Graduate Entry Dentistry

As a graduate, entry to dentistry is slightly different. Given you have had more time to consider the career, and potentially more opportunities to distinguish yourself as the right person for the course and the role, universities will expect more of you than for an undergraduate.

Learn more about what current and former graduate entry students have to say about their experience.

Fast track (3 year)

Kings College London (A204) is currently the only UK institute to offer a 3 year fast track Dentistry degree programme. This is exclusive for Medical Graduates Only.

Entry criteria:

Applicants must be qualified doctors (registered with the UK General Medical Council) and completed Foundation Years 1 and 2, and wish to pursue a career in either oral and maxillofacial surgery or oral medicine/pathology.

UCAT is not needed for entry.

Universities who offer formal Fast track (4 year)

Aberdeen (A201)
Entry criteria:
Applicants must hold a good honours degree (1st or 2:1) in a medical science or health related degree from a UK university. If you are in doubt about the acceptability of your degree please contact the Dental Admissions Office (dentistry@abdn.ac.uk) for advice.
Please include details on the courses and content of your degree. For BSc Oral Health Sciences students we would look for evidence of academic excellence in their programme of study. Applicants would need to be able to demonstrate that they have achieved marks that would be at least equivalent level to an upper second/first class performance on their degree programme. This could include details of individual modules and the level of attainment achieved. Please note: that due to the large number of graduate applicants with 2:1 Honours degrees or better, an additional qualification such as an MSc will not improve the chances of acceptance for those with 2:2 Honours degrees.

UCLAN (A202)
Entry Criteria:
2:1 Degree in a Biomedical discipline, plus 3 A-Levels at grade C or above (at least 2 must be from Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) General Studies is not counted towards A Level entry

KCL (A202)
This is one of Kings College London’s Dentistry formal pathways for Graduates, the other being the three year programme for medics only.
Entry criteria:
A minimum 2:1 (upper second class honours) undergraduate degree (or international equivalent) in a Biosciences subject or 2:2 (lower second class honours) undergraduate degree with a postgraduate degree (with at least a Merit) in a Biosciences subject.
Graduate applicants do not normally have to satisfy the usual A-level or other entry requirements (e.g. you are not expected to have A*AA at A-level at the first attempt). The minimum entry requirement is grade B at A-level in Chemistry and Biology plus an upper second class honours degree. Alternatively, a lower second class honours degree is acceptable combined with a master's degree (with at least a merit). Graduates who have a sufficient quantity of Biology or Chemistry as part of their degree may not need the A-Level in this subject.
KCL also allow graduate entrants to apply for the 5 year undergraduate programme too.Listing both A202 and A205 would maximised the chance of studying at King’s

Each Dental Specialty (taken from GDC website)

1. Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology
Involves all aspects of medical imaging which provide information about anatomy, function and diseased states of the teeth and jaws.

2. Dental Public Health
A non-clinical specialty involving the science and art of preventing oral diseases, promoting oral health to the population rather than the individual. It involves the assessment of dental health needs and ensuring dental services meet those needs.

3. Endodontics
The cause, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries of the tooth root, dental pulp, and surrounding tissue.

4. Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
Diagnosis and assessment made from tissue changes characteristic of disease of the oral cavity, jaws and salivary glands. This is a clinical specialty undertaken by laboratory-based personnel.

5. Restorative Dentistry
Involves replacing missing teeth, repairing damaged teeth and extends to rehabilitation of the whole mouth, based on the three monospecialties prosthodontics, periodontics and endodontics .

6. Oral Medicine
Oral health care of patients with chronic, recurrent and medically related disorders of the mouth and with their diagnosis and non-surgical management.

7. Oral Microbiology
Diagnosis and assessment of facial infection, typically bacterial and fungal disease. This is a clinical specialty undertaken by laboratory-based personnel who provide reports and advice based on interpretation of microbiological samples.

8. Oral Surgery
The treatment and ongoing management of irregularities and pathology of the jaw and mouth that require surgical intervention. This includes the specialty previously called Surgical Dentistry.

9. Orthodontics
The development, prevention, and correction of irregularities of the teeth, bite and jaw.

10. Paediatric Dentistry
Comprehensive therapeutic oral health care for children from birth through adolescence, including care for those who demonstrate intellectual, medical, physical, psychological and/or emotional problems.

11. Periodontics
The diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases and disorders (infections and inflammatory) of the gums and other structures around the teeth.

12. Prosthodontics
The replacement of missing teeth and the associated soft and hard tissues by prostheses (crowns, bridges, dentures) which may be fixed or removable, or may be supported and retained by implants.

13. Special Care Dentistry
The improvement of the oral health of individuals and groups in society who have a physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, medical, emotional or social impairment or disability or, more often, a combination of these factors. It pertains to adolescents and adults.

Typical Careers in Dentistry

General Dental Practitioner

Most dentists work as General Dental Practitioners also termed GDPs.

GDPs have a broad range of skills and work usually in ‘high street’ practices providing a variety of routine and complex treatments. GDPs are usually self-employed and work under an associateship agreement with the practice owner. A GDP may work solely under the NHS, be a mixed NHS and private practitioner or sole provide private treatments. This would often be based upon the practice they work within. Most practices in UK are mixed practices providing contractural NHS services and private dental treatments.

A GDP can enhance their scope of practice by undertaking structured learning and additional postgraduate training to develop skills. Examples of these include, but are not limited to, dental implant placement and restoration, non surgical facial aesthetic treatments and intravenous conscious sedation. Therefore a ‘general’ dentist may undertake formal postgraduate training e.g. MSc in Implant Dentistry to enhance their skill set.

Further more, GDPs have the flexibility in their career to work full time or part time (depending on their contractual agreement). This offers great possibility to have work-life harmony. Some choose to work part time in hospital or another practice, undertake lectureship or teaching positions or spend the time conducting personal non dental activities.

Hospital Dentistry

Hospital dentistry comprises of four service deliveries:

Dental consultant led treatment planning and management- often patients referred from primary care practice. These may include, but not limited to, oncology, hypodontia, cleft-lip and palate patients.
Complex dental care for in-patients such as head and neck cancer patients in oral and maxillofacial departments or orthognathic (jaw) surgery patients.
Emergency dental care for out-patients such as acute dental pain or dental trauma
Medically compromised out-patients requiring treatment in hospital setting as treatment is too complex for primary dental care. For example patients taking intravenous bisphoshonates for cancer who are at risk of Medication Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw following dental extraction (tooth removal).

Hospital dentists are salaried employee’s. The Hospital also facilitates a pathway for NHS postgraduate training. Here, dentists undertake structured training to gain specialist status and, where applicable, attain consultant position. Dental hospitals also facilitate university training for dentistry students on patients.

Dentists working in a hospital may generally fall under these job categories:

Dental Consultant
Specialty Registrar (StR)
Specialty Dentist / Staff Grade (SpD)
Dental Core Trainee/ Senior House Officer (DCT/SHO)
Academic Clinical Fellow/ Lecturer (ACF/ACL)
Clinical Tutor/ Assistant

Community Dentist

Community Dental Services are provided to ensure that everyone can have access to dental health care. Some patients due to physical disability or medical condition are unable to be treated in general dental practice.

A community dentist is salaried and may work in a variety of locations including an outreach centre, patient’s own home, nursing homes, community clinics and mobile clinics.

Patients who may need community dental services include

High decay risk children requiring anxiety management control with inhalation sedation
Children with learning difficulties such as autism sector disorder
Adults who have difficulty accessing general dental services such as those with learning difficulty, mental health problems or bariatric patients
Adults requiring home visits (domiciliary care)

Other Career Options

Armed forces dentist

Become a ‘dental officer’ in the Royal Army Medical Service. Here, you will work with the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force providing dental care. The army offers unique benefits such as a minimum starting salary following training of £82,000 and funds dental degrees for prospective army dentists. However you are usually committing 4 years to the Royal Army Medical Service in return.

Dental forensics

Forensic dentistry deals with obtaining identifiable information of individuals for legal purposes, through examination and handling of dental evidence of deceased patients. It is likely that forensic dentists will work with a wider team of professionals including pathologists, anthropologists and the police.

Clinical Tutor

If you enjoy and are passionate about helping others learn, you may wish to take up a teaching role. Many GDP’s are ‘visiting tutors’ at dental teaching schools and work with undergraduate dental students to help with their clinical practice.

Working part-time as a teaching dentist can help to create a varied working week.

Dental practice ownership

You may have a burning desire to be your own boss. For many dentists, owning a practice is their end goal and forms part of their career pathway. With many perks such as increased flexibility of treatment, having your own set-up and owning your own asset it is not surprising that many dentists choose this option. However, ownership is not for everyone and many dentists are content with working for a practice owner as an associate or being a salaried dentist.

Dental Research

Dentistry is a vast field with 13 dental specialties. With a continuous drive for further new evidence and information, research and development is key to ensuring that the best available evidence is delivered to patients. Research is often conducted within dental teaching universities in collaboration with professors, senior academic staff, postgraduate students and specialty registrar and consultants.

Portfolio career

The term ‘portfolio career’ has been more drawing more traction in dentistry, but what is this? Effectively this is a career which consists of several part-time roles at once rather than one full time job.

The term can be given to those clinicians who wish to work at different clinics or hold more than one ‘title’. For instance, working part-time at two dental clinics whilst also holding a clinical tutor role at a dental teaching hospital.

Graduate entry pathways

If your are considering entering Dentistry as a graduate, there will be several considerations you need to make when determining the route to take.

In the UK, there are 4 year, 5 year and even a 3 year course for those graduates wishing to embark on a career in Dentistry. Pathways can be further categorised based upon those Universities which formally accept graduates into their undergraduate BDS pathway via a ‘formal’ graduate only entry pathway and those which ‘informally’ accept graduates onto their singular BDS teaching programme along with undergraduates (typically those applying directly from college).

The key difference between those University courses who formally accept graduates is that these courses are exclusively open for graduate entrants only, as such have set guaranteed vacancies for graduates. Schools that may accept graduates via an informal route, will be accepting both undergraduate applications and graduates for the same course cohort. As such, graduates will be competing for entry alongside other undergraduates. Certain schools may also open intake for graduates and undergraduates via two separate course codes for the same academic year, meaning graduates and undergraduates will not directly compete but would end up in the same year group.

Although this may sound a little confusing, we will explain this in more detail below.

What entry pathways are available?

Graduate entry pathways can be divided into:

Formally accepting graduates (Fast-track 3years)
Formally accepting graduates (Fast-track 4years)
Accepting graduates ( 5 years)