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At Sheffield we place great emphasis on helping you become a caring, competent, confident professional. We recognise the importance of a caring approach to patients, the contribution good oral health makes to general health and quality of life, and the importance of preventive dental care.

The School of Clinical Dentistry is linked to the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, where the majority of clinical teaching takes place. We also have links with the University’s Medical School and the local community.

Placements and practice
As you become more experienced, you’ll spend periods of time away from the Dental School. This includes treating patients in the Dental Practice Unit, specially created to simulate a modern dental practice, a period in residence at a District General Hospital and an elective placement that could take you anywhere in the world.
During your fourth and fifth years, you’ll go on a number of dental outreach placements in primary care settings for a total of around 20 weeks. These placements give you the opportunity to treat an extended range of patients in community clinics, dental access centres and general dental practices in the region.
As you’ll undertake clinical training and placements in NHS hospitals, you will have to adhere to the local NHS codes of governance policies including guidelines on dress, behaviour and professionalism.
Teaching methods
We use a variety of methods to enrich your learning experience. These include lectures, small-group seminars and tutorials, individual teaching on clinics and e-learning. You’ll be encouraged to research topics yourself and present work to your peers. Other methods include problem solving exercises and practical classes.

What do our graduates do?

Our graduates follow a variety of paths, including general dental practice, community dental service and the armed forces. When they qualify, many of our students choose to practice in the South Yorkshire and East Midlands region, contributing to improving the dentist-to-population ratio in this part of the country. If you want to work in an NHS practice you must complete a minimum of one year of vocational training, known as Dental Foundation (DF) training. You can extend this training to two years. You may choose an academic, teaching or hospital-based career, which could mean a period of higher specialist training or study for a higher academic degree such as a masters or a PhD. Many of our graduates become hospital or academic consultants with responsibility for teaching, research and patient care. Some hold important national positions.