For first-year D.M.D. students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, clinical training begins almost immediately.
Entry Level Clinical Skills (ELCS), which starts during the first week of dental school, introduces students to the foundational skills needed to provide patient care, including infection control, chairside techniques, and four-handed dentistry.
The course follows a "tell, show, do" model that allows students to learn a skill, demonstrate it, and then apply it in a clinical setting.
Working with classmates as mock patients, students gain early experience in the clinical environment while developing the teamwork and communication skills that support quality patient care. The course also introduces four-handed dentistry, an approach pioneered at UAB that remains a cornerstone of modern dental practice.