Located within the University’s high-tech Enterprise Campus in Bristol’s Temple Quarter and spanning 7,300 square metres, the move marks a step change in our efforts to equip graduates to deliver effective and equitable patient care.

The changes come at a critical time when studies show that we need to do more to meet the needs of disadvantaged members of our communities, and to open up academic and career opportunities by improving representation and updating the curriculum.

Centring collegiality and community

While our new School building will enhance the day-to-day experiences of our students, patients and staff once we relocate in 2023, it is only one part of our student-centred ethos. As well as ensuring that our graduates are equipped for modern dentistry, our plan is to engender a sense of professionalism, centred on life-long learning, collegiality and community responsibility.

The majority of teaching in our new primary-care facility, complete with 119 dental chairs and world-class facilities, will enable students to work as part of multi-professional teams. Being alongside trainees in dental hygiene, therapy and nursing mirrors the environment of real-world practice. It will also help our trainees to develop the interpersonal skills needed to succeed in the primary care world where most of them will spend their careers.

While we will retain our links with local NHS partners to deliver training in specialist clinics and in postgraduate education, our new primary-care focussed model will allow a tailor-made approach that ensures each student leaves us ready for day one of foundation training.

Our new curriculum, developed in the last five years, and now fully embedded, is underpinned by this ethos of personal development, evidence-based practice and integrated patient care. And our new School will bring the practical embodiment of that curriculum to the benefit of our students and their patients, as we continue to provide treatment for the local community.

Oral healthcare with an ethical imperative

No dental professional will be unaware of the huge pressures that we currently face. The South West has some of the highest unmet needs for dental care in England, with serious impacts on the quality of life of our population.

At a national level, a recent report by Public Health England (PHE) showed that oral diseases place significant costs on society. Between 2017 and 2018, the NHS spent £3.6 billion on dental care, with a similar amount estimated for the private sector. We also know that people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are likely to suffer the most, with a widening gap in oral health inequalities. As PHE highlight, we have an ethical duty to reduce these inequalities. We agree – “it’s a matter of social justice and ethical imperative”.

Recognising that we need to do more to support people who most need our care, we have ambitious plans to work with local communities to improve awareness and prevention of oral diseases.

This sense of civic responsibility and social awareness also runs deep among our trainees – they have charitable ambitions to provide oral healthcare for homeless people and other underserved communities, who as studies consistently reveal, experience high levels of pain related to untreated dental disease.

Improving representation and engagement

Bristol is a vibrant, multicultural and exciting city in which to live and work. But, like many cities, the same opportunities are not open to all – something we are keen to address as part of our vision for the new Bristol Dental School, by opening the world of work in dentistry to more people, as well as supporting those who dream of such a career.

We plan to engage with local schools where pupils might not necessarily think a career in dentistry is an option for them. We’re also committed to creating a safe, welcoming and inclusive learning and working environment, with role models for all to aspire to.

Our proactive efforts to decolonise our curriculum so that it better represents the rich cultural diversity of our community, and our wider commitment to equality and inclusion, add to this vision to become a gold standard educational institution.

Crucially, these changes represent an important and necessary cultural shift. Ours is a positive model that shows how student-focused education can transform how we practice in a responsible, engaged and impactful manner that is fit for the needs of society.

By Dr Barry Main - Head of Bristol Dental School, and Consultant Senior Lecturer in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, at the University of Bristol, where he has worked since starting as a lecturer in 2012. While at Bristol, he subsequently completed the NIHR Integrated Academic Pathway, his PhD, and both his academic training and clinical training.

For the latest information about Bristol Dental School, visit bristoldentalschooljobs.co.uk