3. Guide to the Faculty of Dentistry

Useful information and contacts

This section will help new and continuing students find out who to contact for help with academic and administrative matters.

Academic matters

The faculty is committed to ensuring that each student's experience is academically stimulating, rewarding and supportive. Academic contacts are listed below. Students should refer enquiries to the person overseeing the program they are enrolled in.

Bachelor of Dentistry

For queries relating to the content, structure, and assessment of the degree, contact the appropriate academic Theme Head of the BDent from those listed below.

Foundations of Total Patient Care (FTPC):

Dr Catherine Groenlund
Phone: +61 2 9351 8323
Email: cathieg@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Life Sciences (LS):

Dr Michael Thomas
Phone: +61 2 9351 8325
Email: mthomas@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Total Patient Care (TPC):

Associate Professor Elizabeth Martin
Phone: +61 2 9845 7183
Email: femartin@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Dentist in the Community (DC):

Associate Professor Wendell Evans
Phone: +61 2 9845 7537
Email: w.evans@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Personal & Professional Development (PPD):

Dr Evelyn Howe
Phone: +61 2 9845 7955
Email: evelyn.howe@usyd.edu.au

For queries about your year of the course and administrative issues (such as the timetable), contact the following.

Year 1:

Dr Michael Thomas
Sub Dean
Phone: +61 2 9351 8325
Email: mthomas@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Anna Garrat
Teaching and Learning Services Officer
Email: a.garratt@usyd.edu.au

Year 2:

Dr Linda Bingham
Sub Dean
Phone: +61 02 9351 8312
Email: l.bingham@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Teaching and Learning Services Officer
Position vacant

Year 3:

Dr Ayman Ellakwa
Sub Dean
Phone: +61 2 9687 0170
Email: aellakwa@usyd.edu.au

Alicia King
Teaching and Learning Services Officer
Email: a.king@usyd.edu.au

Year 4:

Associate Professor Elizabeth Martin
Sub Dean
Phone: +61 2 9845 7183
Email: femartin@dentistry.usy.edu.au

Arthi Gopal
Teaching and Learning Services Officer
Email:agopal@usyd.edu.au

Bachelor of Dentistry (Honours)

Contact the Coordinator:

Professor Greg Murray
Phone: +61 2 9845 6380
Email: gregm@usyd.edu.au

Bachelor of Oral Health

All academic matters relating to this course should be directed to the Course Director:

Associate Professor Peter Dennison
Phone: +61 2 9845 6333
Email: peter.dennison@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Deputy Director
Wendy Currie
Phone: +61 2 9845 6333
Email: Wendy_Currie@wsahs.nsw.gov.au


Associate Dean (Students):

Dr Evelyn Howe
Phone: +61 2 9845 7955
Email: evelyn.howe@usyd.edu.au

Postgraduate students

Postgraduate coursework students should contact their Course Coordinator with enquiries relating to academic matters.

Population Oral Health:

Professor Anthony Blinkhorn
Phone:+61 2 8821 4361
Email: ablinkhorn@usyd.edu.au

MDSc (Community Oral Health & Epidemiology):

Associate Professor Wendell Evans
Phone: +61 2 9845 7537
Email: w.evans@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

MDSc (Oral Medicine & Oral Pathology)

Associate Professor Hans Zoellner
Phone: +61 2 9845 7879
Email: tbow2949@usyd.edu.au

MDSc (Orthodontics):

Professor Ali Darendeliler
Phone: +61 2 9351 8314
Email: maria@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

MDSc (Paediatric Dentistry):

Dr Sally Hibbert
Phone: +61 2 9845 7420
Email: frances_p@wsahs.nsw.gov.au

MDSc (Periodontics):

Associate Professor Chris Daly
Phone: +61 2 9351 8320
Email: cdaly@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

MDSc (Prosthodontics):

Professor Iven Klineberg AM, RFD
Phone: +61 2 9845 7192
Email: npavic@usyd.edu.au

Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Special Care Dentistry) Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Hospital Dentistry) Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Hospital Dentistry):

Dr Leda Mugayar
Phone: +61 2 9845 7814
Email: leda_mugayar@wsahs.nsw.gov.au

Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Conscious Sedation & Pain Control):

Dr Douglas Stewart
Phone: +61 2 9845 7915
Email: dougs@dental.wsahs.nsw.gov.au

Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Implants):

Professor Iven Klineberg, AM, RFD
Phone: +61 2 9845 7192
Email: implants@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Graduate Diploma in Community Oral Health & Epidemiology:

Associate Professor Wendell Evans
Phone: +61 2 9845 7537
Email: w.evans@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Restorative):

Professor Iven Klineberg AM, RFD
Phone: +61 2 9845 7192
Email: npavic@usyd.edu.au

Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Restorative):

Professor Iven Klineberg
Phone: +61 2 9845 7192
Email: npavic@usyd.edu.au

Postgraduate research students enrolled in the PhD or MPhil programs should contact the Associate Dean (Postgraduate) for academic matters in the first instance:

Professor Greg Murray
Phone: +61 2 9845 7821
Email: gregm@mail.usyd.edu.au

Admission and Student Administration

Bachelor of Dentistry and Bachelor of Oral Health students should contact the Undergraduate Officer with administrative enquiries in the first instance:

Ms Anne Quinlan
Phone: +61 2 9351 8308
Email: admissions@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

Postgraduate students (coursework and research) should contact the Postgraduate Administrator:

Ms Rebecca Granger
+61 2 9845 8706
Email: rgranger@usyd.edu.au

Alternatively, the Postgraduate Administration Unit for the Faculties of Dentistry, Medicine and Pharmacy (see www.chs.usyd.edu.au/PG) can also be contacted:

Phone: +61 2 9351 5470
Email: pg@med.usyd.edu.au

Harassment and discrimination

Students wishing to report incidents they believe involve harassment and/or discrimination can make confidential contact with the Staff and Student Equal Opportunity Unit:

Phone: +61 2 9351 2212
Email: admin@eeo.usyd.edu.au
www.usyd.edu.au/eeo/home/about




Disability support

Students who identify as having a disability and who require support or assistance are urged to make confidential contact with the Student and Staff Disability Liaison Officer:

Ms Anne Quinlan
Phone: +61 2 9351 8308
Email: anneq@dentistry.usyd.edu.au

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Faculty governance, management and organisation

The Faculty of Dentistry is governered by its committees, whose membership comprises representatives from the academic staff, student body, teaching hospitals and the profession. The Committees of the faculty are listed below.

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The Faculty Board is the highest level committee of the faculty and its membership is prescribed according to the Resolutions of the University Senate (see the Constitution of the Faculty section in this chapter) and the Strategic Planning Group.

Dean

Professor Eli Schwarz, KOD

Associate Deans

The faculty has five Associate Deans who have responsibility for providing high level advice and support to the Dean for a specific academic portfolio. The role of each Associate Dean is summarised below.

Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching)

Dr Catherine Groenlund

The Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) is responsible for the planning and monitoring of the curriculum for the BDent and BOH programs, and for learning and teaching matters. The position is assisted by the Sub-Deans (Year Heads) of the program and Director of BOH.

Associate Dean (Postgraduate Studies)

Associate Professor Greg Murray

The Associate Dean (Postgraduate) has overarching responsibility for the faculty’s postgraduate degree offerings and postgraduate student candidature, and works closely with the postgraduate coordinators to execute the role.

Associate Dean (Research)

Professor Neil Hunter

The Associate Dean (Research) is charged with managing the faculty’s research portfolio and performance, which covers research strategic planning, research funding, publications, grants and research benchmarking.

Associate Dean (Students)

Dr Evelyn Howe

The Associate Dean (Students) has general responsibility for providing a pastoral care role for BDent stduetns. The Associate Dean (Students) liaises with the year Sub-Deans and Theme Heads.

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Professional matters

The field of dentistry

The goal of the dental profession is the optimal oral health of the individual and the community, by the prevention of oral disease and the treatment of those diseases and abnormalities that cannot be prevented.

The dental profession is an integral part of the health team in the community and has the specific responsibility for orofacial tissues and their function and a joint responsibility with the other health professions to integrate dental and oral health into the total health care of the community.

This responsibility involves consideration of the patient both as an individual and as a member of the community. In the modern dental curriculum, community dentistry is playing an ever-increasing role.

Dentistry as a profession

There is an increasing scope of activity for dental graduates. The control of dental caries and the lessening of needs for routine restorative dentistry in the younger generation, as well as rapid advances in research and prevention over the last decade, have allowed dental graduates the opportunity to carry out more sophisticated and specialised dental treatment.

The increasing availability of postgraduate training makes entry into specialised practice more readily available and the growing level of community awareness of the significance of oral health, together with a feeling of confidence in preventive measures, allows a higher standard of dental health care to be provided for the community.

The emphasis on community health aspects and the development of the social responsibility of the profession are also influencing the nature of dental practice and reorienting attitudes of both the profession and the community to oral health and the value of preventive and treatment services.

General dental practice

Registered dental graduates may practise as general practitioners and provide dental care for their patients in a private practice situation. They may also practice general dentistry in an institution, government department or in the armed services. Most dentists are in general practice.

Specialisation

After two years in general dental practice, dentists may prepare themselves for specialised practice by completing a master's degree in the discipline of their choice. Some of the areas of specialisation are orthodontics, oral medicine, periodontics, dental public health, prosthodontics and paediatric dentistry.

Dental hygiene and dental therapy as part of the dental team

The faculty offered, for the first time in 2005, a three year program, the Bachelor of Oral Health. Graduates will have developed the knowledge and skills required to register and work as a dental hygienist and/or dental therapist within Australia or New Zealand.

Dental hygienists work in the private and public dental sectors treating children and adults. Dental therapists currently work in the public sector in NSW treating children and adolescents up to the age of 18 years. Both trained health professionals form part of the preventive dental team and provide individual and community dental health care including education, oral hygiene instruction and oral health promotion. Graduates will also have the opportunity to be involved in research programs and teaching undergraduates.

Research

The essence of professional and university activity is the development of knowledge in the total field that the profession encompasses.

Research in dentistry is the basis of progress, in understanding not only human biology and pathology, but also psychology. It embraces every aspect of the basic sciences, clinical practice and the behavioural sciences in their relationship to the production of oral health and its maintenance.

There are increasing opportunities for research in oral health science. Generally graduates will have to undertake higher degree programs to fit them for a career in both research and teaching.

Teaching

With the expansion and development of dental schools and the increasing numbers of students, the tendency is to rely on a core of full-time specially trained staff members in teaching, with support from dedicated part-time teachers recruited from the ranks of the profession.

The teaching of dentistry, dental hygiene and dental therapy provides a most interesting career, requiring a combination of the academic and practical aspects of dentistry approached on the highest possible level.

Institutional dentistry

Every hospital or clinic providing a dental health service must employ a number of graduate dentists. Many find that working within the structure of such an organisation is both interesting and rewarding and the new graduate, in particular, may welcome the opportunity of further experience in hospital work.

Armed services

In time of peace as well as in war, the Navy, Army and Air Force each maintain a dental health service. The dentist commences with a commissioned rank.

School Dental Service

For those interested in dental work involving children, the School Dental Service offers many opportunities. With the extension of public health programs, this service has been significantly expanded.

Aboriginal Medical Service

The Aboriginal Medical Service is an out-patient health care unit for Aboriginal patients from all over Australia who, for a variety of reasons, do not make use of conventional health services. The Service has been affiliated as a teaching institute of the University of Sydney.

The service has a dental clinic that offers students training in preventive dentistry in particular. It also provides excellent opportunities to conduct follow-up treatment and clinical practice in a community setting and to gain clinical experience of the dental problems of a major ethnic group.

The Dental Practice Act

The practice of dentistry, dental hygiene and dental therapy in NSW is governed by the Dental Practice Act 2001, and by the 2004 regulations made pursuant to it. Copies of the Act and regulations may be obtained online or from the Office of the Government Printer, Sydney. The administration of the Act is vested in the Dental Board of NSW.

It is illegal to perform any operation or give any treatment, advice or attendance such as is usually performed or given by dentists, dental hygienists, and dental therapists unless registered by the Dental Board of NSW.

Any person who proves to the Board to be of good character shall be entitled to be registered as a dentist, dental hygienist, and dental therapist if he or she is:

  1. a graduate in dentistry, dental hygiene and/or dental therapy of any university in Australia or of a dental college affiliated with a university of Australia, or
  2. qualified in any of the ways set out in Section 8 of the Act.

On successful completion of the Bachelor of Dentistry degree you will be able to register with the Dental Boards in each state/territory.

For graduates of the NSW Bachelor of Oral Health, you will be able to register with the NSW Dental Board as a dental hygienist and/or dental therapist. Currently, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria allow dental hygienists and dental therapists to work in both private and public sectors, and your qualifications are also recognised in New Zealand.

Centres and services for teaching and research

Students undertake their training at both the Sydney Dental Hospital and Westmead Centre for Oral Health, Westmead Hospital. Both sites provide:

Bachelor of Oral Health students also study at the campus in Lidcombe.

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Resolutions of the Senate

 

Constitution of the Faculty of Dentistry

1.
The Faculty of Dentistry shall comprise the following persons:
1.1
the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry;
1.2
the Professors, Associate Professors, Senior Lecturers, Lecturers, and Associate Lecturers being full-time members of the teaching staff in the Faculty of Dentistry;
1.3
the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine;
1.4
the Executive Dean of the Faculties of Health;
1.3
the Professors, Associate Professors, Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and Associate Lecturers being fractional members of the teaching staff of half-time (0.5) or greater;
1.6
two members of the part-time academic staff at 0.4 and below, elected by and from the part-time academic staff of the Faculty appointed at 0.4 and below;
1.7
full-time members of the research staff of the disciplines of the Faculty of Dentistry and of the Institute of Dental Research who hold appointments of research fellow and above;
1.8
persons upon whom the title of Clinical Professor, Adjunct Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, Adjunct Associate Professor, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Clinical Lecturer or Adjunct Lecturer has been conferred in accordance with the resolutions of the Academic Board;
1.9
not more than five students elected in the manner prescribed by resolution of the Senate;
1.10
the President of the Oral Health Foundation within the University of Sydney;
1.11
the Area Clinical Director, Westmead Centre for Oral Health, the General Manager, Westmead Centre for Oral Health;
1.12
the Area Clinical Director, Oral Health (Eastern Zone), Sydney South Western Area Health Service and the Clinical Manager, Sydney Dental Hospital;
1.13
the Director of the Institute of Dental Research;
1.14
the Chief Dental Officer of New South Wales;
1.15
one nominee of each of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons and the Australian Dental Association (New South Wales Branch);
1.16
such other persons as may be appointed by the Faculty on the nomination of the Dean, for such period as determined by the Faculty;
1.17
such other persons as may be appointed by the Faculty as Honorary Members of Faculty on the nomination of the Dean, for such period as determined by the Faculty, in accordance with resolutions adopted by the Faculty at its meeting on 10 November 1995;
1.18
the President of the Dental Therapy Association and Dental Hygienists Association (New South Wales Branch);
1.19
the President of the Dental Alumni Society of the University of Sydney;
1.20
the Chairperson, Committee for Continuing Education in Dentistry;
1.21
former members of the Faculty upon whom the University has conferred the title of Emeritus Professor; and
1.22
Fellows of the University who were prior members of the Faculty of Dentistry.
2.
The election of members pursuant to section 1.6 shall be held at the last meeting of the Faculty in each alternate year and the members so elected shall hold office from 1 January of the year following their election until the next election but conterminously with their membership of the part-time teaching staff.
3.
Election of Honorary members of faculty (section 1.17)
3.1
Honorary members will be elected to the Faculty on the basis of conspicuous involvement in one or more of the following:
3.1.1
support of the interested and welfare of the Faculty or of a particular part of the Faculty's activities;
3.1.2
promotion of the academic purposes of the Faculty or facilitating these purposes ion any particular activity of the Faculty;
3.1.3
fostering the links between the Faculty and other institutions within and outside Australia;
3.1.4
representation of the Faculty's needs for resources for its growth and diversification and supply of such resources;
3.1.5
any other activity deemed appropriate by the Faculty.
4.
Nominations for consideration by the Faculty's Advisory Committee on Selection of Candidates for Honorary Members of the Faculty are invited annually. Nominations may be made by any member of the Faculty and must include a clear statement on the nominee's attainment, position and relationship to the Faculty with particular reference to the criteria outlines above.
5.
The number of persons who may be elected each year shall be no more that four.

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Student membership of the faculty

The resolutions of the Senate make provision for five students to be elected to membership of the Faculty of Dentistry.


Senate resolutions: student membership of the faculty

 

Senate resolutions

1.
The five students shall comprise:
1.1
the President of the Sydney University Dental Undergraduates' Association, provided he or she is a student enrolled for a degree or diploma in the Faculty of Dentistry (ex officio),
1.2
one student enrolled for a postgraduate degree or for a diploma in the Faculty of Dentistry, provided that if there is no nomination of a postgraduate student the vacancy may be filled by an undergraduate student,
1.3
three other students.
 

Students may also become members of other university bodies.

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