Any questions about applying, personal statements or interviews?

I know its very difficult to get in but i'd like to know if job opportunities would be relevant depending on the uni you went to or would it be irrelevant?

I'm less keen on PBL in the first two years in particular because i don't think that it suits the type of information that you're being taught. The basic clinical sciences don't particularly lend themselves to being learned via pbl. That's what i feel anyway. I think that the sheer amount of content you have to cover and understand (which is ****ing huge) is much better delivered in a lecture based environment, more similar to school We DO have PBLs but they're somewhat different to the way that universities like manchester/liverpool might do them.

Barts does offer intercalation

I'm not currently intercalating

You can intercalate in oral biology and this is by far the most sensible and common choice, but there are a wide range of other things such as pharmacology, neuroscience etc.

Intercalation is pretty rare in dentistry but very common in medicine. (i don't know any dentists who have intercalated, most of the medics i know want to though)

I don't know of any other universities that offer intercalation with the exception of kings college london.

Intercalation is pretty irrelevant to General practice. However, if you want to become an academic or go into research and become a lecturer or a professor etc. Then it suddenly starts to become much much more desirable. For specialisation, intercalation isn't really necessary as such, but it can't hurt.

My opinion is, if it's something you really want to do...or you really want to go into research. Then intercalate to your hearts content! It will probably also give you a bit of an edge in any interview or job application you go for...but not by a huge amount in my opinion.

The intercalation offered at barts right now have all been changed to one years MSc's rather than one year BSc's too...so i guess that's an added bonus?

Ah interesting thank you very much. I was curious because I know that for any chance at being high up in a specialism as a doctor you need to intercalculate (most do anatomy if they want to be a surgeon I believe), i guess that is not the case for dentists. Any idea what you want to specialise in or do you plan to go into general practice?

That's true...i live with 5 medics. All of whom want to intercalate at somepoint. For them it carries a lot more points in their foundation training assessments. UCL for example make all of their students intercalate as a compulsory year!

In dentistry....it's not really caught on yet. However, dentistry is becoming more and more competitive and perhaps in a few years it will be the same as medicine and in order to get anywhere you will have to intercalate. Who knows?

I myself, am somewhat torn. On the one hand i really really want to be an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. It's what i've always wanted to do since i started out in dental school. However, as i've matured and gotten a bit older, wiser and uglier! I've also started to appreciate other things in life, such as family, hobbies, time to myself and a good night's sleep! These are things which are sacrificed to a greater or lesser degree in a career like maxfax. However, a career as a GDP promises 9-5 hours, no on-call and a great social life. But the question i have to ask myself is whether that is the life for me...can i turn my back on the excitement and passion that i feel when i think about maxfax?

The simple answer is...i'll have to try it and see. Perhaps i'll know more what i want to do after another 3 years in dental school? I can do my DFY1 in general dentistry then i can do a DFY2 in maxfax as a senior house officer. This should give me some real hands-on experience and then...hopefully...i'll know for sure what i want to do with the rest of my life

I'm bored and i fancy helping some potential applicants if i can

So, fire away....ask whatever you want and i'll try to answer it as best i can. It can be about life at dental school...hell it can even be questions about the science of dentistry or ethics or the GDC or whatever.