The College of Dentistry is the cornerstone for dental research in Kuwait and we take great pride in our research programs. Research activities fulfill the College’s mission to contribute to the knowledge necessary to improve the oral health of the community. With state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, the college strives to provide collegiate dental researchers to meet the continually evolving oral health care needs. Research conducted at the college involves basic sciences and clinical/health services research. The college of dentistry collaborates with local, regional and international institutes to help establish strong scholarly foundations and pipelines in the nation. These involve organizational memberships and collaborations with the International Association for Dental Research and the World Health Organization. Research activities are conducted at the faculty, postgraduate and undergraduate level. 

The college of dentistry provides 2 Master of Science (MSc) programs in oral microbiology and dental materials. Both are thesis-based programs where graduate students conduct research in areas of their interest within the fields. The programs comprise of lectures, interactive sessions including theoretic and practical tutorials followed by students’ supervised laboratory training. To promote implementation of obtained knowledge pre-distributed literature are discussed after each lecture in a seminar followed by laboratory sessions. One-to-one discussions on the lecture topics with the lecturers are scheduled. Scientific oral presentations are conducted regularly. In addition to providing knowledge of the oral microbiome and dental materials, the multifaceted programs are planned to enhance students’ own curiosity and initiative as well as motivate them to train their scientific communication skills.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

The undergraduate research activity is conducted within a mandatory research project course. This is an introductory course to research for dental students.  The course mainly aims at familiarizing undergraduate dental students with methods of collecting, analyzing, interpreting and reporting research data. The course serves as an aid to prepare future dental graduates for an evidence-based dental practice.  Each student is therefore expected to conduct a research project in an area of dentistry. The student identifies the topic after discussing it with the potential supervisor of the project under the guidance of the course director during the final 3 years of the program. Students are free to pursue topics of their greatest intellectual and creative interests and are guided to communicate their results. Students are encouraged to challenge themselves intellectually and use their creativity to address new questions, discover new technology and skills and to apply these discoveries to the dental profession and the community it serves. We believe that research helps students move their learning beyond the classroom.