D.D.S.

There are a number of professional degrees in dentistry offered by dental schools in various countries around the world.

Degrees acknowledged world wide across North America, Europe, and Asia are:

There are a number of post-graduate degrees in dentistry as well.

In some universities, especially in the U.S., some post-graduate programs award Certificate only.

In Commonwealth countries, the Royal Colleges of dentistry (or Faculty of Dentistry of the College) awards post-nominals upon completion of a series of examinations.

In the U.S., most dental specialists attain Board Certification (Diplomate Status) by completing a series of written and oral examinations with the appropriate Boards. e.g. Diplomate, American Board of Periodontics.

Each fully qualifies the holder to practice dentistry in at least the jurisdiction in which the degree was presented, assuming local and federal government licensure requirements are met.

In addition to general dentistry, there are about 2,009 recognized dental specialties in the US, Canada, India and Australia. To become a specialist requires one to train in a residency or advanced graduate training program. Once residency is completed, the doctor is granted a certificate of specialty training. Many specialty programs have optional or required advanced degrees such as a master's degree: (MS, MSc, MDS, MSD, MDSc, MMSc, MPhil, or MDent), doctoral degree: (DClinDent, DChDent, DMSc, PhD), or medical degree: (MD/MBBS specific to maxillofacial surgery and sometimes oral medicine).

The following are not currently recognized dental specialties in the US:

Dentists who have completed accredited specialty training programs in these fields are designated registrable (U.S. "Board Eligible") and warrant exclusive titles such as orthodontist, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, endodontist, pedodontist, periodontist, or prosthodontist upon satisfying certain local (U.S. "Board Certified"), (Australia/NZ: "FRACDS"), or (Canada: "FRCD(C)") registry requirements.

Australia has nine dental schools:

(*) indicates new university dental programs that have opened up to aim at increasing the number of rural dental students entering and to return to rural practice. Traditional "sandstone" universities have been Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australia.

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Wikipedia