This course at Birmingham is regulated by the General Dental Council (GDC) and will provide you with a solid foundation of learning on which to base your clinical experience and patient care. The ongoing strand of whole patient care in Clinical Practice enables you to integrate speciality teaching and perform the most appropriate treatment for your patients. Dentistry is a challenging and rewarding profession. In the context of an ageing population who are retaining teeth into old age, the importance of understanding interactions between general and oral health is paramount. Excellent communication skills are needed to enable dentists to treat patients as individuals and a sound understanding of the biological basis of oral disease and preventive approaches to care are essential foundations of dental practice. Advances in technology and dental materials have increased the scope of practice and the expansion in the numbers of Dental Care Professionals (DCPs) has led to an emphasis on the dentist’s role as a diagnostician and team leader together with the dentist focusing on undertaking complex, rather than routine, dental treatments. Your Birmingham degree is evidence of your ability to succeed in a demanding academic environment. Employers target Birmingham students for their drive, diversity, communication and problem-solving skills, their team-working abilities and cultural awareness, and our graduate employment statistics have continued to climb at a rate well above national trends. If you make the most of the wide range of services you will be able to develop your career from the moment you arrive. Preparation for your career should be one of the first things you think about as you start university. Whether you have a clear idea of where your future aspirations lie or want to consider the broad range of opportunities available once you have a Birmingham degree, our Careers Network can help you achieve your goal. Our unique careers guidance service is tailored to your academic subject area, offering a specialised team (in each of the five academic colleges) who can give you expert advice.