Official Dentistry Applicants Thread 2026

If you're applying to university for Dentistry for 2026 entry, this is the place to introduce yourself to fellow applicants, ask questions and share your experience of applying so far.
A few questions to start the conversation:
Which universities are you hoping to apply for?
A level subjects and predicted grades?
Work/shadowing experience?
Anything else?
Share as little or as much information as you are comfortable with.
Please don't share details of interview questions on the forum - it gives those who follow you an unfair advantage.
Sharing or requesting social media handles or group chats is not permitted under the TSR community guidelines.

HI I NEED HELP
UCAT 2150 B2
A*A*A* Predicted maths bio chem
99999888887 GCSES
My choices currently are KCL, QMUL, Cardiff, Manchester, pleaseeee lmk if these are appropriate choices for me. also, is my UCAT not strong enough for Bristol???? And are there any other unis that i could apply to??
Thanks

Do you think applying with 2190 B1 is risky for Birmingham, it was a high performing cohort this year so worried it might not be enough for interview.

Is it risky to apply for dentistry at Bristol with a UCAT of 2350 b1? Last year the cutoff was 3070 which is around 2300 this year. The average for the UCAT also has increased and more people have sat the UCAT this year. The reason I want to apply here is because my interview performance is weak and Bristol has a high post interview rate. Would it just be better to apply elsewhere? I'm thinking of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield as my other 3. I'm a gap year student

as an aspirational absolutely. Whilst averages and deciles have gone up bear in mind in large part it is due to higher interest for international (I suspect less are interested in US now due to political
Situation there so more are looking at UK as viable options. The international highly inflate scores and remember dent apppicants perform much worse than med

HI I NEED HELP
UCAT 2150 B2
A*A*A* Predicted maths bio chem
99999888887 GCSES
My choices currently are KCL, QMUL, Cardiff, Manchester, pleaseeee lmk if these are appropriate choices for me. also, is my UCAT not strong enough for Bristol???? And are there any other unis that i could apply to??
Thanks

If you're applying to university for Dentistry for 2026 entry, this is the place to introduce yourself to fellow applicants, ask questions and share your experience of applying so far.
A few questions to start the conversation:
Which universities are you hoping to apply for?
A level subjects and predicted grades?
Work/shadowing experience?
Anything else?
Share as little or as much information as you are comfortable with.
Please don't share details of interview questions on the forum - it gives those who follow you an unfair advantage.
Sharing or requesting social media handles or group chats is not permitted under the TSR community guidelines.

Applying for Dental Hygiene in this round is a good compromise if you can't apply for dent due to your UCAT. If you get an offer, then after A level results day you can decide whether to start the course or take a gap year and apply for dent instead if you achieve your predicted grades. Just a note - dental hygiene (and therapy) courses are also very competitive.

I am currently in my gap year and am planning to apply for dentistry this year.
My qualifications areCAT - 2120 + band 2
GCSEs - 98998774 (including combined science 9-8) + D* in BTEC Sport
A Levels (achieved in Bio, Chem, Maths respectively) - A*AA
EPQ - A
I was wondering if an application to Cardiff University for their Dental Surgery BDS course is a good idea for me and not a waste of a UCAS spot. The main concern I had was regarding my GCSEs; having a BTEC and also a 4 in a language could hinder my application. A few weeks back I heard that as I have achieved A-levels this could play to my advantage and compensate for the 4 at GCSE. Please if anyone could share some info, thanks!

Just on this, would it be prudent to start a year of dental hygiene and resit UCAT next year or would it be seen as a red flag by dental unis as it means dropping off from Hygiene to pursue Dentistry ?

hey could you tell me how many points id get with gcses 8888888766, achevied AAB and predicted A*A in the two subjects i'm resiting ?? tysm x

You will get 26 points for your GCSE's and 1 point per A level until you reach 28 max points. They only score your top 7 A levels which must include science ones. That is the first cut then if they are oversubscribed and have too many people at the max points they will use UCAT as a decider. My GCSE's added up to 26 points but have no extra points from A levels nor contextual nor being welsh so decided too risky an option for me. I think worth the risk for you though as your A levels in hand give you a bump on the points.

Hi guys, it seems like the Manchester dentistry UCAT cutoffs are causing a bit of confusion. Last year it seems like they accepted some candidates with band 3, hence the very high UCAT cut off. However now they have explicitly said that they are no longer accepting B3/B4 applicants; I am quite unsure to what the cut offs will be for this year or will the band 2 applicants fall under what was previously the band 3 threshold?

Yep, everything seems a bit unclear this year tbh. Manchester assuming high cut off - probably need to be in top decile or thereabouts around score of 2220 to be in with a reasonable chance. Apparently, reading up on it, if you are above their yearly decided threshold ranking you automatically get an interview just based on UCAT and if you meet minimum grade requirements. It is only if you are borderline that they then use a more holistic approach and your academics (GCSE's) might help you get an interview. At least thats how I read it. So with UCAT score of 2220 Band 1; I'm even a bit unsure of whether its a safe bet or not this year?!? My GCSE's, whilst good by any other standard, were not amazing. So its anyones guess really - just have to try and make a reasonably educated guess based on info we have I suppose. Feels a bit like a lottery after all the effort put in to UCAT work over the Summer.