Undergraduate · Nursing & Health Sciences
Bachelor of Dental Prosthetics
TAFE Queensland, Multi-campus, QLD, Australia
About this program
This AQF Level 7 degree is accredited by the Australian Dental Council and approved by the Dental Board of Australia, and it trains one of the few allied dental professions that can treat patients directly rather than only supporting a dentist. Dental prosthetists issue, maintain and examine dentures, insert and try in prosthetics, take impressions and carry out the technical laboratory work themselves, a scope of practice that's genuinely unusual in dentistry, where most non-dentist roles are lab-only or chairside-assist-only.
Coursework covers not just full and partial dentures but more specialised appliances: sleep apnoea and anti-snoring devices, splints, and immediate dentures fitted the same day as extractions. Training happens in TAFE Queensland's working denture clinic, where students treat real patients under supervision using the same lab equipment they'll use professionally, rather than working exclusively on models.
The entry requirement that gets flagged repeatedly by TAFE Queensland itself is manual dexterity: it's assessed at admission and has to be maintained throughout enrolment, which says something about how hands-on the daily work actually is. Graduates are eligible to register as dental prosthetists with the Dental Board of Australia and can go into private practice, dental laboratories or continue into further postgraduate dental study.
Cost & duration
English test scores
Course structure
4 terms of coursework
- Year 1: Oral Anatomy and Physiology, Dental Materials Science, Introduction to Denture Construction, Infection Control and Clinical Practice, Impression Taking and Casting
- Year 2: Complete Denture Prosthetics, Partial Denture Design, Occlusion and Articulation, Clinical Practice I (working denture clinic, supervised patient treatment)
- Year 3: Immediate Dentures and Same-Day Prosthetics, Sleep Apnoea and Splint Devices, Removable Prosthodontic Complications, Clinical Practice II, Professional and Regulatory Practice for Dental Prosthetists
- Clinical training: supervised patient treatment throughout in TAFE Queensland's on-site working denture clinic and dental laboratory
Admissions
Completion of Year 12 (or equivalent) plus relevant work placement component; accredited by the Australian Dental Council