Does La Trobe dentistry qualify you as a dental surgeon?

[Mongsam]

I'm referring to the Bachelor of Health Sciences in Dentistry/Master of Dentistry offered at La Trobe. Would anyone happen to know if you can commence work as a dental surgeon after graduating or do you have to go through further study pathways?

[ChickenCh0wM1en]

Depends what you define as a 'dental surgeon'?

If you're referring to a dentist who extracts teeth, performs root canals and does scaling etc then yes?

If you're referring to more intensive/specialised procedures then further study is necessary.

[Mongsam]

Yep I'm wondering about more intensive procedures. What sort of courses would you be doing to further your training afterwards? Eg. would you be doing the Doctor of Dental Surgery at Melbourne Uni? I'm finding it difficult to compare dental degrees as they all seem to have different names depending on the University.

[ChickenCh0wM1en]

No, DDS at UoM is essentially the post-graduate equivalent pathway of the La Trobe Dentistry course.
You'll essentially be in hte same spot at the end.

With regards to further training there's specific dental colleges and requirements to be met - I haven't researched much into it but yo'd probs be looking at another dozen or so years of training and study on top of your degree at either UoM or La Trobe.

[Tomw2]

Dental surgeon = Dentist; they are interchangeable terms. I prefer the former, because it more accurately describes what we do.

You are referring to oral surgeons or oral and maxillofacial surgeons.

There is some variation in the pathways to become a maxillofacial surgeon, but they generally go like this:
1. Complete dental degree.
2. 1-2 years or more - hospital dentistry and general dentistry, formally increasing oral surgery experience as you do this
2a. Complete RACDS Primary examinations
3. 3-5 years - complete medical degree (often, doing hospital dentistry work at the same time, with a special focus on oral surgery)
4. Complete medical internship
5. Complete at least 1 year of surgery in general residency and associated entry level surgical exams
6. Apply for RACDS Max fac program, if accepted, acquire registrar position
7. RACDS max fac program takes minimum 4 years to complete

Total training time including dental degree: minimum 15 years.