Dentale, specialising in training dentists to complete implant procedures, has formalised an agreement with the Institute of Postgraduate Dental Education at UCLan (University of Central Lancashire) to offer practical training for postgraduate students studying for an MSc in Aesthetic Dental Implantology.
Students will attend Dentale’s clinic to gain vocational experience of placing and restoring implants on patients under the close supervision of experienced implantologists.
Students taking the course will gain invaluable hands-on experience and will see patients through the complete treatment cycle.
They will be supervised through patient consultation, treatment planning process, implant placement and provision of the final restorative work. The practical experience gained from working with experienced implantologists will supplement and consolidate the theoretical knowledge gained during the academic modules of their course at UCLan.
Dentale will accommodate all students registered on the MSc course and anticipates training up to 15 diploma level students in the first cohort.
The training days are included within the UCLan course fees (7 in total); however students who would like to benefit from additional training are able to access further practical days at a reduced fee.
Dentale already offers a range of dedicated training courses in Implantology for qualified dentists looking to expand their skills and build new revenue streams for their practices.
Dr Ken Nicholson, academic lead for dental implantology at UCLan, says: ‘We are delighted to have entered into this arrangement with such an experienced educational organisation as Dentale. This collaboration enables UCLan to offer students greater vocational experience by providing a reliable and significant number of patients, so often a stumbling block to completion of post graduate implant programmes. We hope this will prove an attraction to prospective students who will also receive unprecedented expert tuition in all theoretical aspects of implantology.’
Students will receive their MSc qualification from UCLan upon completion of a three year part-time course.
As with all higher university degrees, this programme has secured appropriate accreditation and the quality is assessed and moderated by external examiners.
Jason Buglass, managing director of Dentale, adds: ‘Increasingly higher educational establishments are looking at innovative solutions to provide students with relevant vocational experience. Dentale will complement the expert teaching provided by lecturers at UCLan, with highly experienced tuition in purpose-built facilities. We envisage that other higher educational establishments looking to expand the scope of practical training will seek to partner with operators like us that have the facilities and clinicians to supplement their offering.’
Indicative syllabus for students training at Dentale:
• Consultation/implant assessment – checking to ensure a patient is suitable to have implants
• Treatment planning – understanding why/where implants are to be placed and appropriate options for individual patients
• Implant placement – including flap design, bone augmentation techniques, suturing
• Restorative phases – impression taking, restoration fitting (from single crowns, bridge work to over dentures)
Students will be taught to use the Implantium implant solution, although the skills taught are transferable for other systems.
