The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning objectives

The course provides foundational knowledge of the main diseases of the oral cavity and preventive strategies, with particular emphasis on techniques and instrumentation for professional oral hygiene. Students acquire competencies in the application of dental hygiene methodologies and in the recognition of the principal inflammatory conditions affecting the gingival, periodontal, and peri-implant tissues. The course also includes training in the use of major biomedical databases and introduces materials and techniques employed in cosmetic dentistry, together with the fundamental principles of bioethics and professional ethics as applied to clinical practice. It further encompasses elements of clinical propaedeutics, with specific reference to dental practice organization, patient management, communication, and cross-infection prevention protocols.Finally, the course provides basic competencies for the management of patients with disabilities and special healthcare needs, within the framework of a personalized and multidisciplinary therapeutic approach.

PRACTICAL ACTIVITY IN DENTAL HYGIENE MODULE
The student will learn about the main techniques and related types of instruments for professional oral hygiene above and subgingival.

PRACTICAL ACTIVITY IN CLINICAL PROPEDEUTICS MODULE
The student must acquire the main procedures relating to the management processes of the dental clinic in relation to the organization and preparation of the instruments. It must be able to adopt adequate communication with the patient, his family and the health team, in compliance with the principles of medical deontology and privacy legislation. It must also be able to correctly use personal protective equipment and acquired the ability to implement protocols to prevent cross-infection, decontamination and sterilization of dental material.

BIOETHICS MODULE
Bioethics (from ancient Greek ἔθος (or ήθος), ""èthos"", behavior, custom and βίος, bìos = ""life"") is a discipline that deals with questions of moral nature related to biological research and medicine. From this point of view it is a discipline that matches and transmits knowledge of various disciplines, such as Philosophy, Medicine, Biology, Genetics, and Law. The course deals with the evolution of bioethical thought starting from the introduction of the term by the American oncologist Van Rensselaer Potter, who first used it in 1970, up to the thought of E. André Hellegers and W. Reich. Bioethics is today defined as an area of research which, thanks to the different disciplines on which it is based, places the systematic examination of human conduct in the field of medicine as the object of its studies.

BIOINFORMATICS MODULE
The course aims to introduce the student to the use of databases of Biomedical interest accessible through the computer network. Computational tools will be used for interrogation of the main biological and genetic databases such as GeneBank, SwissProt, OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man); the sequences of the human genome will be analyzed using alignment algorithms, such as BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) and FASTA, and applied search strategies based on alignment programs; the programs accessible to the ExPASy server (Expert Protein Analysis System) for protein analysis will be used.

DENTAL HYGIENE MODULE
The course, which includes lectures, aims to provide students with the ability to correctly apply the dental hygiene methodologies to recognize inflammatory gingival, periodontal and peri-implant alterations and to propose preventive interventions against all the dental induced bacterial plaque. To this end, the principles underlying home oral and professional hygiene will be described, illustrating the operative phases, such as scaling, root planning debridement and polishing.

COSMETIC DENTISTRY MODULE
Understanding the concepts of beauty, facial harmony, smile aesthetics, and the aesthetic importance of a healthy dentition. Explain the causes of the main oral and perioral aesthetic alterations, from malformations to destructive caries, from enamel-dentinal discolorations to malocclusions. Explaining the effects of aging on the aesthetics of oral and perioral tissues. Explaining the role of the Dentist in current aesthetic medicine. Introducing materials and techniques that can be used in cosmetic dentistry.

PREVENTIVE AND COMMUNITY DENTISTRY MODULE
The course aims to provide basic knowledge on the most common diseases affecting the oral cavity, with particular regard to diseases caused by microbes, and on the correct behaviors for their prevention. The student must know the basic concepts of the main oral diseases, especially those related to plaque, and strategies related to their prevention.

PROPEDEUTICS MODULE
At the end of the Module the student will acquire the knowledge regarding: - structure and setting of the dental clinic; - equipment and instruments present in the dental office, as well as their functions and maintenance procedures - patient reception in the study, organization of the first visit and management of subsequent appointments; - communication and empathy in the patient-dentist relationship - main procedures aimed at controlling cross-infections in the dental environment.

MODULE IN DISABILITY AND SPECIAL CARE DENTISTRY
The course aims to provide basic knowledge for the dental management of patients with special needs and in conditions of clinical vulnerability.At the end of the course, the student will be able to: recognize and assess the specific needs of patients requiring adaptation of dental care, in relation to their clinical condition and care-related needs; identify the patient’s systemic conditions and their interactions with dental treatments; apply the fundamental principles for the development of an individualized treatment plan within a multidisciplinary context, aimed at addressing the specific needs of the patient.