For details on the three-year pre-dental curriculum, see Career Center pre-health.
The UCLA dental curriculum leading to the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) is based on the quarter system. The course of study usually takes four academic years of approximately nine months each, with three required summer quarters between the first/second, second/third, and third/fourth years. The curriculum is designed to give students experience in all phases of clinical dentistry.
The dental curriculum consists of three principal areas: basic health sciences courses, didactic dental courses, and clinical experience. The first two years of the curriculum are chiefly devoted to didactic, laboratory, and general clinical coursework. The final two years emphasize training and instruction in clinical fields, including endodontics, fixed prosthodontics, operative dentistry, oral diagnosis and treatment planning, oral radiology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, anesthesiology, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and removable prosthodontics.
Opportunities for postgraduate study include a one-year general practice residency program; a one-year advanced education in general dentistry program; a one-year residency in maxillofacial prosthodontics; a six-year oral and maxillofacial surgery residency training program; three-year prosthodontics, periodontics, orthodontics, and dental anesthesiology programs; two-year programs in the specialties of endodontics, oral radiology, and orofacial pain and dysfunction; and a 26-month program in pediatric dentistry.
Information on postgraduate programs can be obtained by visiting the school post-DDS programs web page.
