Blackpool's new Dental Education Centre (DEC) was officially opened recently by the Chief Dental Officer for England, Dr Barry Cockcroft. The DEC – one of four throughout Lancashire – will provide training for students from the University of Central Lancashire's (UCLan) School of Dentistry, with the hope that once qualified they will continue to work in Blackpool.
It features a wide range of state-of-the-art treatment and teaching facilities including high specification video-conferencing, allowing lectures to be delivered to students at the DEC by tutors in Preston, a hi-tech decontamination suite, emergency treatment room and phantom heads for the students to work on. There is also equipment for those with disabilities and special needs, which enables patients to receive treatment without the necessity of leaving their wheelchairs.
Professor Lawrence Mair, Head of the School of Dentistry at UCLan, said, 'We are extremely excited about this entirely new model of teaching dentistry, which puts clinics in local communities, rather than city centres, and has led us to revise our traditional teaching techniques. The new model of dental education is working very well: our third year students already interact with their patients in a very professional way.'
