Dentistry

At the end of this five-year programme you will have the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to register with the General Dental Council (GDC). This will allow you to complete your Dental Foundation Training (DFT) year, and ultimately join the professional world of dentistry.

The School of Dentistry is located in the University Dental Hospital on Cardiff University’s Heath Park campus, a 53-acre site shared with the University Hospital of Wales. This is where the majority of clinical teaching takes place on our three undergraduate programmes. With around 100 undergraduate students per year, we are still a relatively small dental school. We believe that this helps facilitate a friendly and supportive sense of community ensuring that our students succeed. In the NSS 2015, 97% of our students agreed that staff were good at explaining things.

Studying at the only Dental Hospital in Wales you will have the opportunity to serve and manage patients of diverse ages and backgrounds with a wide range of dental diseases including some of the more unusual oral cancers.

Clinical skills are developed in the School’s recently refurbished £2.2M clinical skills laboratory, a facility that closely simulates the real clinical experience, allowing you to prepare and practice for patient care. You will have the opportunity to train alongside Dental Therapists, Dental Hygienists and Dentists learning the same skills. This will support your understanding of how your role fits into the dental team environment in preparation for when you qualify and commence practice.

The dedicated Dental Library houses an extensive collection of books and journals to aid your learning. You will also have access to an undergraduate IT suite and to a new £1.5M redevelopment of lecture theatres and student social spaces on the Heath Park campus.

You will be taught by a dedicated team of academic clinical staff and consultants within the dental hospital and in the latter years of the course clinical staff working in the primary care environment. The quality of the teaching you will receive has recently been ranked the best in the UK for dentistry (Guardian’s University Guide 2016). The School's courses were given a maximum 100 out of 100 score.

Our students have one of the best employability records amongst the UK dental schools, in 2015, 99% of our undergraduate students secured a UK Dental Foundation Training (DFT) placement.

Distinctive features

• Cardiff University’s School of Dentistry was ranked in the Top 10 for dentistry in the UK (The Complete University Guide 2022) and Top 60 globally for dentistry in the 2021 QS World University Rankings.

• The BDS course is delivered in the only Dental hospital in Wales.

• Students benefit from early clinical exposure in year one.

• The course offers extensive clinical training in the University Dental Hospital clinics in addition to outreach clinical teaching facilities in purpose built education units, community dental service clinics and district general hospitals.