in jerusalem, founded by the alpha omega fraternity and the tel aviv university school of dental medicine in tel aviv. the two schools have six-year program and grant the doctor of dental medicine (dmd) degrees. in recent decades, students are eligible for the bachelor of medical sciences (bmedsc) degree after the first three years of training. south africa related: medical education in south africa. training in south africa generally comprises the five-year bachelor of dental surgery, followed by one year's compulsory medical service/internship. the country has five universities with dental faculties: institution school founded location programme(s) university of kwazulu-natal durban diploma in dental therapy university of limpopo medunsa campus, pretoria bds, mdent, mds (master of dental science), phd university of pretoria school of dentistry pretoria bchd, mchd, msc dentistry, phd(dentistry), dsc university of the western cape faculty of dentistry cape town bchd, mchd, msc(dent), phd, dsc(odont) university of the witwatersrand johannesburg bds, mdent, msc(dent), phd(dent), dsc until 2003, stellenbosch university offered the bchd degree. in 2004, the dental faculties of the university of the western cape and stellenbosch university merged and moved to the university of the western cape, which is currently the largest dental school in africa. specialisation is through one of the universities as a master of dentistry, or through the college of dentistry within the colleges of medicine of south africa, with certifications offered in oral medicine and periodontics, orthodontics, and prosthodontics. research degrees are the m.sc.(dent) / mds and ph.d.(dent). united kingdom and ireland many universities award bds degrees, including the university of sheffield, the university of bristol, barts and the london school of medicine and dentistry, the university of birmingham, the university of liverpool, the university of manchester, the university of glasgow, the university of dundee, the university of aberdeen, king's college london, the university of cardiff, newcastle university, queen's university belfast, the university of central lancashire, and peninsula college of medicine and dentistry. in the republic of ireland, the university college cork awards bds degrees and trinity college dublin awards bdentsc degrees. the university of leeds awards bchd and mchd (bachelor/master of dental surgery) degrees. the royal college of surgeons of england, edinburgh, glasgow, and ireland award lds (licence/licentiate in dental surgery) degrees. nigeria many universities award bds and a few bchd (baccalaureus chirurgiae dental) degrees. in nigeria, training in dentistry is through a six-year course, typically, three years of preclinical training followed by three years of clinical training after passing part i exams comprising anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology. this is followed by one year of internship or housemanship, after which graduates can go into clinical practice as general dentists. some go on to specialty training by completing a residency program, to become hospital consultants. as of 2022, 11 dental schools, were active, including two with partial accreditations. fully accredited programs are at the university of lagos, university of ibadan, university of benin, university of port-harcourt, university of nigeria (enugu), university of maiduguri, bayero university (kano), lagos state university, and obafemi awolowo university (ile-ife). united states main article: dentistry in the united states in the united states, at least three years of undergraduate education are required to be admitted to a dental school; however, most dental schools require at least a bachelor's degree. no particular course of study is required as an undergraduate other than completing the requisite "predental" courses, which generally includes one year of general biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, english, and higher-level mathematics such as statistics and calculus. some dental schools have requirements that go beyond the basic requirements such as psychology, sociology, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, etc. the majority of predental students major in a science, but this is not required as some students elect to major in a nonscience-related field. in addition to core prerequisites, the dental admission test, a multiple-choice standardized examination, is also required for potential dental students. the dat is usually taken during the spring semester of one's junior year. the vast majority of dental schools require an interview before admissions can be granted. the interview is designed to evaluate the motivation, character, and personality of the applicant. for the 2009–2010 application cycle, 11,632 applicants applied for admission to dental schools in the united states. just 4,067 were eventually accepted. the average dental school applicant entering the school year in 2009 had an overall gpa of 3.54 and a science gpa of 3.46. additionally, their mean dat academic average (aa) was 19.00, while their dat perceptual ability test (pat) score was 19.40. dental education and training dental school is four academic years in duration and is similar in format to medical school: two years of basic medical and dental sciences, followed by two years of clinical training (with continued didactic coursework). before graduating, every dental student must successfully complete the national board dental examination part i and ii (commonly referred to as nbde i & ii). the nbde part i is usually taken at the end of the second year after the majority of the didactic courses have been completed. the nbde part i covers gross anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, pathology, and dental anatomy and occlusion. the nbde part ii is usually taken during winter of the last year of dental school and consists of operative dentistry, pharmacology, endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery, pain control, prosthodontics, orthodontics, pedodontics, oral pathology, and radiology. nbde part i scores are pass/fail since 2012. after graduating, the vast majority of new dentists go directly into practice, while others enter a residency program. some residency programs train dentists in advanced general dentistry such as general practice residencies and advanced education in general dentistry residencies, commonly referred to as gpr and aegd. most gpr and aegd programs are one year in duration, but several are two years long or provide an optional second year. gpr programs are usually affiliated with a hospital and thus require the dentist to treat a wide variety of patients including trauma, critically ill, and medically compromised patients. additionally, gpr programs require residents to rotate through various departments within the hospital, such as anesthesia, internal medicine, and emergency medicine, to name a few. aegd programs are usually in a dental-school setting where the focus is treating complex cases in a comprehensive manner. dds vs dmd degree in the united states, the doctor of dental surgery and doctor of dental medicine are terminal professional doctorates, which qualify a professional for licensure. the dds and dmd degrees are considered equivalent. the american dental association specifies: the dds (doctor of dental surgery) and dmd (doctor of dental medicine) are the same degrees. they are awarded upon graduation from dental school to become a general dentist. the majority of dental schools award the dds degree; however, some award a dmd degree. the education and degrees are, in substance, the same.harvard university was the first dental school to award the dmd degree. harvard only grants degrees in latin, and the latin translation of doctor of dental surgery, "chirurgiae dentium doctoris", did not share the "dds" initials of the english term. "the degree 'scientiae dentium doctoris', which would leave the initials of dds unchanged, was then considered, but was rejected on the ground that dentistry was not a science." (the word order in latin is not fixed, only the inflections; "scientiae dentium doctoris" = "doctoris dentium scientiae".) a latin scholar was consulted. it was finally decided that "medicinae doctoris" be modified with "dentariae". this is how the dmd, or "doctor medicinae dentariae" degree, was started. (the genitive inflection -is on "doctoris" instead of the nominative "doctor" simply reflects that the syntax on the diploma was "the degree of doctor of dental medicine"; they are both correct.) the assertion that "dentistry was not a science" reflected the view that dental surgery was an art informed by science, not a science per se—notwithstanding that the scientific component of dentistry is today recognized in the doctor of dental science (ddsc) degree. other dental schools made the switch to this notation, and in 1989, 23 of the 66 north american dental schools awarded the dmd. no meaningful difference exists between the dmd and dds degrees, and all dentists must meet the same national and regional certification standards to practice. some other prominent dental schools that award the dmd degree are the university of florida, midwestern university-il, midwestern university-az, medical university of south carolina, augusta university (formerly medical college of georgia), university of connecticut, university of alabama at birmingham, university of louisville, university of puerto rico, rutgers university, tufts university, oregon health and sciences university, university of pennsylvania, case western reserve university, university of illinois at chicago, boston university, temple university, western university of health sciences, university of pittsburgh, university of nevada, las vegas, and east carolina university. the united states department of education and the national science foundation do not include the dds and dmd among the degrees that are equivalent to research doctorates. licensing examinations to practice, a dentist must pass a licensing examination administered by an individual state or more commonly a region. a handful of states maintain independent dental licensing examinations, while the majority accept a regional board examination. the northeast regional board (nerb), western regional board (wreb), central regional dental testing service (crdts), and southern regional testing agency (srta), council of interstate testing agencies (cita) are the five regional testing agencies that administer licensing examinations. once the examination is passed, the dentist may then apply to individual states that accept the regional board test passed. each state requires prospective practitioners to pass an ethics/jurisprudence examination, as well, before a license is granted. to maintain one's dental license, the doctor must complete continuing dental education (cde) courses periodically (usually annually). this promotes the continued exploration of knowledge. the amount of ce required varies from state to state, but is generally 10-25 ce hours a year. the completion of a dental degree can be followed by either an entrance into private practice, further postgraduate study and training, or research and academics. dental specialties in the united states twelve dental specialties are recognized in the united states. becoming 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). anesthesiology: 3–4 years orthodontics: 2–3 years endodontics: 2–3 years oral and maxillofacial surgery: 4–6 years (additional time for md/mbbs degree granting programs) periodontics: 3 years prosthodontics: 2–3 years maxillofacial prosthodontics 1 year (a prosthodontist may elect to sub-specialize in maxillofacial prosthodontics) oral and maxillofacial radiology: 3 years oral and maxillofacial pathology: 3–5 years oral medicine: 2–4 years orofacial pain: 1–3 years pediatric dentistry: 2–3 years dental public health: 3 years the following are currently recognized as dental specialties in the us under the american board of dental specialties (abds): oral medicine: 2–4 years orofacial pain: 1–3 years oral implantology/implant dentistry: seven or more years of experience in the practice of implant dentistry and have completed at least 75 implant cases. applicants must successfully complete both the part i and part ii examination within four year dental board of anesthesiology: 3–4 years the following are not currently recognized as dental specialties in the us. special needs dentistry: 3 years geriatric dentistry: ranges from a weekend course to a 2-year masters course depending on the certificate issuing agency. cosmetic dentistry – ranges from a weekend course to a 1-year course depending on the certificate issuing agency. dentists who have completed accredited specialty training programs in these fields are designated registrable (u.s. "board eligible") and warrant exclusive titles such as anesthesiologist, 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.