Introduction

Bristol Dental School has opened a £15 million extension to increase its student capacity by more than 50 per cent. The new development will increase student numbers from 50 to 79, and will also provide 12 new places for dental hygienist/therapist students.

Speaking at the opening on April 23, Professor Jonathan Sandy, head of the dental school, said he hoped the development would help address the 'current pressing shortages in access to dental care in Bristol and the South West.'

'Students tend to set up in practice close to where they train and, providing the wrinkles in the new contract are ironed out, Bristol and the South West can reasonably expect an increase in dental services,' he said.

Chief Dental Officer Barry Cockroft said the development, the largest undertaken at an existing dental school, was a key component of the government's £80 million programme for the expansion of dental education.

Last month also saw the opening of a £5.5 million extension at Sheffield Dental School. The new research wing comprises laboratories, offices for research staff and postgraduate students and seminar rooms. Professor Paul Speight, Dean of the School of Clinical Dentistry, said research had increased significantly at the school in the last five years, and the new wing would also help to accommodate more undergraduate students 'as part of an effort to overcome the national shortage of dentists.'

Newcastle Dental School has also invested £1.2 million in a new sedation unit (see page 484). In Scotland the new £15 million Aberdeen Dental School (see below) is on track to receive its first students in the autumn. Students at the school, which will be restricted to graduate entry, will have tuition fees of £1,775 a year paid by the Scottish government.

Scottish public health minister Shona Robinson said the development of Scotland's third dental school should improve the recruitment of dentists in the Grampian area.