Dentistry VS Dental Technology

I'm really struggling with picking between dentistry and dental technology. My parents are discouraging me from picking dental technology for uni because 'machines' will be doing it for us in the future but I found it really interesting :/. They're really pushing me to do dentistry but I don't know if I'll even get accepted as my UKCAT score was quite low. I'm was planning on applying for both but my parents are making me apply for dentistry for all my choice. Any advice on whether I should listen to my parents or apply for both?

Reply 1

thesunisyelloow

4

Original post by Ewelka19

I'm really struggling with picking between dentistry and dental technology. My parents are discouraging me from picking dental technology for uni because 'machines' will be doing it for us in the future but I found it really interesting :/. They're really pushing me to do dentistry but I don't know if I'll even get accepted as my UKCAT score was quite low. I'm was planning on applying for both but my parents are making me apply for dentistry for all my choice. Any advice on whether I should listen to my parents or apply for both?

they are very different degrees. if you want to do dent then apply, if you dont then dont apply. 5 years is a very long time trust me. with dent tech make sure theres a clear career path after because that is something you get with dent that i dont think you would with dent tech

Reply 2

Ewelka19

OP

2

Thank you so much for this reply ! I’ll try and do a bit more research on dental technology

Reply 3

Mesopotamian…

21

Original post by thesunisyelloow

they are very different degrees. if you want to do dent then apply, if you dont then dont apply. 5 years is a very long time trust me. with dent tech make sure theres a clear career path after because that is something you get with dent that i dont think you would with dent tech

What do you mean by “clear path”?
A degree in Dental technology could naturally precede a career as a dental lab technician - and there’s definitely a need for them.

OP, definitely don’t pick a career based on what you’re parents want you to do - it’ll be you who’ll be living with the consequences (be it good or bad) of that decision for many years to come. If dental technology interests you, do more research into it and be firm with what you want to do. I’ve seen the result of people who do a degree their parent’s chose and it doesn’t always end well.

Reply 4

EveAA

Heyy, I thought i would just message in this chat as I'm a dental technology student. The main difference between a dental technician and a dentist is obviously a dentist comes from a clinical side of things, so they go through treatment planning, more restoration so fillings, actually seeing the patient from day to day ect ect, but as a dental technician you make appliances for patients requested from the dentist but there is a lot of specialties, so you could go into orthodontics, making crowns, dentures (fixed and functional). I don't think that machines will take over the profession (not for a while at least, its not that advanced), everyone's teeth and jaw are completely different, its not like we all have the same shape tooth or jaw size. If you do want to go into the clinical side of things in the future as well then there are courses for clinical dental technology which is like 1 year, or i think at UCLAN you can do the BSc Clinical dental technology course. Also when i was looking at dental technology courses i saw that you can go into dentistry from dental technology at UCLAN, don't quote me on it but i think they still do that. Its personally up to you what you want to do, i've been at university for the last 4 years and i changed course technically twice because i was also stuck between what i want to do. Do what you feel is right and what you enjoy most, like do you see yourself seeing patients daily or do you see yourself making dental appliances, or if you see both then do both. Also i agree with the last persons post, its your life not your parents do what you want to do, its your career not theirs... P.S Sorry for the actual essay xD

Reply 5

Ewelka19

OP

2

Thank you so much for the detailed response! I really appreciate it :3. I already applied for my unis and I applied for a dental technology course and dentistry, so I guess now it depends on what offers I get. I’m happy you said “mechines” won’t take over because when my parents mentioned it I got slightly upset is I was interested in it xd. Also is it possible to do dental technology after dentistry and if yes, how ? xd. Again thank you so much!

Reply 6

EveAA

Yeah it would be possible to do a dental tec course after dentistry, but you’ll probably have to fund it yourself, you get a set number of years with student finance, for an undergraduate degree. So for example my initial course was 4 years so I get 4 years of funding, you get 1 retake year that’s paid for but if you have more than one then you fund that too. There’s lots of options into dental tec qualifications, so you can do a level 3 (Btec), foundation degree (equilivant to a level 5) or an undergraduate degree, each lead for you to be able to register with the General Dental Council (GDC) as a dental technician. There isn’t much difference in pay if you graduate from a level 3,5 or 6 from what I’ve gathered but obviously with an undergraduate degree you get the option to do a masters degree if you want to. Which unis did you apply for dental tec?

Reply 7

Ewelka19

OP

2

Original post by EveAA

Yeah it would be possible to do a dental tec course after dentistry, but you’ll probably have to fund it yourself, you get a set number of years with student finance, for an undergraduate degree. So for example my initial course was 4 years so I get 4 years of funding, you get 1 retake year that’s paid for but if you have more than one then you fund that too. There’s lots of options into dental tec qualifications, so you can do a level 3 (Btec), foundation degree (equilivant to a level 5) or an undergraduate degree, each lead for you to be able to register with the General Dental Council (GDC) as a dental technician. There isn’t much difference in pay if you graduate from a level 3,5 or 6 from what I’ve gathered but obviously with an undergraduate degree you get the option to do a masters degree if you want to. Which unis did you apply for dental tec?

Oh okay thank you! And I applied to central Lancashire for dental technology but I only had 3 unis to choose from for dental tech, central Lancashire seemed the best at the time. Do you know anything about that uni?

Reply 8

EveAA

I don’t personally, I’ve heard good things from people though. I know they have nice facilities over there. :3

Dentistry VS Dental Technology

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