UQ New Oral Health Centre

The University of Queensland Oral Health Centre (UQOHC) aims to change the face of dentistry in Australia. Opening in 2013, the UQOHC will be the nation’s largest and most advanced tertiary oral health facility. It will bring together renowned academics and researchers; leading practitioners and top tier students – united by their passion to improve the lives of everyday Australians through better care. With access to cutting edge technology, the opportunity to make a remarkable difference in our communities awaits us.

UQ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Greenfield welcomed the announcement as the start of a new era in dental care and education for Queensland: “The OHC will substantially expand and improve oral health facilities and services for patients, particularly cancer patients and others with complex dental care needs. Patients will also benefit from OHC research, which will target better treatment outcomes and prevention,” he said.

Head of UQ’s School of Dentistry, Professor Laurie Walsh is delighted that more than 20 years of planning is coming to fruition. “The integration of clinical services in a tertiary referral centre with our expanding dental research groups will accelerate the development of new methods for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of dental diseases. This new facility will be the ideal place to explore new therapies and evaluate them in clinical practice settings,” he said.


Funding
This major infrastructure project has been supported with $104 million as part of the 2009-2010 Federal Budget: Health and Hospitals Fund; and contributions from UQ and Queensland Health for the specialized fit-out of research laboratories and clinics.

Location
UQ has provided the site at its Herston campus, just 3.8 km from the School’s current Turbot St location. The new facility will be located with the UQ’s School of Medicine and School of Population Health, and immediately adjacent to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

World Class Facilities
OHC teaching facilities will include clinical simulation areas, pre-clinical laboratories, lecture/seminar rooms, and research laboratories. Students will have access to some 187 dental chairs distributed across 11 clinics, covering general practice dentistry, oral rehabilitation, paediatric dentistry, orthodontics, oral radiology, oral medicine, periodontics, endodontics, special needs dentistry and other specialist services, as well as a state of the art imaging centre, a learning centre and library.

Areas of specialist expertise will include oral cancer diagnosis and treatment, with clinics for oral cancer outpatient care, including speech pathology, dietetics and ENT, involving health professionals as well as students from other schools in the UQ Faculty of Health Sciences. These will be conjoint with other multi-disciplinary inter-professional clinics, including special needs dentistry. This will provide excellent physical integration of patient care with ready access to the Queensland Radium Institute, the RBWH Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, the RBWH Maxillo-Facial Unit, and other relevant inpatient and outpatient care facilities.


Find out more at the official UQOHC website
Download the PDF “A Journey Shared: UQOHC changing the face of oral health in Australia”


   

Artist's impression of UQ Oral Health Centre, Herston

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