Medicine

[Cats345]

Is 33 to old to study medicine or dentistry?

No.

Have you got children? I think that might make a different. My friends sister did a fast track scheme 30 years ago to get slightly older people with degrees already to train to be a doctor/GP specifically, both her and her husband are still GPs. I don’t know why it didn’t become a thing.

Do you have chemistry and biology a levels ?

Both are extremely competitive to get into and a long hard slog - plus due to nhs cutbacks/hiring freezes not the guaranteed career it once was.
But as for age? No.

No. Your life experience will
make you a
better doctor.

i know someone who was went to medical achool
in their 40s. Although that potentially was a bit too old because I don’t think they will make it
to consultant level.

It depends

, if you have children/partner and need to be in a particular place then neither are easy options as you will have to travel both during the course and afterwards for training places .

if you have fixed financial outgoings that you have to pay , then this is going to be difficult as if you haven’t already done a degree you will be £100,000 plus in debt at end of course and will not be able to work during courses to bring money in . If you’ve already done a degree the money situation will be even worse . Graduating at an older age you will probably be paying student loan off for all your working life.

if you are wanting to do medicine/dentistry for better money , there are far easier and quicker ways to earn a good wage and even better pay with less stress

if you have struggled to get the academic qualifications , the course for both medicine and dentistry is a considerable jump up from A levels etc and very intensive

I have both interviewed people applying for dentistry as mature students and been a foundation trainer for new dentists some of whom had previous degrees eg pharmacy , biochemistry . I have also counselled medical colleagues who have started their degrees in their thirties and are struggling on qualification.

Many of the mature students had unrealistic expectations of earnings potential , working hours and the inflexibility of course and foundation year to fit around family/partner commitments . The same goes for some of the foundation dentists who were expecting an easier ride than their previous careers and are often surprised at the stresses of working in dentistry and that the financial rewards are not what they are expecting particularly after accumulating so much debt and with very large payments .

Both medicine and dentistry can be done in your 30s but you have to be an exceptional person , both to get in , but most particularly to tie yourself in your thirties to the uncertainties that the course and early years of these careers involve and the demands on your body and emotions . Your family , if you have one, will very much take second place for years and that is something else you have to think of. Do not contemplate if you cannot handle stress well .

No, but you need to take a serious look at the state of recruitment and job availability at all levels in medicine at the moment.

I know a group of people who were all mates volunteering for the same organisation together years ago, 2 went to uni as student paramedics followed by MSc and are both Advanced practioners in Band 8 roles, two of them came into the ambulance service as a direct entry technician, did the conversion degree and one has since done his MSc is now an advanced practitioner on band 7 and the other is in a Band 6 specialist paramedic role both with ZERO debt.

The final one went to med school - he is doing a Foundation year 3 clinical fellowship as that was all that was available to him and has no certainty on what will come at the end of this year and the likelihood of a decade moving all around the UK for positions followed by limited consultant posts at then end (which is what the current ST7 are up against).

There timelines don't align completely, but I imagine the one that went to med school is kicking himself right now!!

What about the MSc Physician Associate programme? It

A degree in oral health science qualifies you as a dental therapist . You can independently practice doing much of the work of a dentist with less responsibility,less stress and often very similar pay.
However therapists are increasingly used to shore up poorly paid NHS dentistry which is in its death throes .
Physician associates have also been used to shore up NHS services, often inappropriately and certainly controversially . It’s not a route I would encourage people to take particularly as with a two year degree you really don’t know what you don’t know.