In the BDS curriculum, subjects are taught in the form of lectures and demonstrations. Students attend dental clinics from the third year onwards. In addition to this, students also attend lectures, demonstrations and clinics in General Medicine and General Surgery in Third year. This is mainly to orient them in the roles of dentists in general practice.
This course as a whole is an integration of Basic Sciences, Clinical Dentistry and Practical or Laboratory Skills. The undergraduate course consists of three main components: The first component consists of subjects common to Medicine and Dentistry like Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, leading to Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology and then General Medicine and General Surgery.
The second component runs concurrently with the first and deals with the special aspects of oral and dental tissues, Oral Anatomy and Oral Pathology. Finally, the third component is based on the foundations of the first two, deals with the clinical and technical aspects of dentistry as is required for general dental practice.