Mission

To train Oral Health Assistants committed to oral health and Colombians’ quality life, based on a comprehensive academic preparation that addresses needs and social reality of the country, with leadership attitude for the profession and the community.

Vision

To be the reference center in Assistant staff training in Oral Health in Colombia. To generate in its graduates strengths in prevention and competencies to support administrative and clinical management, and be a comprehensive part of the oral health team.

General Objective

To train Oral Health Assistants with competencies to be a comprehensive part of an oral health team, with knowledge of the Colombian Social Security System. Assistants in Oral Health must be capable of managing both public and private institutions, do community work in prevention and promotion, and support the dentist management process.

Specific Objectives

• To carry out Promotion, Prevention and Self-care actions aimed at the community and individual care, as the main strategy to reduce the incidence of periodontal disease and dental caries in the general population.

• Execute actions of Oral Hygiene in the clinic, on patients with clear concepts and based on the diagnosis according to the individual needs in Promotion and Prevention.

• Assist the dentist and specialist by collaborating closely in patient care; preparing equipment, instruments and materials, making use of biosafety standards, sterilization controls and equipment maintenance.

• Perform medical records, diary management, basic administrative management, inventory control of materials and diagnostic aids.

• Promote safe and healthy practices in work environments, management of medical emergencies in the dental office and provide initial assistance.

• Participate in improvement plans aimed at modernizing their work area; such as the use of TICs and management support through constant updating and learning in order to keep abreast of the latest techniques, advances in dental technology and changes in oral health regulations.

• To have passed secondary basic education in its entirety.
• Be at least 16 years old.
• To have taken the High School State Examination for admission to higher education (from 1990 onwards).

For information on admissions dates and requirements, please visit the following link:https://admisiones.univalle.edu.co/

Occupational Profile

The field of action of the Oral Health Assistant of the Universidad del Valle is wide given the needs and demands of the current labor market, fulfilling the competencies for:

• Participate in Promotion, Prevention and Self-Care programs.
• Execute Oral Hygiene actions in the clinic, such as supragingival scaling, prophylaxis, sealants, fluoride placement and oral health education in a patient according to their individual needs.
• Assist the dentist and specialist by preparing the dental office environment according to the type of care or specialty.
• Collaborate closely in patient care, making use of biosafety standards, sterilization controls and equipment maintenance, applying biosafety, asepsis and disinfection standards in dental practice to prevent infections in people and their environment in accordance with established protocols and current legal regulations.
• Perform medical records management, patient scheduling control, basic administrative management, inventory control of materials and diagnostic aids.
• Recognize the patient as vulnerable to the development of a disease, if self-care for the maintenance of health is not effectively promoted; recognizing, in turn, the association between oral and systemic diseases.
• Actively support the work team in safe and healthy practices, management of medical emergencies in the dental office and be able to provide initial assistance.
• Apply TICs and management support resources through constant updating and learning to keep abreast of the latest techniques, advances in dental technology and changes in oral health regulations.
• To recognize the importance of internationalization and investigation, within a permanent process of formation as a current phenomenon within the globalization and rapprochement of modern society.

Graduate Profile

• Active member of a care team in promotion, prevention and self-care programs.
• Planning of promotion, prevention and self-care programs with knowledge of institutional policies and health standards.
• Attention to patients in clinical preventive and educational oral health activities.
• Administrative and archival support with the use of TICs in public or private oral health institutions.
• Admission of the user and customer service according to levels of attention and current regulations.
• Monitor and support infection control in users and their environment, in accordance with good aseptic and healthy practices in the workplace.
• Support the diagnosis and dental treatment of users in accordance with the requirements of individuals and the SGSSS.
• Ability to support research and update their own knowledge.

As a requirement for the labor practice, the graduate must register his/her diploma before the Municipal Health Secretariat of Santiago de Cali and/or obtain its registration in any part of the national territory where he/she expects to advance his/her labor practice.

The study plan is completed in two (2) academic semesters, which is the time the training process lasts for students who have academic regularity and in which the generation of competencies established in Decree 4904 must be guaranteed.

Two semesters, daytime, Monday through Friday, from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Mission

The Mission of the Academic Program of Dentistry is the formation of human resources in oral health, with solid disciplinary knowledge in Dentistry, with a vocation for social service, promoters of values and individual and collective rights, with the mechanisms to provide timely and relevant response to the oral-dental health needs of the population of influence; actively participating in the formulation of health policies, new knowledge through research and internationalization processes, committed to the conservation of the environment, its geophysical-ecological environment and the construction of a just and democratic society.

Vision

By 2025 the Academic Program of Dentistry seeks to be recognized as a leading program at national and international level in the training of human resources in oral-dental health, consolidating itself as a program of excellence, committed to self-evaluation processes for high quality accreditation, with a highly qualified faculty and support staff, with a generation of formative research of impact; With an infrastructure of clinics, laboratories, pre-clinics that allow it to develop dynamic and innovative training processes, with a consolidation of its model of comprehensive care in community health, which is articulated with multidisciplinary groups and other sectors that affect the health of citizens, responding comprehensively to the challenges of society, science and academia.

General Objective

To train integral dentists with a command of cognitive, psychomotor, investigative, humanistic knowledge and guided by ethical values and citizenship, in order to promote, prevent, diagnose and treat oral diseases of the individual, the family and the community.

Specific objectives

• To foster the spirit of research with high humanistic, ethical and disciplinary qualifications, with innovative vision, social conscience and regional, national and international projection.
• To promote scientific, technological, humanistic, research and cultural exchange that guarantees the permanent training and updating of teachers, students and graduates.
• Promote values that foster a sense of belonging and commitment to the Academic Program of Dentistry and the Universidad del Valle.
• Lead academic, social outreach, research, cultural, scientific and technological processes that interact for the benefit of the community and its environment.
• To train dental professionals who actively participate in the construction of a community based on ethical principles of justice and tolerance that lead to the integral wellbeing of the community.

Professional Profile

The dentist of the Universidad del Valle is a professional with critical and argumentative capacity that prevents and resolves situations in oral health, relating it to the impact on general health, both at individual and population level, which takes into account the context where he/she works and maintains oral health with a solid training based on technical and scientific evidence in dentistry, supported by biomedical sciences and public health. Projects social and ethical responsibility, through health promotion, disease prevention, treatment of conditions that impact oral health and risk minimization in the life cycle. With humanistic training, autonomy in the framework of diversity recognition and peaceful conflict resolution, invokes respect for nature; with communicative, affective and coexistence competences, suitable to integrate efficiently and responsibly interdisciplinary health teams; entrepreneur, with critical spirit to investigate and socialize knowledge; and who performs continuous learning to improve professional competences.

Occupational Profile

The graduate of the Academic Program of Dentistry has an occupational profile that allows him/her to perform activities of diagnosis, prognosis, prevention and treatment of the prevalent conditions of the stomatognathic system, coordination of patient care services, management of the management of the provision and administration of health services, planning and executing actions for the benefit of the individual, the family and the community. All of the above can be developed in health care entities, institutions providing health services, public, mixed or private.

 See Curriculum Structure (Spanish)

Curricular Reform

 Resolution 038 of February 28, 2019
 Resolution 05214 of March 2019

The Master in Dental Sciences is committed to the training of high-level human resources, competent in the planning and development of research of a basic, clinical or epidemiological nature, aimed at proposing solutions to oral health problems, becoming a pole of regional development for biomedical research and public health in dentistry. It has an adequate research infrastructure provided by the University and the Faculty of Health, as well as teachers of high academic level, which guarantees quality in the training of its graduates. Additionally, agreements with dental faculties of national and international universities make student mobility possible.

The postgraduate degrees of the School of Dentistry seek the development and expansion of knowledge by providing fundamental training, important in the areas of knowledge, that responds to the needs of the community and the environment.

The academic training of postgraduate courses seeks to expand knowledge through research for the development of clinical skills and abilities that allow us to face the different oral health problems that affect our population. 

General

Train researchers with social and ethical commitment, capable of solving problems in the field of oral health and generating inter- and multidisciplinary knowledge that affects the care of the different phases of the health-disease process, in the training of competent human resources for conducting research responsibly and with autonomy, and for the transmission of advanced knowledge and high-level professional practice.

Specific

Develop in the student a deep knowledge of basic sciences and public health applied in dentistry and the autonomy to carry out and guide research and academic processes that lead to the construction of knowledge.

• Facilitate high-level professional and scientific training through a flexible educational proposal characterized by the transversal interaction of disciplines and intellectual discussion and criticism to strengthen the scientific community with a global perspective.

• Develop in the student the skills for the management and execution of research projects and the skills for communicating results that allow their use and application appropriately in different contexts.

• Strengthen the regional, national and global academic and scientific community through the training of human resources with the cognitive skills necessary for the critical assimilation of science, technique and technology, competent in the professional environment to carry out a critical analysis of scientific literature. and its application as evidence to the solution of oral health problems.

• Consolidate the National Science and Technology System through the graduate's contribution to scientific and technological development in the Colombian dental sector.

The applicant for the Master's Degree must have professional training in dentistry, with interest in one of the lines of research proposed by the research groups of the School of Dentistry, Faculty or other Faculties of Dentistry with which there is an agreement.

Prior to registration, applicants must contact the research groups that support the program and that work on lines of research of interest to them, to verify with them the existence of places within their research projects. 

Professional Profile

The Master in Dental Sciences will be a professional expert in research methodology, with the knowledge and understanding of basic biomedical or public health sciences applied to dentistry, with skills to investigate oral health problems both at an individual and collectively, acting with ethics and professionalism. Must have humanistic training; aware of its social responsibility with the research it develops, impacting improvements in the promotion, prevention, treatment and maintenance of the oral health of the population.  It must be based on scientific evidence, with communication, management and leadership skills, capable of efficiently and responsibly integrating an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary health team; with a critical spirit to investigate and socialize their knowledge, aware of their role as a transforming agent of social reality and responsibility with the environment; aware of the need to constantly update their knowledge, motivated in the continuous learning process.

Occupational Profile

The graduate of the Master in Dental Sciences at the Universidad del Valle will be able to serve as a leader in the design, development and evaluation of research projects at an individual and collective level, in the clinical, basic and public health areas related to dentistry.

Professional performance may be framed as academic in teaching, research and extension activities at the national and international levels and developing science and technology products in addition to formulating policies as part of its process of transforming social reality.

Registration requirements 

• Purchase your personal identification number (PIN), cancel registration fees and complete the registration form online. The supports must be delivered physically to the postgraduate office.
• 2 3x4 color photos with blue background.
• Photocopy of the undergraduate and graduate transcript, with an average on a scale of 1 to 5.
• Photocopy of proof of the mandatory social year (if applicable).
• Photocopy of the high school diploma.
• Photocopy of the professional diploma.
• Photocopy of the identity document.
• People who have obtained their degree abroad must attach a photocopy of their professional diploma registered with the corresponding Consular Agency of Colombia in the place where the degree was issued; this must be endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia.
• Certificate of professional activities carried out and current positions.
• Written request expressing your interest in the program.
• Applicant's resume.
• Receipt of payment for registration.
• Photocopy of the Professional Registration Resolution (for the programs that apply).
• Original registration payment receipt duly cancelled.

Selection Process

For the admission of students, the procedure is as follows:

1. Those enrolled take the knowledge exam before the research group to which they aspire.
2. Applicants take the written aptitude test. The final grade for these tests is weighted as follows: abstract reasoning 40%, verbal aptitude 40% and mathematical aptitude 20%.
3. Applicants present an interview before an Interview Committee appointed for each call by the Postgraduate Committee.
4. The final grade is obtained by weighting the tests as follows: 20% the written aptitude test, 50% the knowledge exam and 30% the interview.
5. The places for each research group are assigned by the Graduate Committee only among the applicants to the respective group, whose score in the final grade is greater than or equal to 70% of the current grading scale, based on the highest final grade and in strict descending order.
6. If a place is declined by an applicant, it is offered to the applicant to the group that follows him in final qualification in strict descending order.
7. The places offered by a research group that are not assigned are declared void.
8. Final results are published as indicated by the current academic calendar.

First Semester

• Area I course. 
• Research I.

 Second Semester 

• Area II course. 
• Research II.
• Bioethics.

Third Semester 

• Area III course. 
• Research III.
• Elective I.

Fourth semestre 

• Research work.
• Elective II.
• Topics of teaching and pedagogy.

• Having completed and passed the subjects of the academic program and fulfilled the credits of the same.
• Process the internal Clearance Certificate for the School and Library.
• Cover certification fees in accordance with established institutional policies.

The postgraduate courses of the School of Dentistry seek the development and expansion of knowledge by providing fundamental, important training in the areas of knowledge that respond to the needs of the community and the environment.

The academic training of postgraduate courses seeks to expand knowledge through research for the development of clinical skills and abilities that allow us to address the different oral health problems that affect our population.

General:

• To train dentists specializing in endodontics with the clinical, investigative and humanistic disciplinary skills to successfully prevent, diagnose and treat people who have problems with the pulp tissue and its consequences for the surrounding tissues.

Specific:

• To train dentists specializing in Endodontics with skills in the clinical and research areas.
• Provide the necessary theoretical and practical tools so that the specialist can be an integral part of an interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary team.
• To develop in the specialist a critical sense for the interpretation and application of scientific literature in clinical practice.

1. Degree in Dentistry awarded by a national or foreign university, according to current regulations.
2. Compulsory Social Year completed or certified (Nationals).
3. Certifications of the career indicating average and position held.
4. Complete the admission form and pay the registration fees (non-refundable).
5. Pass the admission tests established for this purpose by the Office of Extension and Postgraduate Studies.
6. English proficiency test.
7. Complete Resume.
8. Pass the interview conducted by the selection committee.

Details on the admission and registration schedule and process should be consulted at the Admissions and Academic Registration Area website.

Professional Profile 

The Endodontist trained at the Universidad del Valle will be trained as an expert with excellent theoretical and practical knowledge and a great ethical sense to prevent, diagnose and treat pathologies that arise in the pulp tissue, their consequences on the periapical structures and the management of complications related to the specialty.

Occupational Profile

The postgraduate courses of the School of Dentistry of the Universidad del Valle are based on the philosophy that the institution itself establishes for all its undergraduate and graduate areas, based on the comprehensive training of specialists, experts in the clinical performance of their specialty, with a high social projection and academic character and characteristics of research and teaching.

First Semester

• Basic sciences I
• Endodontics I
• Research methodology

Second Semester

• Basic sciences II
• Endodontics II
• Endodontic Clinic I
• Research methodology II

Third Semester

• Endodontics III
• Endodontic Clinic II
• Research methodology III
• Social Projection I

Fourth Semester

• Endodontics IV
• Endodontic Clinic III
• Research methodology IV
• Social Projection II

• Having completed and passed the subjects of the academic program and fulfilled the credits of the same.
• Carry out the support of a research paper.
• Process the internal Clearance Certificate for the School and Library.
• Cover certification fees in accordance with the established institutional policies.