One day per week is set aside during year 1 and 2 for course work in Oral Biology. Detailed course descriptions, faculty and the hours of each course can be found in the course catalog offered by the Office of Advanced Graduate Education. Students are required to complete at least 12 credit hours of Oral Biology during the first 2 years of the program, with Advanced Oral Pathology required during the year 1 or year 2. The purpose of these courses is to establish a foundation of knowledge in major areas of Oral Biology and to acquaint students with important issues and research topics in the various areas of consideration, such as Oral Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Biology.

Diagnostic Histopathology Seminar: - back to top

All Oral Medicine students are required to participate in the weekly departmental seminars in Diagnostic Histopathology. These are offered each week for 6 hours, and run during both Fall and Spring Semesters. A total of at least one semester of satisfactory participation is required. The session consists of a review of a discussion of current accessioned cases, archival cases or study sets, or clinical cases with a discussion of the appropriate literature. Generally students spend at least 2-4 hours in advance preparation for the seminar each week, reviewing the cases and prepare for presentation/discussion of the slides. The objectives of the seminar are to expose the students to a diverse sampling of surgical oral pathology cases, to provide an occasion for candidates to review both the clinical and microscopic aspects of oral and maxillofacial diseases, and to provide a forum for critique of case dictation protocol. Care is taken in organizing the seminar to include not only typical and atypical examples of common entities, but also examples of rare and interesting conditions as well.

Additional Required Courses: - back to top

These include one semester each of Biostatistics, General Pathology and Hematology/Oncology (which may be taken during either year 1 or 2, depending on constraints of scheduling). These courses provide students with a review of basic scientific principles that are deemed to be essential for the understanding of oral and maxillofacial disease. Biostatistics reviews concepts of statistical probability, measures of central tendency of data and statistical inference that are necessary for anyone reading the scientific literature or conducting experiments. Detailed course descriptions, faculty and hours are provided in the course catalogs of the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health.

Graduate Level Basic Science

Candidates for the Doctor of Medical Science are required to take at least 3 courses in graduate level Basic Science. A wide selection of courses is offered through other schools at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and students are encouraged to select courses in line with their particular bioscience interests. Examples of topics include Molecular Biology, Immunology, Microbiology and Biology of the Cancer Cell. The objective of this requirement is to allow students in-depth study of topics in which they are interested, and also to facilitate interactions between oral and maxillofacial pathology graduate students and those from other schools. Detailed course descriptions, faculty and hours are to be found in the graduate course catalogues of specific schools at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.