Curriculum Overview

​The primary focus of second year courses is to guide students in the transition from pre-clinical courses to clinical care and begin to see their first patients for periodontal appointments during the fall of their second year. Students refine their hand skills in pre-clinical lab courses involving indirect restorative procedures, fixed and removable prosthodontics, endodontics and esthetic dentistry. Clinical care is emphasized in courses related to pharmacology, occlusion, oral pathology, orthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, dental materials, oral radiology, cariology, pediatric dentistry, pain control, medical emergencies and oral and maxillofacial surgery. Students will also take courses on treatment planning and managing a student practice in order to begin providing comprehensive patient care in the student dental clinic during the summer of their second year.

The primary focus of third year is the development and practice of clinical dentistry. Students take courses on community assessment, public health, dental practice planning, clinical oncology, behavioral and geriatric dentistry, implant dentistry and treatment planning. Students begin to spend a lot more time in the clinical setting with the primary focus being on comprehensive patient care. Students perform clinical procedures in the fields of oral diagnosis and diagnostic radiology, periodontics, operative dentistry, fixed and removable prosthodontics, orthodontics, endodontics, dental pain and emergencies. Additionally, all students participate in a rotation in pediatric dentistry at the Healthy Smiles Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

At the beginning of their fourth year, students take the National Board Dental Examination Part II which tests their clinical knowledge of endodontics, operative dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, pain control, oral diagnosis, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, patient management, periodontics, pharmacology and prosthodontics. Students continue to develop their clinical and practical dental skills by providing comprehensive patient care in the dental clinic. Advanced courses in implant dentistry, restorative dentistry, treatment planning, cariology, dental ethics and jurisprudence, endodontics and forensic dentistry are taken to further prepare students to become licensed dental professionals. All students also participate in the Advanced Clinical Training and Service (ACTS) program and provide quality dental care to underserved communities in 30 clinics across the state. At the end of spring of their fourth year, students are fully prepared to take regional or state examinations to obtain dental licensure.