Overview

This practical skills module will develop students skills in carrying out a range of restorative procedures and will be assessed by a Clinical Gateway Examination and continuous assessment both in the clinical skills simulation laboratory setting and the practice placement setting.

Students will initially develop their clinical skills in the dental clinical simulation laboratory, which contain phantom heads, before putting what they learn at the University into practice within supervised primary care placements to help to provide vital oral healthcare for local communities. Students will work within a dental and wider healthcare team, alongside dentists, dental nurses and other healthcare students.

A clinical portfolio which evidences students’ skills and reflections of workplace activities will also need to be completed.

This clinical skills and clinical practice module aims to develop students ability in a range of clinical skills and interventions including:

•Clinical examination and history taking •Treatment planning •Assess and manage caries, occlusion, and tooth wear, and, where appropriate, restore the dentition using the principles of minimal intervention, maintaining function and aesthetics •Restore teeth using a wide range of treatments and materials appropriate to the patient including permanent and temporary direct restorations, maintaining function and aesthetics •Provide pulp treatment for deciduous teeth •Restore deciduous teeth using preformed crowns •Extract erupted deciduous teeth under local anaesthetic

Assessment Strategy

Students will undertake a Gateway Assessment to ensure they are clinically competent to treat patients under supervision. Additionally, students are continuously assessed on all aspects of their clinical work in both simulation and whilst on placements. Students are required to complete a portfolio of clinical experience and will undertake summative viva voca examinations on unseen patient cases Assessments/examinations are marked on a percentage grade scale with a minimum threshold of 40%. Standard setting methods will be employed for this module.

Learning Outcomes

• Competently undertake the range of procedures through the conservation of teeth using appropriately moisture control techniques and selected restorative materials in both adults and children for both the deciduous and permanent dentitions in the dental laboratory/simulation setting.

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the principles of management of the different types of carious lesions in the permanent dentition in conjunction with a thorough understanding of cavity design, classification, and pulpal protection.

• Develop the clinical skills needed to diagnose dental caries and non-carious tooth surface loss using different diagnostic methods, including intra- and extra-oral radiography and develop and interpret treatment plans taking into account individual patient needs. Recognise the need for follow up care to monitor and review treatment outcomes undertaken , and provide preventive care and clinical intervention as appropriate.

• Obtain and recognise the need for a detailed medical, dental and social history of a patient, and undertake a clinical examination of the hard and soft tissues, identifying anatomical features and detection of hard and soft tissue pathology, and maintain accurate and contemporaneous patient records.

• Select and manipulate dental biomaterials safely, while recognising and appreciating the factors that influence the selection of materials for the restoration of teeth.

• Understand the principles and techniques for assessing pulp vitality, the pulpal response to the deep carious lesion and undertake the management of pulpal exposures in the primary and permanent dentitions within Scope of Practice.

• Understand the principles of hard tissue and dental caries removal and develop the technical skills needed to restore carious teeth utilising the concept of minimally invasive dentistry to preserve tooth tissue.