screen and on paper, practicals, Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), reflective reports, your research project, oral exams on clinical cases and a portfolio. An OSCE is a circuit of short, timed stations, each testing a practical or communication task against a set marking scheme. The GDC noted in 2026 that patient educators, people who bring their own experience as patients, take part in OSCEs.

Gateway assessments sit in Clinical Knowledge and Skills 1a, 1b, 2b and 3b, and control when you may treat patients. When the GDC visited in March 2026, gateways on the programme then running were assessed through short-answer papers, OSCEs and written reports. Students also had to reach set targets for the clinical skills they practised in the lab.

Your Dentistry Portfolio records every clinical encounter with your reflections, and tutors assess your professional behaviour as part of it. In 2026 the GDC found students logging treatments in paper logbooks signed by a supervisor, then copying them into an electronic portfolio that is checked against them. Sheffield plans a fully online system alongside the new curriculum.

Under the programme the GDC inspected in 2026, graduating requires clinical competencies in Years 3, 4 and 5 and set clinical targets. You must also pass every summative (formally marked) assessment and show satisfactory professionalism. Only certain procedures done on outreach count towards your clinical totals, because experience varies between practices. Final assessments take place in April or May, with resits about six months later or alongside the next year group.

Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, run by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is next to the School and hosts most of your clinical placements. Over the course you gain experience in its oral and maxillofacial surgery (mouth, jaw and face surgery), paediatric (children's) dentistry, orthodontics and restorative dentistry clinics. You follow the Trust's dress code, including any bare-below-the-elbows rules.

According to the GDC's 2026 report, the hospital's patients come from referrals by local dentists or by self-referral when recruitment is open. They are screened, usually in clinics led by consultants, and placed on waiting lists from which patients are allocated to students.

In Year 4 you leave the hospital for outreach, with a different placement in each of the two Clinical Practice and Outreach modules. The School selects and quality assures its placements. Most are in general dental practices and some are in urgent care or community dental clinics, across Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the surrounding area. In 2026 the GDC described outreach as two six-week blocks with a wide mix of patients, including people who need special care dentistry.

The GDC's 2026 report also names two other hospitals used under the programme current students follow. In Year 4, more complex cases are managed at Charles Clifford and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and students also spend time at hospitals elsewhere in the region. The 2026-27 course page mentions a chance to visit a district general hospital, a general NHS hospital serving a local area. In Year 5, complex care is managed at Charles Clifford and Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Your main chance to choose what you study is the research project in Years 2 and 3. Projects differ, but each ends in a structured report on data you have collected and analysed yourself.

Students on the earlier programme have an elective period in Year 4, which the 2021 programme specification says can be spent in any country, studying an approved dental topic. The published module list for 2027 entry does not include an elective, so ask the School whether one will run if this matters to you.

Intercalating means taking an extra year out of the BDS to study one subject in depth and earn a second degree. Sheffield has offered an intercalated BMedSci in Dental Science, built around a supervised research project plus taught components in research ethics and statistics.

Under the 2021 programme specification, the BMedSci is normally taken after passing the end-of-Year-2 exams, and is assessed mainly by a viva, an oral exam on your dissertation. You should normally have passed your exams at the first attempt and must discuss your plans with your tutors and the Dean. The University's term-dates page shows the BMedSci running in 2025-26 as a 48-week year starting in August.

The same specification describes a route for students who decide after Year 2 that clinical dentistry is not for them. They could transfer to a BSc in Dental Science, which takes one further year, and could not then return to the BDS. These details all predate the 2027 redesign, so ask the School whether both options continue under the new structure.

The 2021 programme specification describes the Clinical Skills Learning Environment as a 54-unit room with a demonstration dental chair relayed by live video. The GDC's 2026 report notes that the School is planning to refresh its haptics suite.

In the Dental Technology Unit you study appliances such as dentures, crowns and bridges, using 3D printers and computer-aided design software alongside traditional techniques. Between sessions, The Den is a refurbished social space where dental students can study or relax.

In Welcome Week you are given an Academic Tutor, who provides academic support and guidance. You also meet the Sheffield University Dental Students' Society (SUDSS), a student-run society that organises socials, sport, charity events, wellbeing initiatives, revision sessions, practical workshops and a book sale.

Attendance counts as part of professionalism. The GDC's 2026 report describes a mobile app that checks where you sign in against your timetable during pre-clinical teaching. A Student Experience Team reviews the data and flags patterns to the programme team, and the GDC picked this out as a strength.

At the 2026 inspection, the GDC found that extra help is planned around what each student needs. In the final year, clinical experience is monitored more closely from January, and extra clinic sessions can be offered if you are short of any experience.