BSc Oral Health Science

We offer this course at either our Southend or Colchester campus. Applications will open in the Spring 2025 and will closed early November 2025 and should be made directly on our website.

Are you a registered Dental Hygienist who wants to register with the General Dental Council as a Dental Therapist? Do you want to develop your role within your dental team while maintaining the flexibility to continue to work in your current role as a Dental Hygienist?

There's never been a better time to train as you can now apply for a £5000 grant that you won't need to pay back! There is also an extra £3000 funding available depending on your personal circumstances. You can find more information about eligibility and how to apply on the HSC Scholarships and Funding page.

Our BSc (Hons) Oral Health Science is a full-time, one-year course designed to meet an identifiable need for Dental Therapists within your dental team. There is currently much interest in the future role of the Dental Therapist in the delivery of oral healthcare in the UK, and our course enables you to register with the General Dental Council (GDC). This course leads on well from the University of Essex FdSc Oral Health Science programme, or from a dental hygienist qualification obtained elsewhere.

Here at Essex, we have one of the largest portfolios of oral health science courses in the East of England, putting us in a strong position to provide you with excellent training and education. We offer courses that both commissioners and employers believe in, and our training integrates NHS values and principles, meaning that your abiding focus is on helping people.

People are at the heart of all we do, and students are involved in the appropriate treatment of patients from early on within the programme. This allows you to develop and enhance crucial skills that prepare you to care for patients and clients in the workplace.

The School of Health and Social Care is proud to work closely with our Service User Reference Group (SURG). SURG is made up of service users, carers, and volunteers who generously share their first-hand experiences of health and social care. We work collaboratively with SURG to design our courses to ensure that we truly are putting the needs of patients and clients at the heart of what we do. SURG are involved as part of our course application processes and often form part of our interview panels. This helps us to be confident that we are selecting the right applicants for the course and their future careers. SURG members also support the delivery of our teaching sessions and research activity, which means you'll benefit from an insight into their lived experiences of living with a diagnosis, health condition, or circumstance. You'll find that not only does your clinical knowledge expand, but your empathy, compassion and ability to advocate develops also.

The cost of required uniform will be fully covered by the school.

Dental Therapists fit for the future

Your development from Dental Hygienist to Dental Therapist will occur through flexible study, including attendance both at our Southend Campus or Colchester Campus (depending on your chosen Campus) and within a primary care-based placement. This will ordinarily be the existing workplace environment where you currently work as a Dental Hygienist (minimum 14 clinical hours per week).

You increase your clinical skills in a dedicated, state-of-the-art dental skills laboratory at the University, experiencing the academic rigour of a Bachelor's Degree through structured learning that builds upon your existing knowledge.

Your academic study is integrated with other healthcare professionals to promote excellence and understanding of your role in general health. You benefit from small group teaching and personalised feedback and further develop the skills and competencies required of a Dental Therapist in the primary care environment.

Benefits to Dental Practices

Even for industry leaders, keeping pace can be a challenge. So when considering the latest investments, it can be easy to overlook your most valuable resource – your staff. Because above all, your patients need to know they're in good hands.

Our course provides you with the opportunity to be closely involved in the professional development of a valued member of your team. Enrolling a student on our course will increase the clinical skill set available within your practice, putting you in an advantageous position in terms of skill mix in anticipation of changes in how dentistry is delivered in the future.

As the programme is taught through flexible study including university and work based teaching, the student will continue to work in practice whilst studying.

Location

Whilst this course is offered at both our Southend and Colchester campuses, we recommend that you consider which location would suit you best and apply for that campus. If you apply to multiple campuses, you will only have one interview. If you pass the interview and we are able to offer you a place, you will be offered your first campus choice if available. If that campus is full, you will be offered the other campus. This is the same for applicants who only apply to one campus.

Once your place is confirmed, requests to change campuses are not possible due to the restrictions on numbers.

Placement Opportunities

The primary care based placement where you develop your skills, will ordinarily be an existing workplace environment where you currently work as a Dental Hygienist (minimum 14 clinical hours per week).

You will need to identify two clinical supervisors (clinical educators) who will support your learning within the placement.

DBS and Occupational Health Checks

This course requires a satisfactory Occupational Health Check and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) - both of these are organised by the University. Please contact our DBS team or Occupational Health team if you have any questions in relation to these checks.

A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS Check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more. Further information about how to obtain an Overseas Criminal Record check can be found on the Gov.uk website.

We continue to recommend Covid and flu vaccination to all of our students. This is to protect both yourself and the vulnerable people that you may meet throughout your placement.

Professional accreditation

The General Dental Council quality assures and approves qualifications for registration, for the following registrant groups: Dentists; dental hygienists; dental therapists; dental nurses; clinical dental technicians; dental technicians; and orthodontic therapists.

Our expert staff

A unique feature of our School is that you will be taught by a team of specialist clinicians with over 250 years of experience in dentistry. This enhances our grasp of the contemporary links between academic research, the major issues of the day and real-life practice.

The programme lead is Dr Mick O'Regan. Mick has thirty years experience working as a dentist in general practice. He has thirteen years experience as an educator and has been awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. The course is taught by Mick alongside the rest of the oral health team who are registered dentists or dental therapists.

The emphasis throughout the course is on the teaching of evidence-based dentistry, and all staff are regular attenders at CPD events to ensure that this is provided. Clinical experience throughout the course is gained in a general dental practice under the supervision of suitably trained clinical educators. This provides “real-life” training in an everyday dental surgery setting. The programme has two dedicated link lecturers, Dr Stephen Pitt and Dr Kieron Craine. Both are dentists who, as well as their work in the oral health team, have many years of experience in dental practice. They visit each of the placements several times during the year to liaise with clinical educators and monitor student progress.

Full details of our staff can be found on the HSC Staff Profiles.

As a School, we specialise in applied, multidisciplinary research that addresses issues of national and international concern to health and social care policy and practice and related fields. We also host the NIHR Research Design Service for the East of England.

Specialist facilities

The School of Health and Social Care is located at two sites; in the Kimmy Eldridge building at our Colchester Campus and in the Gateway Building at our Southend Campus.

In Southend, the Oral Health Science facilities are located in the Gateway Building. In Colchester, the Oral Health Science facilities are located at our Bromley Road Academic Dental Clinic. We offer clinical laboratories with the very latest equipment and IT facilities - in particular, a state-of-the-art dental skills lab with the latest simulation ‘phantom heads' to practise on. View our image gallery and find out more about our Oral Health Science facilities.

Your future

As a Dental Therapist, you will be a working as a Dental Care Professional in all sectors of dentistry. A Dental Therapist provides a range of restorative dental treatments to adults and children and the delivery of oral health care and advice. You will need a flexible team approach, high levels of manual dexterity, professionalism and a caring attitude. Good communication, problem-solving and decision-making skills will also be vitally important for you in this role.

86% of our graduates are in employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2024).

On successful completion of this course you will be eligible to register with the General Dental Council (GDC), which is the statutory body for regulating dental professionals within the UK. The GDC monitors education, and our BSc's curriculum has been designed to comply with the GDC documents Preparing for practice and Standards for Education.

For further details on the role of a Dental Therapist, please review the Preparing for practice PDF from the GDC website – which is under the header “Dental team learning outcomes for registration”.

UK entry requirements

You should have:

• current registration with the GDC as Dental Hygienist
• evidence of your existing dental hygiene qualification
• evidence of core training in or extended skills training in infiltration and ID block analgesia, dental radiography and dental impressions (if these competencies were not part of the applicant’s dental hygiene qualification)
• current IR(ME)R CPD certification regarding dental radiography (as part of CPD cycle if appropriate)
• for those students for whom English is not your first language, you would also need to successfully complete the IELTS testing with a score of 6.5 or above

Please note:

You must also have:

• You must also have a satisfactory Occupational Health Check and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) - both of these are organised by the University. A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS Check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more.

Interviews

As part of the selection process, you will be expected to demonstrate knowledge and a good understanding of the scope of work that a Dental Therapist is required to undertake.

As part of the interview process, your proposed clinical educator from your work based placement will also be required to attend on the interview day. Your proposed clinical educator should be a different person from either of your referees.

Unfortunately if you need a Student Visa to study in the UK this course is not suitable for you. This is due to the high percentage of work placement which exceeds the amount permitted in the Student Visa regulations.

Course structure

By the end of our BSc (Hons) Oral Health Science you will be able to:

• Treat dental caries and place restorations in permanent and primary teeth
• Extract primary teeth under local anaesthesia
• Fit preformed metal crowns on primary molars
• Perform pulp therapies on primary teeth
• Use fluoride therapies to reduce dental caries
• Take and interpret dental radiographs
• Provide holistic care, prevention and oral health advice
• Appreciate the role of the Dental Therapist within oral health care and the wider health care community

Our programme is full-time over 45 weeks. Term dates do not coincide with our normal University term dates due to this requirement. Any time missed by non-attendance, through sickness or other personal reason, will need to be made up in order to successfully complete the programme.

To ensure that you have a good basis from which to develop, the first four weeks of the course are full-time at our Southend campus. After this initial period there are a number of mandatory study days which will be held on Thursdays and Fridays when you will be expected to attend University.

The dates for holiday breaks are timetabled throughout the programme and these cannot be changed for individual students. The planned holiday periods include time at Easter, summer, Christmas and New Year.

• BSc Oral Health Science course dates

These carefully selected modules will give you the chance to explore, question, and create powerful ideas. Picked to give you an extensive and in-depth education, they'll equip you with the specialist knowledge, vital transferable skills, and the confidence to make a genuine difference to the world around you.

We're reactive, we're pioneering, we never stand still, so modules might change from year to year in response to new developments and innovation. Those listed below show how a typical course might look, but more detail on course structure, including details of all optional modules, is available on our Programme Specification.

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision for you. We'll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities as described on our website and in line with your contract with us. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, we'll let our applicants and students know as soon as possible.

Teaching

BSc Oral Health Science students are on-campus for the whole month of February – 5 days per week. Following this you will be on campus 2 days per week. You will be on placement for 14 hours per week. There are 45 weeks of learning over the year.

• Teaching methods including problem-based learning, tutorials, e-learning and seminar-based teaching
• Teaching takes place with other health students to promote multidisciplinary learning and working
• Communication and clinical skills are taught in our state-of-the-art laboratory
• You undertake placements in six different clinical settings

Assessment

• Academically and clinically intense, your progress on this course will be continuously assessed throughout the programme