- There are 14 undergraduate dental schools in the UK.
- Dentistry courses usually last about 5 years, unless you choose to intercalate (study another course for 1 year in between).
- Year group sizes are fairly tiny compared to medicine – usually around 75 to 120 (but this can vary in each dental school).
- There are over 13 recognised specialities by the General Dental Council e.g., orthodontics, oral surgery, special care dentistry... so you are never limited and there’s always room to grow. Get taught the basics of most in dental school.
- Never just a dental student…dentistry is very unique because alongside being a university student you are also responsible for your very own set of patients (supervised of course) and so to them YOU are THEIR DENTIST.
- Mixture of clinical teaching and non-clinical teaching – so it's not all lectures and you do get a lot of practical skills development time (you don’t have to be an expert at the start, you can learn as you go).
- Snapshot of some requirements: Biology and Chemistry at A Levels, the UCAT admissions test (all schools) & BMAT admissions test (Leeds Dental School).
- Dental for UCAS applications - 15th October.
- Learn about things other than teeth! The teeth are part of a much bigger picture – dentists even manage to care for people without any at all. We care about people, a whole person not just their mouths (e.g. did you know someone with diabetes or heart disease it at higher risk of developing gum disease – which is a lifelong condition).
- Especially in the first 2 years of the course a lot of the theory covered parallels what those of medicine degrees learn, we do a little bit of everything really e.g., basic pharmacy, whole body anatomy… because remember people don’t just have teeth and you may often be the first person to notice a patient with a certain condition before they even see their GP.
We definitely care about more than just teeth, so over the next few months I can’t wait to show you more about our exciting world with the hopes of inspiring you to one day join us!