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Applying for Dentistry

I am an EU citizen over 25 and I would like to apply for Dentistry course, so I want to know if it’s going to be very hard to me to do the course because I don’t have any basis and my background in not from sciences. Thank you for answering me :smile:

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

You will need at least Biology and Chemistry to A-level or equivalent, typically at grades A or A*. I believe some dentistry courses require Physics or Maths for the third A-level, but others might accept other subjects (you'll normally need to get at least an A in the other subject unless there are any AAB Dentistry courses, which I don't think there are).

This is just the minimum entry criteria - if you don't have this background, your application won't be considered any further. However if you haven't covered this material before they normally don't have any qualms about you taking the relevant exams later in life. There are also Access to Medicine and Dentistry courses in the UK which cover similar material. However for these, due to the varying course content, it's important to contact the universities you plan to apply to with details of the specific Access course you're considering to check if they will accept it. Additionally, there may be restrictions or limitations on these courses for international students - I think many also require at least 6 months of relevant experience in the NHS.

There are some variants of the course; graduate entry dentistry or "extended" courses which include a foundation year which covers the relevant A-level content - however often these courses are targeted for those who meet widening access criteria such as growing up in foster care, being an ethnic minority, coming from other disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds etc. For the latter set, there may however be one or two targeted at international students. For the former, I think the only one is King's College London which I believe requires a bioscience degree.

Broadly speaking your age will be irrelevant - less generally you will be considered a "mature" student, so they will usually give your application some additional scrutiny and some courses that would otherwise not interview candidates at all may interview you, etc. Otherwise due to discrimination laws they can't, in practice, devalue your application based on your age (which is not that old anyway :tongue: