The TSR Community Awards 2025 are now live >>

DHT/ DH

Hi, I'm applying for QMUL, KCL for DHT and LSBU for Dental hygiene. I quit my last uni course which was nursing and my A level grades are a B in sociology and a D*D in H&SC. I'm going to do an access course in Science due to the qualification requirements. I was wondering if I would still be able to have a chance if I don't have any dental experience as l've asked around and nobody has gotten back to me. If I could link my skills from nursing would it be ok?

Reply 1

friendlyflamingo

Yes you don't HAVE to have dental experience but it would be ideal. Since you have some background in nursing, that's good as you can use your communication skills here (very important in health care and densitry) alot of it may acrjally link in terms of patient care etc so your doing gret

Reply 2

LSBU

Official Rep

Original post

by Purplestarzz

Hi there,

Yes, you still have a strong chance of securing a place on the Dental Hygiene course at LSBU, even if you haven’t managed to secure direct dental work experience yet. Universities understand that dental shadowing can be hard to get, and what matters most is that you can clearly show you know what the role involves and that you’re motivated. You’ve built relevant, caring, and communication skills.

Your background in Nursing and Health & Social Care is actually instrumental. You can absolutely link skills like infection prevention and control, safeguarding, communication, empathy, professionalism, teamwork, record-keeping, working under pressure, and patient-centred care. Those are all directly transferable to dental settings, since dental hygiene is still a clinical role where you support patients, explain procedures, manage anxiety, and work closely with a wider healthcare team.

If you don’t have dental experience, strengthen your application by showing you’ve tried to learn about the profession in other ways. You can mention contacting local practices (even if they didn’t reply), attending online talks/webinars, reading about the scope of practice for dental hygienists/therapists, or speaking with anyone in dentistry. The key is reflecting on what you learned and why it confirmed your interest.

LSBU is an excellent choice because it’s very supportive and practical, and you can speak to the team directly. I’d really recommend coming to our Open Day on Saturday, 7th February, to meet staff, ask what they look for in applicants, and chat with current LSBU students via Unibuddy to hear how they built their experience and what the course is like.

👉 You can sign up here: LSBU Open Day.
👉 You can also chat with our students through our Unibuddy platform: Chat with our students.

So yes, don’t let the lack of dental shadowing stop you. Use your Nursing-related experience confidently, show your understanding of dental hygiene, and explain the steps you’ve taken to explore the career. That combination can make a powerful application for LSBU.

Reply 3

Purplestarzz

thank you so much guys, i was really worried. I just need to figure out which access course to do because there’s so many science ones and the prices and content differ, does anyone recommend any?

https://www.distancelearningcentre.com/course/access-to-he-diploma/science/? - this one has multiple options focusing on science but it’s 1.5k

https://academyonlinelearning.com/our-courses/access-health-science-professions-courses/access-dental-hygiene-and-therapy - this one focuses more on biology and dental hygiene and therapy and it is 1.3k . i’m leaning towards this one because it’s cheaper but i’m not sure if depending on where the access course is done if it affects anything ):

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

How The Student Room is moderated

To keep The Student Room safe for everyone, we moderate posts that are added to the site.

Try out the app

Continue on web