The Student Room Group

Dentistry Application Tips

Hi everyone,
I completed a work experience in a dental surgery in Sheffield last November in which I took lots of notes. I have made the decision to no longer apply for dentistry, so I have decided to upload my notes to the student room in order to help out people still applying for dentistry. They may be useful to you, maybe not, but imma upload em anyway. GOOD LUCK!

* It’s the things that make you stand out which are more important than being very academic, although that is important

* Get as much work experience as possible. David said to do varied work experience, eg in a clinical practice like fairlawns Cus that’s an outreach programme, in a proper nhs practice like langsett eg behind reception or even behind reception of fairlawns and then experience in a dental lab Cus that allows you to learn lots about the different sectors of dentistry and makes you a very well rounded applicant

* After you have finished your degree you spend a year training with a qualified dentist, called an F1

* Learn about different sectors of dentistry, prosthetics, orthodontics, cosmetic dentistry, forensic dentistry etc

* Don’t say anything In your interview that you can’t back up

* Get as much work experience as possible: 2 weeks minimum for majority of universities. Do work experience in lots of different places, eg a dental prosthetics lab Cus that allows you to see different sides of dentistry and everything that makes up the profession

* Try to do things like DofE to show leadership

* Find reasons as to why I didn’t do 4 as levels cus they will ask about it in the interview

* Sheffield university does outreach so students do 3 6-8 week blocks in a clinical environment away from the dental hospital. Very useful as it allows students to hit the ground running when they become an DF straight out of university. Much more useful that some universities where students just do practice within a hospital

* Sheffield has a virtual reality machine that allows you to practice the movements and technique, really useful as it allows you to hone your hand eye coordination and make sure your technique is good enough to practice on proper patients. Sheffield also has good outreach programmes such as that of fairlawns which enables students to hit the ground running. In addition the university allows students to do a dissection in their first year as opposed to some universities only letting students watch a dissection.

* Some universities only do weekly placements, eg Leeds every Friday which is less useful than 2 6 week blocks and 1 8 week block like what Sheffield do

* Don’t say you want to do dentistry cus of the money Cus interviewers don’t wanna hear it

* Sell yourself in personal statement; talk about karate being a 1st dan and talk about captaining the cricket team. Try to learn a musical instrument? Shows dexterity and is very useful. Could also work for DofE? “Don’t bull****” said David Cus if they ask you about it in the interview and you can’t back it up there’s nothing you can do

* For every dentistry space there are 200 applicants

Reason for doing dentistry as opposed to medicine from aysha:
* Good work life balance
* Allows for continual professional development
* After you’re qualified you can specialise into different areas of dentistry
* You see a massive range of people, very diverse as you meet people from all ages and cultures, broadens your horizons massively
* You continuously see your patients which allows you to establish a rapport with them which is not found in careers like medicine where you only really see your patient after they’ve had a problem
* You can see patients from when their children to when they’re adults 20/30 years later which means dentists can establish solid long term relationships with patients which is simply not possible in other careers

Reasons for doing dentistry as opposed to medicine from Usama
* Meet people from all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds
* You know that every day when you come to work you’re going to be doing something practical and clinical be it a filling or a root canal.
* He also said make sure you get work experience at Charles Clifford as Sheffield university will see that you care about dentistry and are more than willing to learn more about it if you have gone there because Charles Clifford is where the dental school is based and is where the majority of teaching occurs. To get work experience you just need to take them a letter with your cv

Reasons for doing dentistry against medicine from Dom
*

Personal Statement:
* Talk about why you want to do dentistry, could possibly be a childhood trauma, having braces or simply a good experience with a dentist that made you want to pursue a career in the profession
* Sell yourself, show where you have gained your skills and characteristics such as leadership; I did DofE, captained my cricket team. Skills such as dexterity; was a black belt in karate. To show compassion talk about how I volunteered to help out with younger disadvantaged students at school and did big challenge donating nearly 600 pounds to Sheffield children’s hospital charity which shows my compassionate and caring side. Show how you are a social person, I am good at customer facing positions, like how I’m a barista at Starbucks or how I sold Christmas cards to raise money for charity.
With dentistry you are always doing something different

Sheffield is one of the best universities for prosthetics, dental Implants and pathology (studying the cells and diseases such as oral cancer). 92% of Sheffield’s research is graded as world leading or internationally excellent in the latest Research Excellence Framework. Sheffield also has a strong bioengineering aspect such as dental implants, bridges etc

Communication is key, if you have poor communication skills and you can’t convey the necessary information to the patient then you’re not cut out for dentistry

Reasons for choosing Sheffield:
* Sheffield has a great outreach programme for both sixth formers and the dental students which allowed students to hit the ground running and have more practice than other universities, and I like this practical aspect of the degree. In fact I did my work experience in the fairlawns dental practice one of your outreach centres, and it was very interesting to see the professionalism of everyone there and also to see the dentists and hygienists working together as a team to successfully give the patient the best care possible

Usama had a patient in a wheelchair and this situation showed the strong team work aspect of dentistry and how the dentist and hygienist have to work together as a team in order to properly care for the patient, so for example moving things around and getting in the correct positions, even little things like holding doors open in order to reduce the difficulty of the situation

Hope this helps to whoever is reading this!
Wow thank you so much for this.
Really useful as I am hoping to apply for Sheffield dentistry, and under the current circumstances I can’t stop worrying !!
Really useful thanks again
Reply 2
Original post by Ellenaupson
Wow thank you so much for this.
Really useful as I am hoping to apply for Sheffield dentistry, and under the current circumstances I can’t stop worrying !!
Really useful thanks again

No worries!! Also all the names are the student dentists there and david was the main supervisor dentist, just a little FYI for more context :smile:

All the best!!

Quick Reply