Peninsula Dental School celebrates 10th anniversary

The announcement was made on January 26, 2006, and came after a declaration by the Government in 2004 about its plan to increase the number of dental training places in England.

The Peninsula Dental School welcomed its first students in September, 2007, and in early 2008 it opened its first Dental Education Facility (DEF) in Exeter. DEFs are where dental students treat NHS patient under the supervision of qualified dental health professionals as part of their studies. 

The DEFs are key to the innovative approach taken by the Peninsula Dental School to dental training, because it was the first and is still the only dental school to train students in a primary care environment, encompassing not just the general dental practice environment but also embedding the school, its students and staff in local communities where there is most need for dental care.

There are four DEFs across the South West – two in Plymouth and one each in Truro and Exeter, where a new DEF with larger capacity is currently being developed.