A young female university student in scrubs and gloves working with a dental mirror and instrument on a phantom head positioned in a dental chair under an overhead operating light, with a dental X-ray displayed on the monitor beside her and other students visible through glass partitions in a modern simulation clinic with teal walls, representing the clinical diagnostic and treatment focus of Dentistry degrees

DEGREE GUIDE

Dentistry

What do Dentistry degrees involve?

Dentistry degrees teach you how to diagnose, prevent, and treat oral health conditions while developing the clinical skills needed to care for patients. You will explore key areas such as dental anatomy, restorative dentistry, oral surgery, radiography, and periodontology. These courses help you build strong problem-solving, communication, and manual dexterity skills while learning to perform procedures like fillings, extractions, and root canal treatments. You will also gain extensive hands-on experience through clinical placements, working with patients under professional supervision. With rigorous training, professional accreditation, and opportunities for specialisation, you’ll graduate prepared for a career as a dentist in general practice, hospitals, or specialist fields.

Example
Modules

Introduction to Biomedical Science: Study how cells, molecules and body systems work to build your understanding of health, disease and the biological basis of dentistry.

Tooth Morphology: Learn to identify and describe the shape and structure of different teeth—vital for diagnosis, treatment planning and clinical procedures.

Dental Materials Science: Explore the materials used in treatments like fillings, crowns and dentures, focusing on durability, safety and performance in the mouth.

Common Degree Names

💼 All Dentistry degrees include extensive clinical placements from early in the course.
🌍 Study abroad is not a typical feature due to national registration and training standards.

BDS Dentistry
BChD Dentistry
BDS Oral and Dental Sciences
BDS Dental Surgery

Dentistry degrees are five-year clinical programmes leading to qualification as a dentist.

Dental X-rays on a lightbox showing tooth roots and impactions alongside an oral surgery textbook open to extraction forceps diagrams, a Prosthodontics: Crown and Bridge textbook open to root canal illustrations, a tray of instruments including composite filling syringes and a dental drill, a tooth cross-section model and a dental impression tray, illustrating the diagnostic, surgical and restorative skills developed in Dentistry degrees

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Dentistry is a highly competitive, science-intensive degree that prepares you to care for patients' oral health. All UK dental schools have specific subject requirements.

You'll need:

Chemistry – essential at all dental schools
Biology – required by most universities; a few accept Chemistry plus another science instead, but this limits your options

Your other subject(s):

Your third A-level, or IB HL, or other Scottish Highers can be any subject you're good at – it doesn't need to be a science. Some students choose Maths, Physics, or Psychology, but arts and humanities subjects are equally accepted. Universities are looking for strong grades, not a specific combination.

✨ Chemistry and Biology together keep the widest range of dental schools open for you.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Applied Science (being phased out) are accepted by a very limited number of dental schools, usually alongside A-level Chemistry
BTEC National Diplomas in Applied Science (limited acceptance) alongside A-level Chemistry or Biology (where the BTEC covers sufficient content in the other science). Most dental schools do not accept BTECs, and Health and Social Care BTECs are not accepted.
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with Chemistry and Biology at Higher Level (and at least 3 HL subjects) alongside your Career-Related Study — however, acceptance is not guaranteed as some dental schools do not accept vocational qualifications; contact your preferred universities directly before applying

Entry to Dentistry is very competitive. Some universities also consider widening participation or contextual offers. Check the admissions policy carefully on each university’s website.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

You’ll usually need strong academic grades overall, including:

GCSE English Language, Maths and Science at grade 6/B or above, or equivalent such as National 5s or MYP

📘 Some universities ask for 7/A or higher in Science and Maths.

If your GCSEs include Separate Sciences, this is preferred, but Combined Science is accepted at most institutions.

Some Dental schools will score your total GCSE (or equivalent) results as part of the application.

💬 Interviews
All UK Dentistry courses include interviews. Most use MMIs (Multiple Mini Interviews), which are short stations testing skills like communication, ethics, and empathy. Some may use traditional panel interviews or a mix of both, and the interview could be in-person or held virtually.

📝 Admissions Tests
You'll need to sit the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) for most UK dental schools. It doesn't test scientific knowledge; instead, it assesses things like decision-making, reasoning, and situational judgement.

🔒 DBS Check

An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is required before you start clinical placements, as you'll be working directly with patients. Any serious criminal convictions may affect your ability to register with the General Dental Council.

⚕️ Health Check

An occupational health check is required to make sure you can meet the physical demands of clinical practice. This includes screening for blood-borne viruses (hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV), as dentists carry out exposure-prone procedures.

🔍 Work Experience
This is essential. Dental schools need to see that you understand what a career in dentistry actually involves — the precision, the patient interaction, and the reality of working closely with people who may be anxious or in pain. Shadowing a dentist is the most direct way to gain this insight; try contacting local practices directly. If that's hard to arrange, experience in any healthcare or caring setting helps you understand patient care, and free virtual dentistry programmes are available. What matters most is being able to reflect honestly on what you've seen and why you still want to pursue dentistry.

✨ Beyond your grades:

Dental schools also value manual dexterity – the ability to work precisely with your hands. You'll usually demonstrate this through hobbies and activities mentioned in your personal statement and at interview, such as playing a musical instrument, art, sewing, model-making, or crafts. You don't need to take these as formal subjects, but having hands-on interests to talk about will strengthen your application.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

Why dentistry? Admissions tutors read thousands of personal statements, so being specific about what draws you to this profession matters. If you've shadowed dentists, spent time in dental settings, or talked to professionals about their work, reflect on what you observed. What interested you, what surprised you, what confirmed your motivation? But experience alone isn't enough; show you've thought about what being a dentist actually involves, the challenges as well as the rewards. Reading about developments in dental care, oral health issues, or the science behind treatments demonstrates genuine curiosity beyond just wanting to help people.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are very limited but genuine alternative routes.

🌱 Foundation Year (Gateway to Dentistry)

A small number of dental schools offer widening participation foundation years for students who don't meet the standard entry requirements. These programmes are competitive and typically have specific eligibility criteria — check each university's requirements carefully.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Medicine or Science)

A very small number of dental schools accept Access to HE Diplomas. Where accepted, you'll need Distinctions across your science units and will usually need to sit an admissions test. This is not a widely available route, so check directly with the dental schools you're interested in.

🎓 Graduate Entry

Some dental schools offer shorter programmes for graduates who have completed a relevant bioscience or healthcare degree. You'll typically need to sit an admissions test and be interviewed.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with a Dentistry degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

The Human Body & How It Works: Understanding oral anatomy and how it connects to whole-body health is central. You'll study the head, neck, and oral cavity in detail, and learn how dental conditions relate to wider medical health.

Chemicals, Materials & Reactions: Dental materials science is a genuine strand. You'll study the chemistry and properties of the materials used in fillings, crowns, and implants, and why some materials perform better than others in the mouth.

Health, Illness & How People Are Cared For: You'll learn to diagnose, prevent, and treat oral health conditions, from gum disease and tooth decay to more complex cases requiring surgery or prosthetic restoration.

Students who thrive in a Dentistry degree are often motivated by

Movement and Physical Activity

You're energised by work where your body is part of what gets the job done. Training and competing, dancing or performing, coaching others through physical activity, the hands-on side of nursing, midwifery, dentistry or veterinary practice, or the operational work of being a paramedic, firefighter or outdoor instructor: the actual job happens through what you do with your body. You'd rather be the one doing the physical work than the one analysing or organising it from a desk.

Helping or Serving Others

You feel driven to support others directly, whether that's providing care, offering help, or doing work that improves the quality of life of people or animals. The satisfaction of knowing your effort made a tangible difference to another living being is what carries you, more than abstract achievement or recognition. You come most alive when the person or animal in front of you is better off because of what you've just done.

Building and Sustaining Relationships

You feel energised by work where the people you work with aren't passing strangers but become known to you across years: clients, patients, students, customers. Forming new connections matters, but the deeper energy comes from the slower work of staying present, remembering the small details, picking up where you left off. You come most alive when someone you've known for years is back in front of you, and you take up the conversation as if no time had passed.

Precision and Thoroughness

You feel satisfied when work is done accurately and completely. Whether it's getting calculations exactly right, spotting errors others miss, or making sure every detail is correct, the pursuit of precision gives you a sense of accomplishment. Sloppy or "good enough" work frustrates you, and you take pride in getting things right first time.

Practical Problem-Solving

You're energised by finding fixes to real-life issues, whether they're mechanical, technological, or social. You're motivated by problems you can see, touch, or experience directly, and you get satisfaction from solutions that work in practice, not just in theory. You'd rather build a prototype than write a report about one.

Analysing and Investigating

You're energised by making sense of information, looking for evidence, spotting patterns, and piecing together how things connect. Whether it's pulling apart data, questioning assumptions, or tracing a problem back to its source, you find energy in the process of understanding what's really going on. You'd rather dig into the details than accept things at face value.

What makes Dentistry click for the students who love it?

Some people are at home in a space as small as someone's mouth, taken with the work and the science behind it. They want to read what is wrong, work out how to fix it, and do the repair themselves. The training is exact: practising a technique until it is just right, because in a space that small a mistake shows. It is hands-on early, on models in the skills lab and then with real patients that they learn to put at ease. The first time a tricky procedure goes well, and someone leaves better off, makes the long training worth it.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Are you good with your hands — do you enjoy detailed, precise work where accuracy really matters?
Do you stay focused and steady when doing something fiddly or intricate, rather than rushing to get it done?
Are you comfortable explaining things to people who might be worried or confused — and adjusting how you say it based on how they're feeling?
Are you curious about science and how it applies to real-world problems — not just theory, but using it to help people?

Careers a Dentistry degree could lead you to

Dentistry

What do Dentistry degrees involve?

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Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers a Dentistry degree could lead you to

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