Kitty Ussher, Burnley MP, has welcomed the new Bachelor of Dental Surgery Degree, which sees 32 new dental placements in the Northwest. 

The degree which is run by a consortium of the Universities of Liverpool, Central Lancashire, Lancaster and St Martin’s College will allow those with a biomedical science degree or mature students with a healthcare background to qualify as a dentist in only four years.

The innovative programme, which will be headed by Uclan, has been specifically designed to improve access to dental healthcare in Lancashire and Cumbria.

The degree, involves students spending their 1st year at Uclan gaining practical experience in dentistry, and the following years in one of the four Dental Education Centres in Blackpool, Carlisle, East Lancashire and Morecambe Bay, treating patients in the local community.

This innovative method of community based training will bring more dentist into the region in the immediate instance but it will also increase the availability of dental healthcare provision in the long term, as it’s expected that those who train and qualify locally will remain to work in the region.

Kitty said: “This is a real step forward in addressing the problems with access to dental care in the Northwest. Simply put we need more dentists and having local Dental Education Centres will encourage more dentists to train and remain within the northwest.”

“The development is great news for the region, because not only will it benefit from increased levels of dental provision, it will also benefit from increased higher educational opportunities and more jobs. It’s certainly the time to start smiling!”
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