What Qualifications Do I Need To Become A Dental Therapist?

A dental therapist is also known as Oral Health Practitioners. They are also professionals concerned with dental care and work as a member of a dental team. They are a rare breed of professionals in dental teams and they are still very few in number. His job also includes promoting dental health like a dental hygienist. They perform a lot of functions like oral assessment, scaling and polishing, taking dental radiographs, undertaking regular check-up on both adults and children, extracting deciduous teeth with the help of analgesia and so on.

One needs to acquire a Diploma in Dental Therapy to become a dental therapist. The duration of this diploma course is approximately for 27 months though it may change with different hospitals. Some institutions also offer part time courses to become a dental therapist. Students studying to be dental therapists have subjects like preventive dentistry, dental health education, dental pathology, restorative techniques for teeth and extraction of deciduous teeth, radiography and pharmacology.

There are two different ways in which one can become a dental therapist. The first is to obtain a BSc in Oral Health Science which should have been a three year full time course. The other is to get a Diploma in Dental Hygiene and Therapy which is necessarily a two year course that is also full time. Around twenty different institutions provide the necessary training in the UK for the mentioned qualification. There are certain educational qualifications that have to be met before applying for the1se courses.

Normally a person should have obtained five 'O' level or GCSE passes in Grades A-C. The subjects appeared for should have been English, biological science and two 'A' levels in science subjects. A dental nurse qualification or having worked in the field is considered an advantage.