• Question: do you have to take science to be a dentist? if so what type? x

    Asked by abbieolivia to Tomasz, Matt, Dave, Aoife, Anzy on 17 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Anzy Miller

      Anzy Miller answered on 17 Nov 2013:

      There are lots of universities that offer dentistry as a course, and each one I think has slightly different entry requirements. So I would advise you to look at the universities that you would like to go to and see what they want you to have studied and what grades they expect you to receive.

      For example Bristol (which I think is a very good uni to do dentistry at- so their entry requirements are high) wants 3 A’s at A level to include Chemistry and one other lab-based science (Human Biology/Biology or Physics).

      Hope that helps!

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 18 Nov 2013:

      Hi abbieolivia

      I’ve interviewed candidates for dentistry and they mostly have A levels in at least two sciences, mainly chemistry and biology. This is because there is a lot of basic biology in the curriculum to help with understanding how dental conditions are caused. For example there are modules in Leeds on molecular genetics because there are dental diseases which are caused by genes and it is important for dentists to understand how the disease occurs.

      What is also important for dentists is having fine finger control, so doing things like jewellery making can really help with an application (I’m assessing how good candidates are at origami (paper folding) next month!).

      If dentistry is what you want to do, speak to your dentist about it and try and get some work experience in a dental surgery. These things are look really good on an application.

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