[Psychology in the curriculum of Royal Dental College, Copenhagen]

In the curriculum of the Royal Dental College, Copenhagen, psychology has been offered as a separate discipline since 1986. In total there are 38 lectures and 31 seminars each of 2 hours. The teaching is divided into 6 main subjects: theory og education (learning, remembering and thinking), motivation and emotion, personality and the individual, biological and developmental processes, social behavior and conflict, adjustment and mental health. A general theme is a psychological understanding of anxiety and pain, and how to create positive attitudes and behavior to dental care and to the dentist. The lectures and seminars are primarily placed in the two first semesters of the dental education. In the final part of the education there are follow-up teaching in the disciplines pedodontics, gerodontics, sociology and dental ethics.