Clinical Dentistry in general deals with 50% Aesthetics and the other 50% concentration is focussed on the treatment of pathological conditions of the tooth.
Coming to the importance of aesthetics in dentistry and how it is implemented in dentistry. Firstly we will come know the definition of aesthetics.
Aesthetics: It is the Beauty / appearance of an object (or) any Structure, but as we are concerned with the oral cavity and its structures so in dentistry we will try to improve the external appearance of the tooth, jaw, or the whole oral cavity in general.
For a dentist the aesthetics of the oral cavity of the patient is the main factor to be concentrated on along with treating the disease of the patient.
The new generation of people have become more beauty conscious, so the demand for Cosmetic Dentistry has gone up comparitevely in the last few years, as cosmetic dentistry deals more with the aesthetics of the patient.
Satisfaction of the patient: For a patient to be satiesfied with a doctors work, the site on which the doctor has worked should be brought back to normal or use additional materials to increase its aesthetics and one has to retain the originality of the oral cavity.
There are many ways of retianing and improving the Aesthetics of the patient. We will discuss about some of the ways by which we can improve the aesthetics
1) In root canal treatment there will be an open cavity left after the treatment so this cavity is first filled with amalgam and the tooth anatomy is brought back to normal with a cap which cannot be differentiated from the original.
Tooth coloured Restoration: Used after filling the cavities made after removal of caries.
Braces: Dental braces are used to bring the disoriented teeth which decrease the aesthetics of the patient into an organised and normal anatomical positions which improves the functioning and more so increases the look of the arches.
One thing to be noted is that during the course of the treatment using the braces is that the aesthetics is totally lost, but after the treatment the aesthetics is relatively improved.
Dentures: When teeth are lost in the oral cavity the look of the oral cavity and regression of the cheeks and the jaw bones, so these are used to bring back the natural arrangement of the oral cavity.
The dentures are of two types-
1) Removable partial dentures.
2) Complete dentures.
Tooth jewellery: This is a new trend in many youngesters, in which the doctors make a small hole on the tooth surfad mostly a canine and put in a diamond or a gem stone.

B.D.S is Divided into Subjective, Practical, Clinical, and Community related subjects, the curriculum is divided in the best suitable way for the students so they can understand each and every step of dentistry in a well organised way :

BASIC SCIENCES :

- Anatomy, Physiology

- Bio-chemistry

- Histology(General & Oral)

- Pharmacology

- Pathology

The time alloted for the basic sciences is about 800 hours according to the University it may change.

The Basic Science subjects are mostly distributed in the I & II yrs so that we can get a generalized view of the human Body its Functions and the Pathological states involved.

PRE-CLINICAL Techniques and Laboratory :

-Oral Anatomy

- Operative dentistry

- Prosthodontics - Fixed & Removoble Partial Dentures

They account to about 1450 hours.

These Important Subjects to be studied by us, which give us the practical knowledge and are very helpful in our practice as a dental Doctor.

CLINICAL PRACTICE :

- Patient care and class room instructions are Included here .

It concludes to about 1690 hours .

Here we get to know how to look after the patients needs to his expectations.

OTHER :

- Community Dentistry :

Here we mingle with the people and get to know their mentalities and how to be a particular kind of a person, which is very important part of our Dental Practice.

The degree of B.D.S will be obtained by a candidate who has undergone a period of certified study extended over Five academic years from the date of commencement of Dental Curriculum with compulsory rotating INTERNSHIP extending over a period of One Calender Year.(Internship was earlier included in the Curriculum offered by the University, but from this Academic year, Internship has to done in private by the Student himself)

 DENTAL CURRICULUM :The Aim and Objective of the dental curriculum is to produce a Dentist who is Socially acceptable and is able to fulfill all the Diagnostic Problems of the patients effectively and safely.

Main Aim  of any medical practitioner is : PREVENTION : DIAGNOSIS : CURE

A boy / girl of 17 or 18 years enters a dental college , is expecting the profession to be like that of a medical student , but it is way more demanding and challenging .
It is course of 5 years in India and varies all over , the first year course contains 4 subjects all together

• 1. General anatomy
• 2. Dental anatomy and Dental histology
• 3. General Physiology
• 4. Biochemistry .

In the second year there are 5 subjects all together of which 2 are only practicals and the other 3 contain theory along with practicals

• 1. Microbiology
• 2. Pharmacology
• 3. Dental materials
• 4. Preclinical prosthodontics (practicals)
• 5. Preclinical Conservative (practicals) .
  

This is a bit of Information given by a dental student who is in the 2nd year of his education.. and will be updating with the other stages of the dental life!