Program Overview

Bachelor of Oral Hygiene [BOH]

Faculty of Health Sciences

The Bachelor of Oral Hygiene is a three-year degree programme that trains students to promote oral health, prevent oral diseases, and provide related dental services. Students receive training in both medical and dental subjects, with theory and practice integrated from the first year of study.

Programme Information

The programme covers various aspects of oral hygiene, including:

• Community dentistry (outreach programmes within communities around Pretoria at schools, old age homes, and nursery schools)
• Preventive Clinic (oral health education, oral health promotion, and treatment of patients in the Preventive Clinical Ward)
• Orthodontic Ward (working hand in hand with qualified oral hygienists, specialists, and registrars)
• Periodontics and Oral Medicine Ward (treatment and maintenance plan of patients with periodontal disease, assisting in surgeries, and maintenance of implants, including preparation for patients pre- and post-surgery)
• Maxillo-Facial and Oral Surgery (assisting and preparing patients before surgery, removing sutures, splinting of mobile teeth, administering local anaesthetic, and participating in cleft lip and palate clinics)
• Patient management (treatment of emergency patients within the scope of oral hygiene practice, comprehensive patient management, effective communication, public speaking, ethics, and practice management)
• Odontology (learning and application of dental materials)

Career Opportunities

Oral hygienists have various career opportunities, including working in private practices, hospitals, and community health clinics.

Admission Requirements

The admission requirements for the Bachelor of Oral Hygiene programme are as follows:

• Achievement level:
  • English Home Language or English First Additional Language: 4
  • Mathematics: 4
  • Physical Sciences: 4
  • APS: 25
• Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
• Applicants currently in Grade 12 must apply with their final Grade 11 (or equivalent) results.
• Applicants who have completed Grade 12 must apply with their final NSC or equivalent qualification results.
• Meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee admission.

Selection Process

The selection criteria are available on the faculty's webpage. Twenty-five first-year students are selected annually, with first-choice candidates considered and second-choice candidates considered in certain categories.

Minimum Duration

The minimum duration of the programme is 3 years, full-time.

Faculty Notes

Modules will be presented only in English, which is the University's official language of tuition, communication, and correspondence. The Faculty of Health Sciences continues to exemplify and build on the University of Pretoria's vision of being a leading research-intensive university in Africa. The Faculty is home to 5,500 undergraduate and 1,500 postgraduate students, including medical and dental fellowship training in more than 40 disciplines.