Academic reset just to do dentistry??

I’m currently in my third year of a Computer Science degree. It’s a solid course, and I know it leads to good career opportunities with strong earning potential. The thing is, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about switching into the medical field — specifically dentistry. Dentistry feels like a “wow” career to me, something meaningful and rewarding, but I’m stuck on whether it’s realistic or worth the hassle.
The problem is my academic background. My GCSEs were mostly 4s and 5s, and for A-levels I didn’t take the traditional route — I did a BTEC in Applied Science and got MMM. Unfortunately, I’ve looked into it, and no UK dental schools seem to accept those grades or qualifications for entry. The only way in would be to resit my GCSEs, then do A-levels in sciences and aim for high grades before even applying, which could mean years of extra study, a lot of debt, and starting over quite late.
So right now I’m torn. On one hand, I could stay on my current path with Computer Science — it’s a respected degree with lots of opportunities, and I could start my career soon after graduating. On the other hand, I feel pulled towards dentistry, but it would mean resetting my entire academic journey with no guarantee of success.
I guess what I’m really wondering is — is the dream of dentistry worth the time and debt, or should I commit fully to Computer Science and build from there?
I’d really appreciate your honest advice on whether you think the dentistry path is worth the time and risk, or if I should stay on track with Computer Science.

I’m currently in my third year of a Computer Science degree. It’s a solid course, and I know it leads to good career opportunities with strong earning potential. The thing is, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about switching into the medical field — specifically dentistry. Dentistry feels like a “wow” career to me, something meaningful and rewarding, but I’m stuck on whether it’s realistic or worth the hassle.

The problem is my academic background. My GCSEs were mostly 4s and 5s, and for A-levels I didn’t take the traditional route — I did a BTEC in Applied Science and got MMM. Unfortunately, I’ve looked into it, and no UK dental schools seem to accept those grades or qualifications for entry. The only way in would be to resit my GCSEs, then do A-levels in sciences and aim for high grades before even applying, which could mean years of extra study, a lot of debt, and starting over quite late.

So right now I’m torn. On one hand, I could stay on my current path with Computer Science — it’s a respected degree with lots of opportunities, and I could start my career soon after graduating. On the other hand, I feel pulled towards dentistry, but it would mean resetting my entire academic journey with no guarantee of success.

I guess what I’m really wondering is — is the dream of dentistry worth the time and debt, or should I commit fully to Computer Science and build from there?

I’d really appreciate your honest advice on whether you think the dentistry path is worth the time and risk, or if I should stay on track with Computer Science.

I think before you let things get away from yourself, check whether there are any graduate entry dentistry courses that will accept a CS degree. As if you have to apply to standard entry dentistry, you won't get full funding for it as a second degree as I understand - you would only get a maintenance loan for most of it I believe, and no tuition fee loan. That might make that a non-starter.
Given that you are already in third year you don't really need make any major decisions now anyway - you should be aiming to complete your degree and then will need to take some time to get relevant work experience etc. So you're unlikely to be going directly from graduating into a dentistry degree regardless. And at that point if you don't get in...you still have the CS degree.

Yes your right!! Given that ill have a cs degree you reckon my previous qualifications like gcse would be in consideration or not

For graduate entry courses I doubt they would even consider them outside of minimum requirements for GCSE English lang/maths.
For standard entry courses as a graduate they may or may not score them, I suspect not though.

Yhh but majority of uk universities only consider a degree that is biology related