Video: First look at Aberdeen dental school
Students and staff back new centre
Published:
ABERDEEN’S new state-of-the-art dental school houses realistic surgeries with dummy patients in dental chairs – complete with open mouths and sets of teeth.
Real clinics also run at the facility so trainee dentists get first-hand surgery experience.
Today the school’s director, Professor Jim Newton, said the centre will create high-quality care.
He said: “It will be a centre of excellence and will bring professionals from all over the country. It is great that the complex has everything we need right here.”
The centre will take on 20 students each year, who will tackle a degree in dentistry over four years.
Student Lisa Gauson said she was pleased to know she was being educated in the best dental school going.
The 24-year-old said: “Having only 20 students in each year is great, you get a lot of attention from all the lecturers.”
The practical suites students use to practice dental work have simulated heads to work on with realistic teeth, gums and cheeks.
Prof Newton said the models would give students the most authentic experience so they were not intimidated when the time came to work on real patients. The centre also has a clinic which has several surgery rooms.
Students in their third and fourth years will practice real procedures in the clinic – but only after being thoroughly tested. There are also children’s bays, which are decorated brightly to make the experience less scary for youngsters.
The school at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was due to be officially opened by Alex Salmond today.
