The Peninsula Dental School, the first new dental school in the UK for 40 years, opened its doors to its inaugural cohort of students last month. Around 188 people applied for the 64 places on the four-year course and all 64 are educated to graduate level with many also achieving masters degrees and PhDs. A large percentage also has clinical experience from other healthcare disciplines.

The approval to establish a new dental school was won by the Peninsula Medical School in January 2006, when 64 of the 100 dental student places allocated by the Government were awarded to the South West and beyond. Under the leadership of Professor Liz Kay, Dean of the Peninsula Dental School, a non-traditional, community-based curriculum has been developed. Its objective is to create well-rounded, accomplished and professional dentists who will contribute to the dental health of the South West.

The degree is clinically intensive and makes use of community-based experience starting in Year 1 and building throughout the programme. There will be major emphasis on the sciences that underpin modern dental practice as well as the human and societal impact of dental disease. Students will have clinical experience under supervision in primary care settings at an early stage in their course, as early as six months into their first year. This is preceded by a period of clinical tuition in the school's state of the art 'phantom head room' based at the University of Plymouth. This uses the latest technology to simulate as closely as possible the clinical process with real patients.

Professor Liz Kay, Dean of the Peninsula Dental School, with the first cohort of students
Susie Sanderson, Chair of the BDA Executive Board (left) with Professor Liz Kay, Dean

The first cohort of students will undergo their first clinical experience in a primary care setting in Exeter in March 2008. While in this first stage of clinical experience they will carry out, under supervision, basic dental procedures which will become more involved as they develop throughout the four-year course. It is hoped that by training students in an NHS primary care environment, and instilling in them a sense of community responsibility, more will be encouraged to practise in the NHS when they graduate.

The first cohort of students will begin their training in Plymouth on the University of Plymouth campus while purpose-built facilities are developed in Devonport, Exeter and Truro.

It is believed that the impact made by Peninsula Dental School students will be soon in coming – it is expected that they will carry out basic treatments and tests under supervision for local NHS patients in the second half of their first year. At its peak it is estimated that the Peninsula Dental School across the South West will treat 512 patients a day.

Like the Peninsula Medical School, the Peninsula Dental School will also become a national and international centre for dental research. It has established a strategy for research and is building relationships with other dental schools and centres of dental research in the UK and overseas. Some research has already been undertaken by academic staff, including the Shirley Glasstone Hughes Memorial Prize for Dental Research.

The Peninsula Dental School was established as a partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and the NHS in Devon and Cornwall in January 2006. It was formed, following a successful bid to the Government, as part of a national expansion of dental student numbers in the UK.

They include students like Caroline Muskett, 37, a fully trained nurse from Newton Abbot. She has a degree in biochemistry and has a DipHE in Nursing. She said, 'I have a good science degree and, from my nursing career, experience of the clinical side, so when I heard about the Peninsula Dental School I thought it would be a great opportunity for me.'

Another new student, Jeremy Lenaerts, 28, lives in Exeter and has a degree in microbiology and a PhD in biological sciences. He achieved his PhD at the University of Exeter while at the same time working as a research assistant, and he has recently been working for a company that specialises in the development of medical research instruments.