Abstract: What degree should be awarded in “5+3” medical education has raised public concerns and is related to the specific establishment of medical professional degree system and the pathway leading to a professional degree. This article compares the status of professional medical and dental degree training in China with MD/DMD/DDS degree training in the United States and proposes to develop a novel training system of professional doctorate degree of stomatology based on clinical standardized training. In addition, it also integrates both undergraduate and postgraduate education into professional degrees. The goal is to establish an innovative dental education model with advanced mission, improved administration and strict assessment standards. Overall, this model is based on a main line of undergraduate-master-doctor professional degree training system, with the faculty and students as a team. In our proposed model, a “1+1+10” assessment system, including a systematic review, a clinical research report and 10 treatment cases, is built to examine students academic and clinical skills. The aim is to establish a closed-loop “goal-training-assessment” pathway so that we can use this system to develop more dentistry talents who have both strong research background and outstanding clinical skills.

Key words: medical education, professional degree, stomatology, 5+3