Research is the main motto of the Dentistry Graduate Program activities, along with the necessary role of training teachers and qualified professionals to meet the local and national needs. It provides students with training as teachers and researchers whose discernment skills allow them to generate technological knowledge in the field of Dentistry. All that is also combined with the University goals towards building a humanistic, altruistic foundation, which enables students to exercise their roles as educators and citizens inserted into their local and national realities. Its faculty members turn out consistent scientific production and are internationally renowned in their specialties. Some of the duties of Dentistry Graduate Program tenured professors include giving classes and lectures, advising graduate students, and taking part in formal teaching activities of the undergraduate programs in their respective fields, which fosters undergraduate/graduate integration.
Scoring 5 with Capes, the Program is internationally connected via collaboration work. That allows the Program to obtain scholarships in various countries, granted by different national and international development institutions. Innovation is also a major feature in the Program, resulting in patent applications. Hence, the Program seeks to tap into the creative potential of its students, guiding them in tasks that involve science and technology while keeping in mind the development of the specific skills to practice their specialty. Seven areas of concentration containing a broad spectrum of lines of research offer MPhil and PhD degrees and.
The complex structure the Dentistry Graduate Program presents today sprung from the infectious idealism of competent, dedicated teachers and an embracing University. In 1969 they created the Specialization Program in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology, turned into a Master’s Program (Academic) in 1975. It was ministered concurrently with the education of experts in the area. Due to its high regard among the academic community, it has welcomed students and trained masters that have taught or are still teaching across the country and Latin America. Its growing development and maturity led to a 1995 request to have a Doctorate degree accredited. That was not PUC’s first Dentistry Doctorate Program, once that in 1992 the Oral Medicine Doctorate program started, which is also a part of the Program today.
Considering the demand for qualified teachers and researchers in other areas of Dentistry as well, in 1996 a project was drawn up and accreditation requested for the Dentistry Graduate Program, Master’s degree, in the areas of Dental Materials and Prosthetic Dentistry. In 2002, the latter’s performance and scientific production led to a request to include the area of Operative Dentistry and the Doctorate in the three areas, accredited by MEC/ CAPES with a score of 4. In 2005, as per suggestions made in the evaluation (CAPES), the Office of the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies recommended that studies be carried out so that the School of Dentistry could have only one Program containing all the areas, if possible.
Then, the Dentistry Graduate Program was added the areas of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology MSc/PhD, Oral Medicine PhD, and Orthodontics and Facial Orthopedics MSc. That resolution was sent to CAPES through letter PRPPG 106/06, and confirmed by CAPES’ letter CAA 188-10/2006 of April 28, 2006, which set up the Program’s current configuration containing the following areas: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology (MSc/PhD), Operative Dentistry (MSc/PhD), Oral Medicine (PhD), Dental Materials (MSc/PhD), Orthodontics and Facial Orthopedics (MSc), Prosthetic Dentistry (MSc/PhD).
In March 2009, the Program was added a new area of concentration (Endodontics – MSc and PhD). Additionally, Oral Medicine began offering a Master’s degree and Orthodontics, a Doctorate one. That way, the Program’s seven areas of concentration now offer Master’s and Doctorate degrees for the Dentistry community.
