Dear Students,
Lokman Hekim University, located in our capital city Ankara, has created a unique first by hosting five health-related faculties under a health-themed university concept. Our Faculty of Dentistry, one of these faculties, is rapidly progressing and fills us with justified pride. Our programs, available in both Turkish and English, offer a five-year education where students develop their professional skills through pre-clinical practice courses alongside basic medical courses and theoretical dentistry courses in the first three years.
Our pre-clinical practical courses are conducted in fully equipped Prosthetics and Multidisciplinary Phantom Laboratories, and the applications to be performed on patients are taught through simulations that provide conditions identical to clinical settings. The fourth and fifth years focus heavily on clinical practice, organized to allow students to perform all treatments under the supervision of faculty members.
Our faculty has been accepted as a member by the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE). Our education model is structured within a system recommended by the ADEE and implemented in European Union countries. Thus, the courses in our curriculum include all the knowledge and competencies required for dentists graduating from EU countries. Additionally, our faculty implements an educational program in line with the National Core Education Program for Undergraduate Dentistry-2024 (DUCEP-2024), which is valid in all dentistry curricula.
Dear future dentist colleagues, your material is human. Never forget this, and particularly in your patient-side applications, ensure that you develop prudence with utmost care. Rest assured that our entire academic staff and I will make infinite efforts and be vigilant in fostering this.
Our goal in education is to go beyond traditional teaching and train highly equipped, technologically adept, ethically grounded, and contemporary dentists with a five-year program befitting 21st-century dentistry.
Dentistry is a valuable profession that encompasses both science and art and is closely related to aesthetic concepts. Nowadays, digitalization is extending its reach everywhere, rapidly drawing our profession into its sphere. The educational aspects of these applications, which minimize the time factor in procedures and provide various comforts and conveniences for both the dentist and the patient, are fully integrated into our curriculum. Our primary goal is to continuously update our knowledge and impart this to our students, training dentists who are internationally recognized, possess advanced knowledge and research skills, and have a developed sense of social responsibility.
The preference for our faculty by international students is increasing daily. Our aim is to provide the best dentistry education in Turkey, with a strong academic staff for both domestic and international students. Our greatest principle is to train dentists who adhere to the oath of Hippocrates, who lived in Ancient Times and is considered the founder of Western medicine, and to send you off at the end of your educational journey with this oath, proud to be graduates of Lokman Hekim University Faculty of Dentistry.
We believe that we will carry out this honorable and important duty with the highest sense of responsibility, and I extend my gratitude to all my dear colleagues in the academic and administrative staff whose efforts I have no doubt.
With love and respect,
Prof. Dr. LALE KARAAĞAÇLIOĞLU
