Bachelor of Oral Health (841AC)

The Bachelor of Oral Health is a fixed, three-year, full-time program. It has a combined vocational outcome of oral health therapy (dental hygiene and dental therapy) and its curriculum reflects the latest developments in oral health.

The course has four main components:

Dental science: those subjects providing a theoretical background to the procedures used in providing dental care, including the structure and function of normal and abnormal tissues of the body and principles of treatment of disease.

Social science and preventive dentistry: those subjects concerned with preventing dental disease in the community. Community studies and oral health promotion are a major feature of this component, but it also includes ethics, psychology, sociology and research methods.

Clinical dentistry: those subjects related to oral health therapy practice which are common to dental hygienists' and dental therapists' clinical practice. They include infection control, instrumentation, dental materials, examination procedures, record taking, diagnosis and treatment planning, as well as operative procedures such as preventive therapies, fluoride application, orthodontic procedures, impressions and oral radiography.

Vocational clinical practice: in this component the student undertakes clinical management of dental decay in children, adolescents and young adults and the prevention of disease and the conservative management of periodontal conditions for people of all ages. Clinical work is undertaken at the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne in all years of the course and at other metropolitan and rural community health centres in the final year of the course. The manual and communication skills needed for clinical dentistry are developed gradually as students progress through the course.

OTHER COSTS – DENTAL INSTRUMENTS: 1st year students are required to purchase dental instruments/equipment early in the first week of the course. The kit costs approximately $4,000 and will provide the required preclinical instruments for the 1st and 2nd years of the BOH program.