The Summer Student Practitioner Program (SSPP) allows incoming fourth-year students to practice dentistry within approved competencies for up to seven weeks in any city across BC. Students receive a temporary license and are paired with a practicing dentist, allowing them to experience the day-to-day operation and management of a dental practice. The SSPP encourages students to explore dentistry beyond Metro Vancouver, specifically in more rural BC communities.
Four major donors—BC Dental Association, CDSPI, Synergy Business Lawyers, and Scotiabank Healthcare+—provide summer travel and accommodation expenses for students with placements outside of Metro Vancouver.
Become part of a win-win combination that encourages new graduates to practice throughout the province, relieve your backlog, test run an associate and be a part of the learning!
Read about past student and mentor experiences.
Download the SSPP brochure View the 2023 SSPP Impact Report
Typical Procedures
A selection of procedures typically performed by students, in accordance with the UBC Year 3 DMD Students’ Benchmarks for Patient Care, include:
- Recall examinations
- Scaling, OH instruction/prophylaxis
- Certain endodontic procedures
- Conservative operative procedures
- Removable partial dentures
- Complete upper and lower dentures
- Additional simple restorative procedures
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
- CDSPI provides malpractice insurance.
- The BC College of Oral Health Professionals provides licensure for the student for four months.
- Student must complete their third year of DMD studies to be eligible and are under the supervision of the participating dentist.
- Length of time is negotiated between the student and the dentist anytime between July and the first three weeks of August for one to seven weeks.
- Dental students may only perform procedures already learned through their studies at UBC.
- A dentist may employ only one dental student at a time; however, a group of two or more dentists may share supervision of the student on a rotating basis.
- The student must be provided with their own chair.
- The supervising dentist examines all patients the student sees and delegates the duties to be performed by the student.
- The student performs dental service at the discretion of the student and the supervising dentist per the UBC Year 3 DMD Students’ Benchmarks for Patient Care document.
- The supervising dentist is responsible for ensuring the academic policies at UBC and the student’s relationship with it is supported during employment.
- Dentists are requested to provide feedback on the student and program in a format provided by the University.
Application Form
To facilitate student matches, we ask all dentists to tell us a little about their practices and location.
Dentist Mentor Application Form
Contact
To learn more about the program or if you have any questions, please contact:
Dr. Lauren Milchman
Director of the Summer Student Practitioner Program
milchman@dentistry.ubc.ca