Professional education in the health sciences manifests characteristics that are distinct from other advanced educational programs. Academic standards of the School of Dentistry are established to ensure that the public, whose health will be entrusted to graduates of the School’s programs, will receive care of professionally acceptable quality and that the care will be provided in an ethical and professional manner. The School's academic requirements are described in the following two sets of standards, one for scholarly achievement and one for professional conduct.

Standards of Scholarship

1. Pre-doctoral dental and pre-baccalaureate dental hygiene students must maintain at least a 2.5 GPA each semester in dental school. Failure to attain a 2.5 GPA in any semester will result in the students being placed on probation for the next semester. All students who are placed on probation must review their academic progress with the chair of the Academic Standards Committee. A second consecutive semester with a GPA below 2.5 will result in dismissal from the School. A total of three semesters with GPAs below 2.5 will result in dismissal from the School. For a semester to count toward removing students from probation, they must be enrolled full-time (at least 5 hours in summer or 12 hours in fall or spring semesters).  Two semesters separated by a summer session in which the student is enrolled in less than five credit hours will be considered consecutive semesters.
   
2. Failure of any course (receiving a grade of F or No Credit) will necessitate additional work to remove or replace the F or No Credit. The course may be repeated at another dental school or dental hygiene program, with the approval of the associate dean for academic affairs, or during the next offering of the course at this school. Students will receive whatever grade they earn in the repeated courses and both grades will appear on their transcript and be included in the grade-point average. Students who fail only one course in a given semester may petition the course instructor for a remediation program if their failure was the result of performance slightly below acceptable standard (e.g., 60 percent where 65 percent is required for passing, or poor performance on one section of the course with acceptable performance in other sections). Any remediation program can take whatever form the course instructor deems appropriate. Possible examples:
   • Independent study for a number of weeks followed by an examination.
   • Remedial summer laboratory work followed by a laboratory examination.
   • A series of written exercises followed by an examination.
   If students successfully complete a remediation program, their grades of F or No Credit will be changed to grades of D or Credit. A second failure or No Credit in the remediated course will result in dismissal from the program.
3. Any student who fails a course will be required to meet with the Academic Affair dean to prepare an altered curriculum plan that includes the completion of this course for the Committee's approval. An approved altered curriculum plan may result in an extension of the academic program because the student has demonstrated difficulty in dealing with the standard curriculum and may need additional coursework, review and/or supplemental instruction to successfully complete the curriculum.

Standards of Professional Conduct

1. Dental and dental hygiene students must achieve and consistently demonstrate acceptable levels of personal hygiene and dress.
2. Dental and dental hygiene students must achieve and consistently demonstrate concern for patients, peers, and others. Dental and dental hygiene health care providers have a duty to ensure:
   1. That patients are treated according to their desires and must be included in treatment decisions.
   2. Patient confidentiality in the entire range of the provider-patient relationship which includes dental records.
   3. That no harm or potential harm is done to the patient either through intent, ignorance, lack of preparation for the patient encounter, lack of skill, personal impairment of any kind.
   4. That no patient is "abandoned" which is defined as discontinuance of care without just cause and without giving the patient adequate notice and the opportunity to obtain the services of another provider.
   5. That the patient’s welfare (i.e. the provision of competent and timely delivery of dental care within the bounds of clinical circumstances as presented by the patient such as needs, desires and values) is paramount and takes precedence above all else. This also includes the obligation to: 1) identify and report perioral signs of abuse and neglect and to consult with faculty to report suspected cases to proper authorities as required by law; and, 2) report instances of faulty treatment whether intentional or not, to the appropriate faculty member.
   6. That all people including patients, staff, faculty and all other individuals are treated fairly, respectfully, and without prejudice.
   7. All standards and requirements of patient care established by the School of Dentistry are followed.
3. Dental and dental hygiene students' behavior must exemplify the highest moral and ethical standards. The following represent conduct that is incompatible with these standards:
   1. Any behavior that tends to gain an unfair advantage for any student in an academic matter. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following guidelines:
      • No student shall during an examination have, use, or solicit any unauthorized information or material (written or oral), copy from another student's paper or discuss the examination with any other person.
      • No student shall during an examination knowingly give any unauthorized aid to another student.
      • No student shall acquire by any means knowledge of the contents of an examination yet to be given.
      • No student shall fraudulently claim for credit any classroom, clinical, laboratory, or other procedure or assignment performed by an unauthorized person, including a fellow student.
   2. Anyone who has reasonable cause to believe that a student has acted unethically is obligated to bring the matter to the attention of the assistant dean for student programs or his/her designee who will follow the process identified in the Preliminary Procedures section of the UMKC School of Dentistry Honor Council Due Process Procedures for Violations of the Standards of Professional Conduct, to determine whether there has been a violation and whether charges should be brought.
4. Serious deficiencies in conduct as listed in the School of Dentistry Standards of Professional Conduct, or as outlined in Section 200.010, Standards of Conduct, of the University of Missouri Collected Rules and Regulations, by a dental or dental hygiene student shall be reported to the assistant dean for student programs or his/her representative, who will initiate the process as listed under "Preliminary Procedures".