Clinical Periodontology - MSc/PGDip/PGCert

Our MSc/PGDip Clinical Periodontology programme provides the busy General Dental Practitioner with a part-time educational route to acquire the skills and knowledge required of a Dentist with Special Interest (DwiSI). This programme focuses on contemporary practice, teaching evidence-based principles and systems to ensure an optimal outcome for the patient and practitioner.

Applicants will be invited to an Advice day held at Greenbank Building at UCLan, where prospective students will be given an opportunity to talk to the Course Leader and tour the specialist facilities including the UCLan Dental Clinic where students will carry out their 15 clinical placements throughout their course in which we provide the patients.

INDUSTRY LINKS

Completion of this programme of study provides 60 allowable credits towards the FGDP (UK) Career Pathway (Clinical); 30 allowable credits towards the Career Pathway (Other).

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND ASSESSMENT

The programme encompasses a blended learning approach and consists of a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, and clinic training sessions. Each person will be assigned a personal tutor for the entire programme.

We offer MSc students 15 clinic placements in which we provide the patients at the UCLan Dental Clinic during the programme.

Each module of your course will have a series of assessments and examinations - these are designed to develop and test your core knowledge and skills at regular intervals throughout the programme. Assessments focus on your higher levels skills of diagnosis and planning, rather than simply remembering facts. Typical assessments would include analysis of given clinical cases, OSCEs, portfolios and essays.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

-Thorough case assessment and record taking
-Risk factors and their management
-Appropriate treatment planning
-Non-surgical management of periodontal disease
-Flap design and suturing
-Surgical procedures including crown lengthening
-Use of antibiotics as an adjunct to mechanical therapy
-Peri-implantitis

FURTHER INFORMATION

Our MSc/PGDip Clinical Periodontology programme provides the busy General Dental Practitioner with a part-time educational route to acquire the skills and knowledge required of a Dentist with Special Interest (DwiSI). This programme focuses on contemporary practice, teaching evidence-based principles and systems to ensure an optimal outcome for the patient and practitioner.

During the course (two years PGDip; three years MSc) you will be expected to attend up to 15 study/assessment days per year. Many of these sessions will be within the School of Medicine and Dentistry on the main UCLan Preston Campus, though some sessions will be timetabled in the UCLan Dental Clinic, where you will observe, assist and ultimately lead in clinical treatment. To accompany the study days, much of the course content, including lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, videos of lectures and assignments will be delivered to you via the University’s eLearn system allowing you to both prepare work for study days and undertake additional work independently from your home location.

Work in the early part of the course will comprise plenary lectures and practical sessions in our state-of-the-art phantom head facility and work on pig’s head and similar systems. As you move through the course you will progress to working on live patients under close supervision in the UCLan Dental Clinic. Here skills will be developed and assessed through Direct Observations of Procedural Skills (DOPS). The academic underpinning that supports this discipline will be developed though plenary lectures, directed reading and case-based discussions, which you and others in the group will be expected to prepare and lead. Group sizes are generally small (typically 12 per cohort) leading to an informal and supportive learning environment where you can ensure that your own learning needs are being met.

We must of course have assessments and examinations - these are designed to develop and test your core knowledge and skills at regular intervals throughout the programme. Assessments focus on your higher levels skills of diagnosis and planning, rather than simply remembering facts. Typical assessments would include analysis of given clinical cases OSCEs, mini clinical examinations and essays.

Be qualified as a Dental Surgeon and have a licence to practice dentistry; Be registered with the General Dental Council (or equivalent); Be in professional practice or have a hospital appointment for a minimum of two years; Be registered with a Defence Union - possessing indemnity insurance with cover at an appropriate level.