dentistry (1 Viewer)

[meri]

hi everyone,

i am comsidering dentistry as a career, but i am unsure as to what degree i should do before the dentistry one. atm i am tossing up b/w oral health or med science.

let me know if u have any suggestions

 

[Spon888]

It depends on how confident you rate your chances. If you were to do Oral Health because you were unsure if you could get into Graduate Dentistry and want to have it as a career backup, then thats an option. But it could be considered a 'waste' because if you were to get into Dentistry its sort of doubling up on similar topics.

Graduate Dentistry was designed so that you could study anything, including completely unrelated courses. But if you enjoy Oral Health/Med Science then by all means go for it. But what are your reasons for doing those courses? Is it because you're interested in them/want to use them as backup?

Alternatively if its viable for you, you can always apply interstate. Thats what I'm doing.

 

[shannY]

oral health is soo intresting i'd rather do it twice and be an expert at it!..

i am currently doing oral health

 

[meri]

oral health is soo intresting i'd rather do it twice and be an expert at it!..

i am currently doing oral health

oh really!, thats great news then! what uni are u doing it at? if u are doing it at sydney uni how did you apply? do u plan to do dentistry when u have finished? or if not what job do u intend to do?

 

[shannY]

oh really!, thats great news then! what uni are u doing it at? if u are doing it at sydney uni how did you apply? do u plan to do dentistry when u have finished? or if not what job do u intend to do?

i'm doing it a usyd! First off i applied to do the PQA test and i think it costs $60.. just check it out on the site http://www.pqa.net.au/.. then soon after i did the test...if you pass that you get offered an interview ..then they look at your uai and this yr the threshold was pushed up to 83 noting last yrs was 70. I'm assuming it was only low due to how new the course was. But don't you think thats a high jump?

HOWEVER.. i know of some people in my class who didn't pass the 83 mark... so i'm assuming they aced it in the interviews.. oh and the interviews this yr was a 7 or 8 station type, it was so long ago i'm forgetting everything.... very scary.. but once you get started its all ok=]...

oh and YES! i do plan to do dentistry...however if i don't make it in .. i'm assured a job when i graduate! good pay cause nsw needs us=]

I think you should do this course cause it teaches a variety of branches of dentistry... this allows you to see what you like and aim for it. This course also in the end makes you a Dental therapist and Hygienist! not just one or the other.

hope that helped!
shannY=]

 

[babyem]

wow. im looking to do dentistry too meri. x]


but the whole process of applying.
am i too late ?
with all the interviews and other tests.. do i have to do that prior to applying with UAC ? =/

 

[meri]

um i think it depends what course you want to do. becasue if you want ot do it at sydney its post grad so you have to complete any degree first before you can sit the gamsat test and so on. if you want to get into oral health im not sure what the cut off day is but i think is around the end of september??? might have to check up on that one cos im not sure. on the other hand if you want to do it at melbourne its got undergrad dentistry but im not sure what the cut off day is for that. another thing that might interest you is that melbourne will be taking their first group of post grad dentists from 2011 i think so you could do it down there aswell.

 

[gowie]

whats it like doing dentistry? I've thought of it, having spent the better part of my like in a dentist's chair, but if its anything like med science then im fucked. what did u guys have as a uai (thats if u want to tell) dw, i wont be dissapointed if u hit me with the cold hard facts.
:wave:

 

[meri]

hey! um well i dont actually do dentistry but i want to one day! im currently in year 12 and next year i want to do oral health as kinda my step into the area. ive already applied for the pqa test for syd uni to get into that and that closes at the end of sep for anyone interested.... and i think that the uai varies because it is based on a few things....
got to run but hoped that helps a lil bit

 

[gowie]

hey! um well i dont actually do dentistry but i want to one day! im currently in year 12 and next year i want to do oral health as kinda my step into the area. ive already applied for the pqa test for syd uni to get into that and that closes at the end of sep for anyone interested.... and i think that the uai varies because it is based on a few things....
got to run but hoped that helps a lil bit

Yeh u did thanx, its good to hear form umone in the same years opinion

 

[SpHan]

charles sturt uni is starting dentistry in 2009 and i believe its a 5 year undergrad course...prob won't be as difficult to get into as usyd especially if you are from rural areas.

 

[Booman]

if you are planning to do dentistry post grad at sydney uni i would advise against doing bachelor of oral health. the graduates from last years bachelor of oral health 2 got interviews (2 out of 40 got interviews), i am not sure if eithor of these people were accepted into the bachelor of dentistry... this is because with the bachelor of oral health they are trying to meet the demand of oral hygenists and oral therapists, they do not want these oral hygenists and oral therapists to then go and train as dentists because they will still have the problem with the numbers of oral hygeinists and oral therapists.

so if it is dentistry that you really do want to do think again about the oral health course because they will definately think twice into admitting you into the bachelor of dentistry.

 

[becthelank]

Here are the things I know about dentistry as a year 12 student (correct me if im wrong)

1. Don't do oral health if youre an aspiring dentist because they dont want dentists, they want hygenists and people who go around promoting oral health
2. Do an undergrad that focuses on biology and chem
3. The only place you can do dentistry in sydney is at USYD (and its a 4 year post grad course)
4. If you do something like liberal studies, you can convert it to an arts degree after three years if you get an interview before your 4th year
5. you have to do GAMSAT...a 5 and a half hour exam (like UMAT but worse) and thats how they pick you for interviews
6. about 60 people get chosen per year (30 guys 30 girls around about)
7. your GAMSAT score lasts 2 years (and if you attempt it more than once, the uni isnt allowed to know your previous scores)

if anyone has any info about undergrads etc id love to hear from you

 

[veridis]

FFS its graduate not post graduate.
real reason not many oral health people get interviews, interviews are given out on the basis of GAMSAT and WAM. you need a WAM of about 80 to have a decent chance(presuming it's just below med). only about 10-15% of people in each course get marks of 80 or higher. given oral health people have their own specific units they're just competing against each other for marks, hence not many of them will be able to keep an avg so high. if you do a B.Sci or something where you can choose general units you're competing against a lot of people who just want Ps, so it's relatively easier for you to get Ds. the uni does scale for this in some courses, but B.Oral isn't a hard course to get into so they don't scale it much.

 

[lala2]

I dunno, I know you only need to maintain a pass average in your first degree which is not difficult at all, to be considered for USYD Dentistry, but is it simply a barrier criterion or do they rank you in terms of your WAM/GPA? I was thinking that if they ranked you as such, probably don't do medical science, especially at USYD because it seems to me everyone else is trying to do well too (yes, everyone is in any other course, but especially med science because they all want to transfer into medicine). Am I wrong?

 

[Booman]

i have spoken to many people in faculty of dentistry including the head of oral health and the one thing that she made particularly clear was that if you would like to do dentistry post grad NOT to do bachelor of oral health as they created the course to meet the demand in the community and to ease the pressure on dentists... using the bachelor of oral health as an undergraduate degree completely contradicts this as they are double training someone that will fill only one position once they finally graduate... this was one thing that the people interviewing me also made quite clear.

 

[Fatmandy]

Hey...

can anyone let me know what the best choice of an undergrad. course would be , for high chances to get into dentistry??

 

[Booman]

Hey...

can anyone let me know what the best choice of an undergrad. course would be , for high chances to get into dentistry??

absolutely any course you want. no course is favoured...

 

[loser101]

can anyone tell me the reason why someone would want to look down peoples smelly mouth for the rest of thier lives?

its like being a plumber but the toilet is someones mouth.

 

[juggernaut]

muleh
sitting on a chair all day
geting a birds eye view of a womans chest
etc etc