Master of Dental Public Health (MDPH)

Program Description: 

Community Oral Health was considered as a dental specialty in 1951 and has been established in many of accredited universities around the world for 30 years. Based on the community oral health basics, developed countries especially in Scandinavia, have achieved a great deal of improvements in controlling oral diseases and oral health promotion in their communities.

According to the previous revision of curriculum of Dentistry in Iran in 2000, it was approved that community oral health departments should be included in all Schools of Dentistry. The first PhD joint educational program in community oral health was initiated with the cooperation of World Health Organization (WHO) and Helsinki University, in School of Dentistry of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2003 to provide university instructors for Community Oral Health departments.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences is the pioneer to set up M.Sc. and MPH programs in Community Oral Health in Iran.

  Definition

Community Oral Health (COH) is concerned with the oral health of a population rather than individuals and has been defined as the science and art of preventing oral diseases, promoting oral health and improving the quality of life through the organized efforts of society. The discipline covers a wide range and includes such topics as prevention, management, policy making, planning, implementation and evaluation of dental services in the community. Successful completion of the course leads to Master of Dental Public Health (MDPH) degree.

The Master of Dental Public Health is a professional master’s degree allowing students to gain competencies in broad-based areas of Community Oral Health practice.

Objectives:

The aim of this educational program is to train dentists with Master degree in Dental Public Health that are at world standard level in their knowledge, attitude and scientific competencies and can provide high quality oral health management and administration, research activities and also play an active role in oral health policy making.

General Competencies

• Communicative competencies: Building a network and developing and maintaining trustful and inspiring relationship with patients and colleagues.
• Helping decision makers and patients to make informed decisions.
• Looking for the different contributions from other disciplines and working with peers and colleagues from other departments and cross-organization. 
• Writing and reporting: 
• Write in a clear, concise, organized, and convincing manner 
• Critical thinking: Identifies rules or principles that explain facts, data, or other information; analyzes information and makes correct inferences or draws accurate conclusions. 
• Problem solving
• Professionalism

Specific Competencies and Skills (Special Qualifications)

MDPH graduates have the skills and knowledge to cooperate in solving public health problems by improving the ability to:

Manage oral health programs for population health

Evaluate systems of care that impact oral health

Design surveillance systems to measure oral health status and its determinants

Communicate on oral and public health issues

Lead collaborations on oral and public health issues

Advocate for public oral health policy, legislation, and regulations to protect and promote overall health through improving the public’s oral health

Integrate the social determinants of health into dental public health practice

The Terms and Conditions of Admission to the Course

DDS or BDS (Bachelor’s degree in dentistry)

IELTS (min: 6) or TOEFL (min: 550)

Entrance interview score 70 or higher (out of 100)