Course summary

In December 2024, the University of Bolton was granted permission by the Office for Students (OfS) to change its name to the University of Greater Manchester with immediate effect. While we work to update our systems, you may see both names used in the information we provide. This MSc aims to meet the dental industry's need for professionals delivering multiple speciality dental care with predictable treatment outcomes. Combining essential knowledge from the fields of 3D imaging, occlusal diagnosis and treatment, aetiology and diagnosis of oral disease and research with clinical training on actual patients, this course is ideal if you are a dentist seeking to take existing knowledge and clinical experience of Dentistry to the postgraduate level. The MSc Primary Dental Care is a comprehensive programme of clinically based general dentistry, taught to an advanced, level 2 care procedural and/or patient complexity, requiring a clinician with enhanced skills and experience at a specialist level of practice, incorporating the latest digital and AI technologies. It covers the depth and breadth of dental practice, from clinical care of infants (Paedodontics) to end-stage care and management of the elderly (Gerodontology). This qualification is ideal for dentists, with at least two years’ (on commencement of the Programme) continuous postgraduate clinical experience in clinical practice as qualified dental practitioners, intending or engaging in the delivery of multiple specialities, such as orthodontics, implantology and aesthetic dentistry. Dentists engaging in the delivery of multiple speciality treatment plans should be aware of their limitations ensuring that the treatments they provide are evidence-based and appropriate. The boundaries between what was traditionally delivered by the general dental practitioner and the specialist are becoming increasingly blurred. With the advent of digital dentistry and the predictability of implantology combined with increasing patient expectations for more advanced elective cosmetic procedures, general dentists are providing mixed specialist types of dental treatment. This programme is intended to give dentists the contemporary core knowledge and clinical skills essential for the safe delivery of competent, high-quality multidisciplinary dental care with predictable treatment outcomes. Upon completing this programme, you will be able to confidently treat and identify suitable cases within your scope of competency. The programme has been carefully planned to ensure that modules provide a scaffolded approach to learning, with earlier modules underpinning later ones and the contents of one module complementing another taught in the academic year. For example, after having spent 90 hours in the 1st semester doing practical work in the Dental Manikins’ Dental Skills Laboratory simulating the clinical environment, you will enter the clinical training environment and begin working with patients. Apart from the well-established, in academia, written assessments (exams, reports, etc.), this Programme includes other more contemporary types of assessment, that are also being used by other organisations, like the Royal College of Surgeons and the General Dental Council (GDC). The broad range of assessment types in the Programme aims at consolidating your learning. Some such assessments’ type examples include Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), professional discussions, etc.