Dental degree

A number of postgraduate degrees in dentistry are awarded, as well.

• Diploma in dentistry (SMF)
• Master of Science (MS or MSc)
• Master of Science in Dentistry (MSD)
• Master of Medical Science (MMSc)
• Master of Dentistry (MDent)
• Master of Dental Surgery (MDS)
• Master of Dental Science (MDentSci)
• Master of Stomatology (MS)
• Master of Clinical Stomatology (MCS)
• Master of Stomatological Medicine (MSM)
• Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent)
• Doctor of Dental Science (DDSc)
• Doctor of Science in Dentistry (DScD)
• Doctor of Medical Science (DMSc)
• Doctor of Dentistry (DDent)
• Doctor of Philosophy in Dentistry (PhD)
• Fellowship in Sports dentistry /Fellow Sports dentistry (F.S.D. / FSD)
• Fellow College of Physician and Surgeons (FCPS)
• Fellow of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada (FRCD(C))

In some universities, especially in the U.S., some postgraduate programs award certificates only.

• Certificate, GPR/AEGD/Orofacial Pain[1]
• Certificate, Anesthesiology/Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology/Endodontics/Prosthodontics/Periodontics/Orthodontics/Dental Public Health/Pediatric Dentistry/OMS (American Dental Association – recognized specialty programs)
• Certificate, DMTD [2]

In Commonwealth countries, the Royal Colleges of dentistry (or Faculty of Dentistry of the College) awards postnominals upon completion of a series of examinations.

• Fellow of the Medical College in Dental Surgery (FMCDS), the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN)
• Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons (FWACS), the West African College of Surgeons
• Fellow of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons (FDSRCS)
• Membership in Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow [MFDS RCPS (Glasg)]
• Membership in Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College Surgeons (MFDS RCS)
• Fellow of Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (FRACDS)
• Membership in Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (MRACDS)
• Membership in Orthodontics, Royal College of Surgeons (MOrth RCS)
• Fellow of Royal College of Dentists of Canada (FRCD(C))
• Member of Royal College of Dentists of Canada (MRCD(C))
• Fellow of College of Dental Surgeons of Hong Kong (FCDSHK)
• Member of College of Dental Surgeons of Hong Kong (MCDSHK)
• Fellow College of Physician and Surgeons, Bangladesh (FCPS)
• Fellow College of Physician and Surgeons, Pakistan (FCPS)
• License of Dental Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons (L.D.S. (Eng.))[3]

In the U.S., most dental specialists attain Board Certification (Diplomate Status) by completing a series of written and oral examinations with the appropriate Boards. e.g. Diplomate, American Board of Periodontics.

Each fully qualifies the holder to practice dentistry in at least the jurisdiction in which the degree was presented, assuming local and federal government licensure requirements are met.

Australia has nine dental schools:

• University of Sydney NSW
• Charles Sturt University, NSW*
• Griffith University, QLD*
• University of Queensland, QLD
• James Cook University, QLD*
• University of Adelaide, SA
• La Trobe University, VIC*
• University of Melbourne, VIC
• University of Western Australia, WA

(*) indicates new university dental programs that have opened up to aim at increasing the number of rural dental students entering and to return to rural practice. Traditional "sandstone" universities have been Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australia.

Sydney (as of 2001), Melbourne (as of 2010) and Western Australia (as of 2013) have switched to 4-year graduate program that require a previous bachelor's degree for admission.

Postgraduate training is available in all dental specialties. Degrees awarded used to be Master of Dental Surgery/Science (MDS/MDSc), but lately have changed to Doctorate in Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent).

New Zealand has only one dental school:

• University of Otago, Dunedin

The Faculty of Dentistry awards Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and Master of Community Dentistry (MComDent) for public health & community dentistry, and Doctorate in Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent) for the other dental specialties.

The body responsible for registering dental practitioners is the Dental Council of New Zealand (DCNZ).

Both Australia and New Zealand recognize the educational and professional qualifications and grant professional licenses via reciprocity identical to the United States and Canada.

The United Kingdom General Dental Council had been recognizing the Australian and New Zealand dental qualification as registrable degree until 2000. Graduates who have applied for dental license registration in the United Kingdom now have to sit the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE), a three-part examination.

Australia and Canada have a reciprocal accreditation agreement, which allows graduates of Canadian or Australian dental schools to register in either country. However, this only applies to the graduates of 2011 class and does not apply to the previous years' graduates.

Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (RACDS) is a postgraduate body that focuses on postgraduate training of general practitioners and specialist dentists. Additional postgraduate qualifications can be obtained through the college after the candidate has completed the Primary Examination (basic science examination in Anatomy, Histology, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology and Microbiology) and the Final Examination (clinical subjects in dentistry). After the successful completion of the examinations and meeting the College requirements, the candidate is awarded the title of Fellow of Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (FRACDS). For the dental specialists, the exam pathway is similar (Primary Examinations) and then clinical/oral examinations just prior to completing the specialist training leads to the award of the title Member of Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons in Special Field Stream (MRACDS (SFS)). For the busy GP dentists, MRACDS in general stream is also available.

Colleges affiliated to University of Dhaka:

1. Dhaka Dental College, Dhaka
2. Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Dental Unit, Dhaka.
3. Sir Salimullah Medical College Dental Unit, Dhaka.
4. Mymensingh Medical College Dental Unit, Mymensingh.
5. MAG Osmani Medical College Dental Unit, Sylhet.
6. Sher e Bangla Medical College Dental Unit, Barisal.
7. Pioneer Dental College & Hospital
8. Bangladesh Dental College
9. City Dental College
10. University Dental College
11. Sapporo Dental College
12. Holy Family Red Cresect Medical College Dental Unit, Dhaka.
13. Update Dental College & Hospital
14. Marks Dental College
15. Saphena Women's Dental College
16. Mandy Dental College

Colleges affiliated to University of Chittagong:

1. Chittagong Medical College Dental Unit.
2. Chittagong International Dental College

Colleges affiliated to University of Rajshahi:

1. Rajshahi Medical College Dental Unit
2. Rangpur Medical College Dental Unit
3. Rangpur Dental College
4. Udayan Dental College
5. (Islami bank medical college)

Dental Unit

At present, postgraduate degrees in specialized dentistry exist in main four clinical specialities:

• Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics
• Prosthodontics

The FCPS degree, which requires four years of residency training, is awarded by Bangladesh College of Physician and Surgeons. It considered the most prestigious specialized degree in dentistry at present. Also, MS degrees in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Prosthodontics, Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics and Orthodontics are awarded by the University of Dhaka. Very recently, MS degrees in paediatric dentistry also were started in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), the first batch of whom started in 2016.

1. Institute of health technology-Dhaka
2. Institute of health technology-Chittagong
3. Institute of health technology-Rajshahi
4. Institute of health technology- Rangpur
5. Institute of health technology-Sylhet
6. Institute of health technology-Jhinaidha
7. Institute of health technology- Borisal
8. Institute of health technology- bogura

Dental school is four academic years in duration and is similar in format to medical school: two years of basic medical and dental sciences, followed by two years of clinical training (with continued didactic coursework). Before graduating, every dental student must successfully complete the National Board Dental Examination Part I and II (commonly referred to as NBDE I & II). The NBDE Part I is usually taken at the end of the second year after the majority of the didactic courses have been completed. The NBDE Part I covers Gross Anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, pathology, and dental anatomy and occlusion. The NBDE Part II is usually taken during winter of the last year of dental school and consists of operative dentistry, pharmacology, endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery, pain control, prosthodontics, orthodontics, pedodontics, oral pathology, and radiology. NBDE Part I scores are Pass/Fail since 2012.

After graduating, the vast majority of new dentists go directly into practice, while a small, yet increasing, percentage of dentists apply to a residency program. Some residency programs train dentists in advanced general dentistry such as General Practice Residencies and Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residencies, commonly referred to as GPR and AEGD. Most GPR and AEGD programs are one year in duration, but several are two years long or provide an optional second year.[12] GPR programs are usually affiliated with a hospital and thus require the dentist to treat a wide variety of patients including trauma, critically ill, and medically compromised patients. Additionally, GPR programs require residents to rotate through various departments within the hospital, such as anesthesia, internal medicine, and emergency medicine, to name a few. AEGD programs are usually in a dental-school setting where the focus is treating complex cases in a comprehensive manner.

In the United States, the Doctor of Dental Surgery and Doctor of Dental Medicine are terminal professional doctorates, which qualify a professional for licensure. The DDS and DMD degrees are considered equivalent. The American Dental Association specifies:

The DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) and DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine) are the same degrees. They are awarded upon graduation from dental school to become a General Dentist. The majority of dental schools award the DDS degree; however, some award a DMD degree. The education and degrees are, in substance, the same.[13]

Archived 11 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine

Harvard University was the first dental school to award the DMD degree.[14] Harvard only grants degrees in Latin, and the Latin translation of Doctor of Dental Surgery, "Chirurgiae Dentium Doctoris", did not share the "DDS" initials of the English term.[15] "The degree 'Scientiae Dentium Doctoris', which would leave the initials of DDS unchanged, was then considered, but was rejected on the ground that dentistry was not a science."[15] (The word order in Latin is not fixed, only the inflections; "Scientiae Dentium Doctoris" = "Doctoris Dentium Scientiae".) A Latin scholar was consulted. It was finally decided that "Medicinae Doctoris" be modified with "Dentariae".[15] This is how the DMD, or "Doctor Medicinae Dentariae" degree, was started.[15] (The genitive inflection -is on "Doctoris" instead of the nominative "Doctor" simply reflects that the syntax on the diploma was "the degree of Doctor of Dental Medicine"; they are both correct.) The assertion that "dentistry was not a science"[15] reflected the view that dental surgery was an art informed by science, not a science per se—notwithstanding that the scientific component of dentistry is today recognized in the Doctor of Dental Science (DDSc) degree.

Other dental schools made the switch to this notation, and in 1989, 23 of the 66 North American dental schools awarded the DMD. No meaningful difference exists between the DMD and DDS degrees, and all dentists must meet the same national and regional certification standards to practice.[16]

Some other prominent dental schoolsaward that the DMD degree are the University of Florida, Midwestern University-IL, Midwestern University-AZ, Medical University of South Carolina, Augusta University (formerly Medical College of Georgia), University of Connecticut, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Louisville, University of Puerto Rico, Rutgers University, Tufts University, Oregon Health and Sciences University, University of Pennsylvania, Case Western Reserve University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Boston University, Temple University, Western University of Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and East Carolina University.

The United States Department of Education and the National Science Foundation do not include the DDS and DMD among the degrees that are equivalent to research doctorates.[17]

To practice, a dentist must pass a licensing examination administered by an individual state or more commonly a region. A handful of states maintain independent dental licensing examinations, while the majority accept a regional board examination. The Northeast Regional Board (NERB), Western Regional Board (WREB), Central Regional Dental Testing Service (CRDTS), and Southern Regional Testing Agency (SRTA), Council of Interstate Testing Agencies (CITA)[18] are the five regional testing agencies that administer licensing examinations. Once the examination is passed, the dentist may then apply to individual states that accept the regional board test passed. Each state requires prospective practitioners to pass an ethics/jurisprudence examination, as well, before a license is granted. To maintain one's dental license, the doctor must complete Continuing Dental Education (CDE) courses periodically (usually annually). This promotes the continued exploration of knowledge. The amount of CE required varies from state to state, but is generally 10-25 CE hours a year.

The completion of a dental degree can be followed by either an entrance into private practice, further postgraduate study and training, or research and academics.

Twelve dental specialties are recognized in the United States. Becoming a specialist requires one to train in a residency or advanced graduate training program. Once residency is completed, the doctor is granted a certificate of specialty training. Many specialty programs have optional or required advanced degrees such as a master's degree: (MS, MSc, MDS, MSD, MDSc, MMSc, MPhil, or MDent), doctoral degree: (DClinDent, DChDent, DMSc, PhD), or medical degree: (MD/MBBS specific to maxillofacial surgery).

• Anesthesiology: 3–4 years[19]
• Orthodontics: 2–3 years
• Endodontics: 2–3 years[20]
• Oral and maxillofacial surgery: 4–6 years (additional time for MD/MBBS degree granting programs)
• Periodontics: 3 years[21]
• Prosthodontics: 2–3 years[22]
  • Maxillofacial prosthodontics 1 year (a prosthodontist may elect to sub-specialize in maxillofacial prosthodontics)
• Oral and maxillofacial radiology: 3 years
• Oral and maxillofacial pathology: 3–5 years
• Oral medicine: 2–4 years
• Orofacial pain: 1–3 years
• Pediatric dentistry: 2–3 years[23][24]
• Dental public health: 3 years

The following are currently recognized as dental specialties in the US under the American Board of Dental Specialties (ABDS):

• Oral medicine: 2–4 years
• Orofacial pain: 1–3 years
• Oral Implantology/Implant Dentistry: seven or more years of experience in the practice of implant dentistry and have completed at least 75 implant cases. Applicants must successfully complete both the Part I and Part II examination within four year
• Dental Board of Anesthesiology: 3–4 years

The following are not currently recognized as dental specialties in the US.

• Special needs dentistry: 3 years
• Geriatric Dentistry: ranges from a weekend course to a 2-year masters course depending on the certificate issuing agency.
• Cosmetic Dentistry – ranges from a weekend course to a 1-year course depending on the certificate issuing agency.

Dentists who have completed accredited specialty training programs in these fields are designated registrable (U.S. "Board Eligible") and warrant exclusive titles such as anesthesiologist, orthodontist, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, endodontist, pedodontist, periodontist, or prosthodontist upon satisfying certain local (U.S. "Board Certified"), (Australia/NZ: "FRACDS"), or (Canada: "FRCD(C)") registry requirements.