Dental students in Scotland are being forced to re-sit the full 2020-21 academic year after the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in students not gaining enough clinical experience of aerosol generating products (AGPs).
The three Scottish dental schools in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow have all taken the same course of action and are deferring this year’s graduations. Both Dundee and Glasgow dental schools have deferred graduation until summer 2022 with all year groups being requested to repeat the 2020-21 academic year.
However, students at Aberdeen will have their graduations postponed until Christmas this year, with all other year groups being required to repeat the 2020-21 academic year.
The decision was made due to the lack of clinical experience with AGPs. The use of AGPs is seen in the majority of dental treatments and due to the production of water droplets being dispersed into the air during their use, there is an increased potential risk of the spread of Coronavirus.
Financial support in the form of bursaries of up to £6,750 will be available for students as part of the Scottish Government’s desire to support students through this difficult time.
The Scottish Health Secretary, Jane Freeman, said that the decision for students to repeat the academic year had been a ‘tough one’. “It’s about giving dental students the experience that has been denied [of] them this year because of the pandemic,” she noted.
“We need to ensure that people studying dentistry can enter the profession as confident fully-qualified clinicians.”
Dean of the faculty of dental surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Prof Phil Taylor, has supported this decision taken by the three Scottish dental schools.
“Dentistry is a profession that has been uniquely disadvantaged throughout the pandemic in comparison to other primary care services due to the lack of meaningful support made available for the sector, and this is one of the many resulting knock-on effects,” he said.
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