BACHELOR OF DENTAL SURGERY

BACKGROUND

Dentistry is the evaluation, diagnosis, prevention and/or treatment (nonsurgical, surgical or related procedures) of diseases, disorders and/or conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and/or the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. The diseases or conditions may be of hard and soft tissues and include tooth decay, infections, malformations, malocclusion, tumours and traumatic injuries. These conditions cause pain, discomfort, and morphological defects and impede normal function in the head and neck region. They may be debilitating and affect the social well-being of individuals thus impacting negatively on the quality of life.  

The Department of Dental Sciences, housed at the Dental School of the University of Nairobi, was established in 1974 to train dental practitioners and meet national development needs by providing oral healthcare services to the population. The Department has achieved this through the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme as well as four flagship Master of Dental Surgery programmes in Paediatric Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Prosthodontics and Periodontology.

The BDS programme is relevant in ensuring the provision of oral health care as a basic human right as stipulated in the Kenyan Constitution (2010) and healthcare as a component of the social pillar of Vision 2030. Further, the programme aligns with the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) as well as in the realisation of Universal Health Coverage, one of Kenya’s Big Four Agendas. Notably, this programme supports UNESCO’s Education 2030 framework work for Action (FFA) as well as its theme on Health, HIV and AIDS.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. To equip the student with knowledge, skills and competencies in patient management.
2. To equip the student with knowledge, skills and critical thinking to enable them to conduct ethical research.
3. To instil in the student integrity and professionalism in the management of patients and interaction with professional peers.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE DEGREE PROGRAMME

The Bachelor of Dental Surgery is a clinical training programme aimed at producing graduates competent in the practice of dentistry. It is driven by the need to produce dentists who can provide leadership and stewardship in the provision of evidence-based oral health care in Kenya and the world.

THE RATIONALE OF THE DEGREE PROGRAMME

Justification of the need for the programme

This programme was last reviewed in 2012. The major revisions focus on aligning with guidelines provided by the Commission for University Education (CUE) and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMP&DC).

The present review considers advances in dental knowledge and the demand for leadership skills. Further, there is more emphasis on the clinical and/or practical examination in the evaluation process. The review is an opportunity to rationalize the content and incorporate new material to prepare graduates for the ever-changing landscape in healthcare provision.

The revised curriculum remains a 5-year programme in which basic sciences will be completed by the end of the 3rd year of training. Graduates will be expected to demonstrate competency in meeting the oral health needs of the population, be self-motivated and ethical in their approach to patient management, and actively engage in national and global oral health agendas.

There is a need to train competent dentists to bridge the existing gap and address the unmet demand for oral healthcare providers in answer to the call of healthcare aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Kenya Vision 2030 and the Kenya Oral Health Policy 2022-2030.

Situation analysis

Several head and neck conditions necessitate treatment by oral health professionals. They include diseases of the dental hard tissues such as extensively damaged teeth due to unmanaged dental caries, dental fluorosis and other conditions associated with tooth discolouration, developmental dental defects such as amelogenesis and dentinogenesis imperfecta, impacted teeth, edentulism or tooth loss; diseases of the soft tissues such as periodontal diseases; soft tissue trauma and fractures; malocclusion; bone diseases; benign and malignant tumours; and, congenital defects such as cleft lip and palate.

In Kenya, the National Oral Health Survey of 2015 identified the burden of oral diseases and conditions as varying from low to high. The overall prevalence of dental caries in primary and permanent teeth among children (5-, 12-, and 15-year-olds) was 23.9%. The prevalence of dental caries among the 5-year-olds in this population was 46.3% while that in the adult population (18 years and above) was 34.3%. The prevalence of dental fluorosis was 23.7% among adults and 41.4% among children. The prevalence of tooth wear among the adult population was 14.6%; of these, 9.3% had enamel erosion while 5.3% had dentine erosion. Enamel fractures were detected in 1.6% of the participants, combined dentine and enamel fractures in 3.4%, while trauma involving the pulp was present in 3.6% of the participants. The mouth and the oropharynx are among the ten most common sites affected by cancer globally while orofacial trauma is among the most common injuries from accidents and violence. These often require specialized interventions and rehabilitations initiative by a dental surgeon.

These conditions may cause difficulty in speech and pronunciation, lower an individual’s self-confidence by altering their self-image to the extent of embarrassment, impede socialization and the formation of close bonds, and worse, limit the choice of foods that can be comfortably consumed, resulting in a compromised nutritional status. This cumulative dysfunction is associated with aesthetic, functional, psychological and social impacts on individuals thus essentially affecting their health-related quality of life.