Student Dental Treatment for your Child from Dundee Dental Hospital

Not all children are suitable for treatment in student clinics. When your application form is processed, your child will be placed on a waiting list for an initial assessment appointment.

At this visit, you will meet an undergraduate student and supervising member of qualified dental staff who will examine your child and may take appropriate x-rays. Following this, they will provide you with further information about whether treatment is possible and appropriate for your child within the undergraduate student paediatric dentistry clinics.

During periods of high demand, the wait for an assessment appointment can be a few months. Student clinics are not covered by national waiting time standards.

If your child is accepted for treatment, they will then receive a series of appointments for preventive dental care, to familiarise them with the dental surgery environment and make them dentally healthy. The full plan and anticipated number of visits will be outlined by the clinical supervisor at the end of the first appointment. When treatment is complete your child will then be discharged to register with a General Dental Practitioner.

The treatment offered is similar to that available from a high street dentist, dental therapist, or hygienist.

Your child may be eligible for treatment if they need:

• Familiarisation and introduction to the dental surgery
• Caries (decay) prevention and dietary advice including weaning advice for very young children
• Oral hygiene instruction and fluoride varnish application
• Fissure sealants (“plastic” coatings applied to surface of teeth to protect them from decay)
• Stainless steel crowns or fillings to restore tooth decay
• Removal of decayed teeth that cannot be fixed by fillings or crowns

The following treatments are not provided by our students:

• second opinions on proposed treatment from another dentist
• specialist (secondary care) advice or treatment on more complex issues
• orthodontics (braces)
• tooth whitening
• dental implants
• treatment requiring sedation or a general anaesthetic
• ongoing maintenance and review

In most cases, student treatment is not suitable for patients:

• who are extremely anxious – the students will try to familiarise moderately anxious or pre-cooperative patients to the dental surgery environment
• requiring hospital transport
• with a complex medical history
• not suitable for patients who have their own dentist (unless on referral from their dentist)

Our students have a fixed and limited amount of time so we rely on patients who can commit to attend reliably for their appointments. Students get their work checked by staff at each stage which means that their appointments will be longer and more frequent than would be expected for treatment from a high street dental clinic. These appointments will require your child being absent for a portion of the school day as clinics are during term times only.

If you fail to bring your child for appointments or cancel appointments last minute, this can have a significant impact on our students. Patients who cannot commit to attending regularly are not suitable for treatment on student clinics and will be discharged.

You need to complete this form and return it either by email or by post.

We will then invite you and your child to an initial assessment where we will advise if they are able to be treated by our students.

How to complete and send the form by email

On a laptop / desktop

You should be able to complete this form using either your web browser, Adobe Reader, macOS preview, or another PDF reader. Once complete, save a copy and choose "with edits". You can then attach the completed form to an email.

On a mobile device / tablet

You will need the Adobe Fill & Sign app for iOS or Android.

Emergency dental treatment will NOT be provided by your allocated dental student.

Patients may access services via NHS Tayside or NHS 24 (dial 111) for out of hours and weekend emergency dental care.

• By attending the undergraduate student clinic at Dundee Dental Hospital and Research School you accept that your child’s dental treatment will be carried out by undergraduate dental students under the supervision of a suitably qualified dentist or dental therapist.
• Student clinics are not covered by national waiting time standards and are available Monday to Friday (09:00 - 15:30) during university term time only so will result in your child missing part of the school day.
• Treatment will take longer to complete than at a high-street dental practice as students work slower than fully qualified dental professionals.
• Appointments with students normally take around 60 minutes.
• If a longer appointment is required, the student will inform you. Please consider this when arranging to park if you are travelling by car.
• We cannot guarantee that all treatment will be carried out by the same student or under the supervision of the same qualified member of staff.
• Some types of treatment (listed above) are not offered in our undergraduate student clinics.
• If your child is not brought to attend the student clinic when required, then the offer of student treatment at Dundee Dental Hospital and Research School (DDH&RS) will be withdrawn and may result in us needing to share information with other agencies.
• If your child can no longer attend an appointment, please contact DDH&RS to cancel the appointment as soon as you know they will not be able to attend. This may allow another patient to take the appointment. The telephone number will be on the appointment letter.
• If your child requires emergency dental treatment, they may access services via NHS Tayside or NHS 24 (dial 111).
• Once your child’s treatment is complete, they may be discharged from the dental school clinics and asked to register with a dentist.
• If your child’s treatment is not suitable for students, or if it is too complex, then you will be informed about this and asked to register them with a dentist.
• NHS Tayside and the University of Dundee have a zero-tolerance approach to inappropriate behaviour. If at any point a patient or carer displays inappropriate behaviour towards any student or member of staff, treatment will be immediately withdrawn.