Master of Dental Public Health (MDPH)

Dental public health is the speciality of dentistry that deals with the prevention of oral disease, promotion of oral health, and improvement of quality of life through the organised and collective efforts of society. Dental Public Health practitioners also have roles in health protection related to dentistry and provide strategic input to the management of healthcare services.

Good oral health can have a positive impact on an individual's ability to speak, smile, and socialise. Our Masters in Dental Public Health programme focuses on improving dental public health practices, systems, and cross-sector collaboration with the aim of reducing oral health inequality.

You'll learn how to design and carry out dental public health research, understand how raw data and statistics can be used to draw meaningful conclusions, and design oral health strategies to impact people’s health. The course will help you make decisions on how to approach diverse and complex issues and audiences in health and community settings. You will also work in groups to solve dental public health problems and develop essential team working skills.

The dissertation component enables you to work on a piece of research that is meaningful to you, with supervision from our active research staff.

The programme is delivered by a range of experienced staff including Consultants and Specialists in Dental Public Health, senior academics, and active dental public health researchers. Visiting external speakers will provide workshops and guest lectures on a wide range of dental public health-related topics.

You will work closely with Master of Public Health students from the School of Medicine, taking a holistic approach to healthcare that will benefit you throughout your career. During this time, you will be taught at Ninewells Hospital and Dundee Dental School.

We have our own Masters Hub in the School of Dentistry, where you can collaborate and study with your peers as well as independently.

There is also an option to study extra modules in Medical Education. With successful completion of these modules, you can exit the course with a Masters in Dental Public Health with Medical Education.

Teaching

A variety of teaching methods will be used including:

• Lectures
• Tutorials
• Discussion groups
• Self-directed learning
• Supervised research

Assessment

You'll be assessed by a range of methods, including:

• Written assignments
• Exams
• Online discussion
• Dissertation

Core Modules

These modules are an essential part of your course.

• Academic writing and communicating science in dentistry (DS50024)
• Dental Public Health (DS51008)
• Health Promotion (DS52009)
• Oral Epidemiology (DS52010)
• Dental Public Health MDPH Dissertation (DS53002)
• Clinical Statistics (GM51010)
• Epidemiology (GM51011)
• Public Health (GM51012)

Dental public health is a global issue, so gaining an MDPH from an internationally-recognised UK university is a great way to be prepared for wherever in the world your career will take you.

This course will help you develop the knowledge and skills needed for research and management careers in a wide variety of dental and health-related disciplines.

Our alumni have undertaken roles with the United National Populations Fund, in health service planning, government offices, national and international health agencies, and in academia.

This course also provides a solid foundation for those considering speciality training in the UK or further postgraduate study, including a PhD.