University of Western Australia School of Dentistry

The Oral Health Centre forms part of The University of Western Australia. It incorporates the UniversityÇƒÙs School of Dentistry, and is contracted to provide public dental services to eligible members of the WA public. The CentreÇƒÙs main responsibilities are therefore to train dentists to a standard that meets community expectations, and to provide general and specialist dental services to eligible members of the WA community.
Also co-located as tenants on the Oral Health Centre (OHCWA) site are the Dental Hygienist program of Curtin University of Technology, and the Dental Clinic Assistant and Dental Technician programs of Central TAFE.
The Oral Health Centre is first and foremost a teaching facility, and its contract with the Government to provide dental services to eligible members of the public ensures that students have access to a suitable pool of patients to develop the necessary skills and aptitude. Students learn either by treating patients under close supervision by highly experienced and skilled tutors or by observing general and specialist dentists treating a wide range of dental conditions.
Dental education programs include formal tertiary and technical education courses delivered by The University of Western Australia, the Curtin University of Technology and the Central College of TAFE. Specific information on these courses is available on this site for prospective students.
These are exciting and challenging times for dentistry. We now know that most dental disease can be prevented and we have at our disposal a wide array of techniques to alleviate pain and treat disease. The need for further improvements stimulates further research into better ways of preventing and treating dental disease and has also led us to develop new teaching methods for our modern dental students.
High quality research is a major priority for the School of Dentistry at The University of Western Australia. Our research programme has national and international links and contributes both to our basic understanding of oral diseases and to applied aspects of their prevention and treatment. There are many research opportunities in this expanding field, both for qualified dentists and for those in the many disciplines associated with the oral health sciences and dental services. Opportunities range from vacation scholarships for undergraduate students to doctoral research and postdoctoral research programs.
The development of the Oral Health Centre of Western Australia complex provides a fresh impetus for clinical and basic research in modern facilities. There has been a substantial improvement in the facilities and infrastructure available with the move to this Centre in 2001. This has included state of the art clinical facilities, new laboratories with substantial equipment; clinical teaching facilities; computing facilities and the broader facilities of The University of Western Australia and other collaborative organisations.
Research Degree Courses are offered by the School of Dentistry as postgraduate courses.
PO Box 409
NEDLANDS
Western Australia 6909
(08) 9346 4400