Is dentistry worth it? Should I change my degree?

Hi again! Well for me it was a slightly complicated process. My urge of switching courses/universities started in early December of my first year. During Christmas break, I wasted no time and started another UCAS application and actually written a new personal statement as well as informed my old school that I am reapplying again. But at that time, I haven't actually dropped out of Dentistry yet.

I did all of that to basically save time from taking a gap year after Dentistry. By reapplying through UCAS earlier, I had the chance of starting my new course right after the summer break after completing Dentistry first year.

To answer your question of whether or not you should write on your UCAS application that you dropped out is entirely up to you I feel. For me, I was completely honest when I did my application. I wrote on my personal statement that I left Dentistry (note: I haven't actually dropped out at the time yet...haha) because I wish to keep my career options out there more open and that Dentistry is too specialised of a course. Besides that, I wrote that during Dentistry, I realised that I was interested in other things (e.g. biochemistry, economics, cell biology) and wish to pursue that in the future. I reassured the universities that I am willing to work hard the next time around.

Only two of the five universities actually asked for my first year grades. I reluctantly gave it to them because my results were so average, like less than 60% Thankfully, Imperial accepted my transcript and gave me an offer. I was pleasantly surprised at that. Overall, I got 4/5 acceptances even when I noted on my personal statement I quitted Dentistry.

There is no need for you to tell them. It was just a personally choice for me. They might be curious about what you did during the (gap) year (aka your first year of dentistry). But I guess you could say that you did something else.

Anyways I just realised that the deadline for 2014 entry is due on the 15th of January next year for most courses. If you want to submit a new app for UCAS, you really need to get working on your new personal statement ASAP. But it really depends on whether or not you want to stay in the same university or not. Do you want to switch to another university? If not, you could just ask you tutor on whether or not you can transfer to another course at the same university. It's up to you.

Okay thanks! I was just wondering isn't there a section on the UCAS application where you have to indicate whether you're currently in university? And when did you actually tell your previous uni you were leaving if you finished the first year? Would I be able to send an application and decide later once I have offers or would my current uni find out anyway?

I like my current university so I might just ask for a transfer if it comes to it, the only reason I'd want to apply to a different uni is to have a shot at an offer from a higher ranking university or one in Scotland since it might still be possible for me to get free education if I go there.

Well, I don't think it's necessary for you to indicate on UCAS that you are currently in university because for me, my previous university did not know at all that I was reapplying. They only knew when I asked them for a university reference in February/March to be submitted to my prospective universities. My personal tutor at my previous university was brilliant because she kept things confidential and did not tell the rest of the dental faculty about me maybe considering to switch courses and schools. She actually encouraged me to switch courses in the same university but I opted for a different one. But honestly, you don't have to say anything about you being in uni right now.

To answer your last question, absolutely yes. Your current uni would not know unless you actually tell them. What I did was I waited for offers to roll in and from then on, I decided on whether or not this university/course is worth me transferring out of dentistry. Yea, you should go for the higher rankings schools! If you were to switch, what course do you currently have in mind?

Thanks, I was thinking maybe computer science or maths as I'm quite a logical person and like solving problems. Problem is I don't have too much background knowledge in computer science, I only recently developed an interest in it since my sister started learning about programming and it looked interesting. So I feel like it's too soon for me to know if I want to do it as it may be different from what I think.

Before I thought I would do a biology degree if I didn't get into dentistry as I was never too keen on physics in school, the only part of it I liked was the electronics/circuits part. But after doing biology in dental school I think I'm not as keen as I used to be, though I do find some of it interesting. My strengths were always in things where I didn't have to memorise too much and could just figure things out.

Need to decide soon whether to send an application though, hopefully it won't be too short notice for my school to write a reference. Not really sure how my parents would react to it though.

What did you decide to do in the end ? Someone made a statement on here that dentistry is repetitive - not in my world. Every patient is different, every mouth is different, so is every tooth and even every cavity. I find it opposite of boring. If you have not decided yet what to do please bear in mind that dentistry as you see it from year 1 undergrad has little resemblance with what it is in real life. Moreover , in real life it is very different to different dentists as we do and perceive things differently. One could use put emphasis on their business and interpersonal skills and create a profitable practice, someone else without particular passion for work could keep their head low, do simple treatments and focus their energy on family, hobbies or whatever else while enjoying comfortable income that dentistry would provide. People with more technical or artistic side could specialise and see it as a challenge. Every day at work there is something that makes me feel good , that makes me feel I done something worthwhile - pleasant surprise of a patient who did not feel the injection or seeing I managed to get through to someone on the topic of oral higiene and now they are set for life to have good teeth. Removing people's pain - what can be more rewarding than that? May be making people feel good about themselves when for years they felt conscious about the way they look due to their teeth and after my work they feel free to give the world a wide smile?
On a more pracrical note re employment prospectives - there are always vacancies , specially in corporate pracrices. So you are not going to be jobless. Granted there are downsides to those positions but so are to any position in any profession.

You do realise corporate dentistry will all but kill off UK dentistry, right?

"Kill it" - there would be no dentists in the UK? There would be only foreign dentists in the UK? You probably meant that dentistry has changed a lot and is going to change even more in the UK with which I agree.
I have come across advertisement by UK's largest corporate in which they published a review by a happy dentist working for them. He/she was happy they could get a mortgage and buy a house and were thankful to a corporate for providing them with a working place to eaen money for it. So I thought to myself :" That is what dentistry came to now , one is happy one can buy a house".
So life must be tough out there if there is a stampede to get into a career which gives you an option of buying a house after years of debt and effort. Or may be the new applicants are still imaging porshes and helicopters as usual attributes of dentistry and will be bitterly disappointed 5 years down the line? ..

Seriously? I was actually referring to the moral (or rather, immoral) nature of corporate dentistry, transitioning from doing the right thing for patients to meeting the intense UDA quotas that corporate dentists are put under. It's a philosophical, ethical death, not a literal one (although some may argue that corporate dentistry may kill off NHS dentistry - the government is looking for a reason to say that the NHS is not up to standard, and as soon as that happens, no more state dentistry for those who need it most - the Inverse Care Law quite clearly in effect). Indeed, GDC Standard 1 is to put patients' best interests first - if you fail to do that, you've failed all the other standards. One might argue that's the same working under a principal, but the entire mentality of corporate dentistry is inherently geared towards money.

Just because 'one person' says that corporate is great, doesn't mean that it is - that's confirmation bias. Instead, dentists are treated awfully, lose much of their agency and are almost no different from any other office worker in terms of their occupational freedom. To address the so-called elephant in the room, they're also going to be earning less. Go ahead and deride me, but I'm sorry that I have to pay £45,000 plus student loan (and that's not including the price hike and interest) unlike you, who paid considerably less to achieve the same qualification.

Also, how dare you patronise me. I hate the mentality that there's a worry amongst dental professionals that there's an erosion of professional values amongst students, but as soon as one dares to uphold whatever integrity the dental profession has left (thanks to, in no small part, the dental professionals themselves), they're immediately shot down and told they don't know nothing, or that they're too naive. I may not be as qualified as you, but that gives you no right to talk down to me in such a way. I'm sorry that you are so obnoxiously condescending that you feel insulting me and questioning my motives to do dentistry is the only thing you can say to me.

I'm currently in the first year of dentistry but have been doubting my decision about pursuing this degree.

I have given my reasons below but was wondering if there are any dentists/clinical dental students out there who could give there opinion on the profession:
do you enjoy the work? does the monotony get boring eventually? Is the lifestyle really what it's made out to be? would you do it again or do another degree?


Since before I began the course I was never particularly excited about starting dentistry and was wondering about whether I should do it. But since I put so much effort into applying and was so determined to get in I didn't want to regret not taking the offer as it's such a competitive course.

However the problem is I don't really know what I want to do with my life. I picked the course as a safe option with good job prospects, salary, that I thought I would find relatively interesting and that would give me free time to spend with my family and on hobbies. Before I thought if I didn't like the job it would be well paid enough for me to support myself part time and try something else. But now I'm wondering if it was a mistake to pick something so specialised as what else could I move into?

I'm now wondering if it would have been better to pick a different, less specialised course and enjoy more free time at uni with a wider variety of career options at the end. But I keep thinking I may just end up in the same situation - on a course I'm not sure of but with worse job prospects.

What did you decide to do in the end ? Someone made a statement on here that dentistry is repetitive - not in my world. Every patient is different, every mouth is different, so is every tooth and even every cavity. I find it opposite of boring. If you have not decided yet what to do please bear in mind that dentistry as you see it from year 1 undergrad has little resemblance with what it is in real life. Moreover , in real life it is very different to different dentists as we do and perceive things differently. One could use put emphasis on their business and interpersonal skills and create a profitable practice, someone else without particular passion for work could keep their head low, do simple treatments and focus their energy on family, hobbies or whatever else while enjoying comfortable income that dentistry would provide. People with more technical or artistic side could specialise and see it as a challenge. Every day at work there is something that makes me feel good , that makes me feel I done something worthwhile - pleasant surprise of a patient who did not feel the injection or seeing I managed to get through to someone on the topic of oral higiene and now they are set for life to have good teeth. Removing people's pain - what can be more rewarding than that? May be making people feel good about themselves when for years they felt conscious about the way they look due to their teeth and after my work they feel free to give the world a wide smile?
On a more pracrical note re employment prospectives - there are always vacancies , specially in corporate pracrices. So you are not going to be jobless. Granted there are downsides to those positions but so are to any position in any profession.

Hey, I know this is late but in case you still wanted to know I stuck with it and am now in my 4th year. There are times I like it there are times I find it very frustrating, unfortunately I can't say there has ever been a moment where I have considered it to be a passion at most it has been enjoyable. If I could start over I think I would pick something else not because it's a bad job just because after going through it I think I've realised that a different kind of work would have been better suited to me.

Hello! I’m currently doing my A levels and have got to apply for Medicine/Dentistry/Vet sciences in maximum 2 months. I am feeling exactly like how you expressed yourself in this post and is extremely stressed out as I am thinking of applying to dentistry for the same reasons as u did. If you dont mind, I would like to know if you regretted ur decision of study dentistry and was it worth it?

Just wanted to say how lovely it is to see an old thread being bumped and the OP actually taking the time to come back and provide an update.

Congrats on completing your course, and I hope you enjoy working when you start your first job!

Thank you it's very sweet of you to say so I'm glad if I can be of any help as I remember how much I struggled myself when making these big decisions.

Thank you, I am looking forward to it!