Examine the Curriculum

Innovation in dental education makes WesternU's new College of Dental Medicine a top choice if you want to practice the dentistry of today and tomorrow. The curriculum and new facilities were designed to incorporate innovative ideas and the latest equipment.

We offer a full-time 4-year clinical program leading to the Doctor of Dental Medicine degree (DMD) in a learning environment that is student-centered.

The College of Dental Medicine and our curriculum:

• treats students as members of the profession from the first day.
• features a wide variety of educational methodologies, including traditional lecture, seminars, case-based and problem-based learning, on-line modules, laboratory, clinical simulation, standardized patient exercises, direct patient care and service learning.
• emphasizes principles of clinical medicine by integrating dental and medical students in the study of human systems and in clinical medical skills labs performing patient assessment.
• focuses on the links between oral health and overall health and offers interprofessional learning with other health professions. 
• integrates early direct patient-care experiences to provide contextual relevance for the foundational knowledge and clinical skills you are learning in human systems courses and pre-clinical simulation training.
• integrates early service-learning opportunities in community-based locations in the first two years that stresses community assessment, education, and preventive programs.
• offers extensive clinical experience in community-based locations.
• emphasizes compassionate care, treating the patient as an individual first.
• integrates patient and practice management into clinical experiences, building critical skills such as; communication, professional ethics, leadership and business management that are required for successful practice.

As you click on each term, corresponding course details will appear in the box below.

Learn Alongside Students in Other Health Professions
WesternU's interprofessional curriculum will provide a forum for you to collaborate and learn from students in eight other health-care programs.

When launched in 2009, this curriculum will provide an opportunity for early networking with other health professionals and ultimately prepare you to better serve your patients through interprofessional collaboration and referrals. 

 Outstanding Facilities
Western University is a thriving academic health center spread out over 22 acres in Pomona, CA. The main campus currently includes 15 major buildings and construction has begun on two new building projects totaling an investment of more than $100 million.  These buildings will be shared by students in optometry, dentistry, osteopathic and podiatric medicine. The design fosters interprofessional education and patient care.

Health Education Center (HEC)

Patient Care Center (PCC)

four-story, 180,000 square feet wireless equipped  eight auditoriums research labs and faculty offices more than 50 small-group meeting rooms pre-clinical space that mirrors clinical space College of Dental Medicine Simulation Clinic with the capacity for 65 multi-media patient simulators, a multi-media instructor station, digital radiology, and a support wet-lab that mirrors clinical space for high-fidelity simulation

three-story, 68,500 square feet Interprofessional Diagnostic Suite with three large examination rooms designed for a collaborative health care team adaptive equipment for the treatment of people with disabilities state-of-the-art oral health clinic with 68 operatories designed to support the latest in clinical technology including digital radiology, surgical microscopes, electric and air-driven dental hand pieces, CAD-CAM units, and chair-side computers with access to electronic patient records, patient education, and clinical reference publications

In addition, a new seven-story, 600-space parking structure is being built to serve the new buildings.

 
Please join us for an information session where you can tour the facilities, chat with faculty &
students, and learn more about WesternU's DMD curriculum and admission requirements.