Gabriela Beretta, 28 years old, graduated in Accounting in 2018. Despite her training, she always felt out of place in the accounting world. Since she was a child, Gabriela dreamed of being a dentist, but due to the lack of family in the area, she decided to follow the family business. After graduation, she finally decided to pursue her childhood dream. Gabriela is currently in the 10th semester of the PUCRS Dentistry course, which combines clinical practice, humanized training and social impact. With 70 years of tradition and excellence, the Dentistry course at the PUCRS School of Health and Life Sciences has been a beacon of learning and innovation in the area of health.
“Through therapy, I gained the courage to go after what I always wanted and, after a lot of anxiety, one Sunday morning, I sat down with my family and said ‘I’m going to do dentistry’. My father was speechless at the moment, because he didn’t expect it, and my mother just hugged me, because mother always knows. So, in that conversation, I told them that I had already studied at a university that hadn’t provided me with the best learning, and if I were going to do dentistry it would be in the best place: PUCRS”, says the student.
Also in the 10th semester of his degree is Ivan Frichmann, 27 years old. However, his story begins almost in the opposite direction to Gabriela’s: he chose Dentistry because it was the same profession as his father, but after a year and a half of the course, he was no longer sure what he wanted. His taste for creating and inventing ended up taking him away from Dentistry, so he stopped his course, intending to change to Product Design, but ended up transferring to Mechanical Engineering – all these transitions within the University itself. In 2020, he finally decided to return to his old course.
“After spending a year on exchange in Australia and after a lot of reflection, I decided to return to Dentistry, seeing the field of dental prosthetics as a way to satisfy my artistic side and the security of already having a company ready to continue”, he reports.
Responsible for providing care for a beautiful and healthy smile, Dentistry is an area that goes beyond functionality and health, playing a fundamental role in people’s self-esteem and well-being. The PUCRS Dentistry course trains professionals capable of planning, proposing, executing and evaluating oral health projects and treatments, with sensitivity and competence to relate to their patients, maintaining an ethical, supportive and entrepreneurial stance.
Among the possible areas of activity are the coordination and execution of educational, preventive and rehabilitative actions in oral health, management of dental services, coordination of projects and management of health systems and in dental offices and clinics, both in the public service and in institutions private. The course coordinator, João Batista Blessmann Weber, emphasizes the history, uniqueness and exceptionality of the undergraduate course at the School of Health and Life Sciences:
“The course began in 1953 and, since then, it has stood out for its level of excellence, credibility and tradition. Teaching is based on scientific evidence, with a strong connection between basic and vocational training disciplines, offering a well-structured and solid curriculum recognized nationally and internationally in its 70 years of existence”, he comments.
State-of-the-art infrastructure provides unique practical experiences for students
A modern and complete infrastructure that guarantees excellent teaching: this is what students will find in their Dentistry degree at PUCRS. The clinical facilities include 190 complete dental offices, divided into seven outpatient clinics, equipped with the most modern equipment and technologies, in addition to four specific laboratories for training pre-clinical activities. Learning is carried out using cutting-edge technology, such as software, intraoral scanners and digital radiology. In addition to the infrastructure on campus, students carry out activities in the Basic Health Units. There are also Stomatology and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology services located within Hospital São Lucas, where surgical procedures are carried out at hospital level.
For Professor João, one of the factors that makes the course stand out is the University’s complete teaching, research, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, located on a single campus. “All of this infrastructure provides students with different experiences and opportunities throughout their academic journey,” he adds. He also highlights the School Service of the Dentistry course:
“It is the space where students in training carry out practical activities, always supervised by professors from different areas of Dentistry. Outpatient clinics offer an environment conducive to learning, which occurs in an increasing level of complexity, giving students and patients the possibility of carrying out procedures in all dental specialties”, explains the coordinator.
Gabriela’s favorite spaces are the clinics, where, according to her, students spend the majority of their 2nd and 3rd year of graduation and where their view of the profession begins to change.
“There we began to take our first steps with patients and deal with our insecurities. My favorite place is the clinic on the 3rd floor, with the pediatric dentistry team, I feel at home. Even though at the beginning of the course I said I would never do pediatric dentistry, the passion for the area caught me,” says the student.
Furthermore, she also has a fondness for the outpatient clinics in building 6, which, according to her, have a life of their own, always packed with patients, students, teachers and staff. “I love how we can provide real changes to patients, with access to a world-class dental service at more affordable prices,” she adds.
Ivan also loves the clinics, who spends most of his time there, and whose materials and equipment available to students are a strong point for him. Furthermore, he also really likes São Lucas Hospital, which provides a different learning environment. Ivan also highlights the academic directory, a space for students to coexist, of which he is president. “In-person academic training is not just theoretical and practical, it also involves social development”, he states.
In addition to the quality of the physical structure, the teaching staff, mostly made up of masters and doctors, has extensive clinical experience, effectively contributing to the teaching-learning process. All course teachers are encouraged to participate in events with symposiums, lectures and congresses, in addition to bringing graduation closer to cutting-edge research carried out at the University, through integration with the Postgraduate Program in Dentistry.
Comprehensive and humanized training is the strong point of the course
Coordinator João Blessmann states: students who graduate from PUCRS leave prepared for the challenges of the market. Although the Dentistry market is quite competitive, University graduates have comprehensive training, with a robust practical workload, enabling the development of skills that form a differentiated professional to work in any area of Dentistry. He leaves a message for those who are going to take the entrance exam and are thinking about pursuing this profession:
“Experiencing real professional experiences, which bring the theory of classes closer to the reality of the job market, is the desire of those who enter a degree. The PUCRS Dentistry course offers different practical activities and disciplines that integrate the provision of important services for the community, concern for social impact, in addition to the development of technical and human skills.”
Despite there being a Dentistry course five minutes away from Gabriela’s house, who lives in Canoas, she always heard that the Dentistry course at PUCRS was different and that the students were in high demand in the job market, so there was no doubts about where I wanted to study. “I never imagined the structure that the course had in terms of teachers, I thought it was surreal to have a subject with three or more teachers and a building completely set up to serve patients, in which I was privileged to see structural changes that only added value to the course”, comments.
Ivan initially chose PUCRS due to his father’s influence. Living closely with the job market, he believed that the University’s Dentistry training was more complete than that of other institutions and created better professionals – which, today, he claims to be true:
“In addition to PUCRS’ structures, both physical and virtual, the teaching tools available are incomparable to those of other universities, the learning possibilities within PUCRS are limited only by the student’s interest. We have everything we can imagine available and easily accessible.”
Gabriela Beretta, 28 years old, graduated in Accounting in 2018. Despite her training, she always felt out of place in the accounting world. Since she was a child, Gabriela dreamed of being a dentist, but due to the lack of family in the area, she decided to follow the family business. After graduation, she finally decided to pursue her childhood dream. Gabriela is currently in the 10th semester of the PUCRS Dentistry course, which combines clinical practice, humanized training and social impact. With 70 years of tradition and excellence, the Dentistry course at the PUCRS School of Health and Life Sciences has been a beacon of learning and innovation in the area of health.
“Through therapy, I gained the courage to go after what I always wanted and, after a lot of anxiety, one Sunday morning, I sat down with my family and said ‘I’m going to do dentistry’. My father was speechless at the moment, because he didn’t expect it, and my mother just hugged me, because mother always knows. So, in that conversation, I told them that I had already studied at a university that hadn’t provided me with the best learning, and if I were going to do dentistry it would be in the best place: PUCRS”, says the student.
Also in the 10th semester of his degree is Ivan Frichmann, 27 years old. However, his story begins almost in the opposite direction to Gabriela’s: he chose Dentistry because it was the same profession as his father, but after a year and a half of the course, he was no longer sure what he wanted. His taste for creating and inventing ended up taking him away from Dentistry, so he stopped his course, intending to change to Product Design, but ended up transferring to Mechanical Engineering – all these transitions within the University itself. In 2020, he finally decided to return to his old course.
“After spending a year on exchange in Australia and after a lot of reflection, I decided to return to Dentistry, seeing the field of dental prosthetics as a way to satisfy my artistic side and the security of already having a company ready to continue”, he reports.
Responsible for providing care for a beautiful and healthy smile, Dentistry is an area that goes beyond functionality and health, playing a fundamental role in people’s self-esteem and well-being. The PUCRS Dentistry course trains professionals capable of planning, proposing, executing and evaluating oral health projects and treatments, with sensitivity and competence to relate to their patients, maintaining an ethical, supportive and entrepreneurial stance.
Among the possible areas of activity are the coordination and execution of educational, preventive and rehabilitative actions in oral health, management of dental services, coordination of projects and management of health systems and in dental offices and clinics, both in the public service and in institutions private. The course coordinator, João Batista Blessmann Weber, emphasizes the history, uniqueness and exceptionality of the undergraduate course at the School of Health and Life Sciences:
“The course began in 1953 and, since then, it has stood out for its level of excellence, credibility and tradition. Teaching is based on scientific evidence, with a strong connection between basic and vocational training disciplines, offering a well-structured and solid curriculum recognized nationally and internationally in its 70 years of existence”, he comments.
State-of-the-art infrastructure provides unique practical experiences for students
A modern and complete infrastructure that guarantees excellent teaching: this is what students will find in their Dentistry degree at PUCRS. The clinical facilities include 190 complete dental offices, divided into seven outpatient clinics, equipped with the most modern equipment and technologies, in addition to four specific laboratories for training pre-clinical activities. Learning is carried out using cutting-edge technology, such as software, intraoral scanners and digital radiology. In addition to the infrastructure on campus, students carry out activities in the Basic Health Units. There are also Stomatology and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology services located within Hospital São Lucas, where surgical procedures are carried out at hospital level.
For Professor João, one of the factors that makes the course stand out is the University’s complete teaching, research, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, located on a single campus. “All of this infrastructure provides students with different experiences and opportunities throughout their academic journey,” he adds. He also highlights the School Service of the Dentistry course:
“It is the space where students in training carry out practical activities, always supervised by professors from different areas of Dentistry. Outpatient clinics offer an environment conducive to learning, which occurs in an increasing level of complexity, giving students and patients the possibility of carrying out procedures in all dental specialties”, explains the coordinator.
Gabriela’s favorite spaces are the clinics, where, according to her, students spend the majority of their 2nd and 3rd year of graduation and where their view of the profession begins to change.
“There we began to take our first steps with patients and deal with our insecurities. My favorite place is the clinic on the 3rd floor, with the pediatric dentistry team, I feel at home. Even though at the beginning of the course I said I would never do pediatric dentistry, the passion for the area caught me,” says the student.
Furthermore, she also has a fondness for the outpatient clinics in building 6, which, according to her, have a life of their own, always packed with patients, students, teachers and staff. “I love how we can provide real changes to patients, with access to a world-class dental service at more affordable prices,” she adds.
Ivan also loves the clinics, who spends most of his time there, and whose materials and equipment available to students are a strong point for him. Furthermore, he also really likes São Lucas Hospital, which provides a different learning environment. Ivan also highlights the academic directory, a space for students to coexist, of which he is president. “In-person academic training is not just theoretical and practical, it also involves social development”, he states.
In addition to the quality of the physical structure, the teaching staff, mostly made up of masters and doctors, has extensive clinical experience, effectively contributing to the teaching-learning process. All course teachers are encouraged to participate in events with symposiums, lectures and congresses, in addition to bringing graduation closer to cutting-edge research carried out at the University, through integration with the Postgraduate Program in Dentistry.
Comprehensive and humanized training is the strong point of the course
Coordinator João Blessmann states: students who graduate from PUCRS leave prepared for the challenges of the market. Although the Dentistry market is quite competitive, University graduates have comprehensive training, with a robust practical workload, enabling the development of skills that form a differentiated professional to work in any area of Dentistry. He leaves a message for those who are going to take the entrance exam and are thinking about pursuing this profession:
“Experiencing real professional experiences, which bring the theory of classes closer to the reality of the job market, is the desire of those who enter a degree. The PUCRS Dentistry course offers different practical activities and disciplines that integrate the provision of important services for the community, concern for social impact, in addition to the development of technical and human skills.”
Despite there being a Dentistry course five minutes away from Gabriela’s house, who lives in Canoas, she always heard that the Dentistry course at PUCRS was different and that the students were in high demand in the job market, so there was no doubts about where I wanted to study. “I never imagined the structure that the course had in terms of teachers, I thought it was surreal to have a subject with three or more teachers and a building completely set up to serve patients, in which I was privileged to see structural changes that only added value to the course”, comments.
Ivan initially chose PUCRS due to his father’s influence. Living closely with the job market, he believed that the University’s Dentistry training was more complete than that of other institutions and created better professionals – which, today, he claims to be true:
“In addition to PUCRS’ structures, both physical and virtual, the teaching tools available are incomparable to those of other universities, the learning possibilities within PUCRS are limited only by the student’s interest. We have everything we can imagine available and easily accessible.”
