Dental school help!

[Silvistef]

Hi. I have a daughter in year 12 who is really keen on becoming an orthodontist. Unfortunately I was insisting on Psychology degree and somehow managed to get her like it until few days ago when she said she want to study dentistry and was sure 110%!! I am very confused now as we are not prepared and the university enrollment deadline is 15.10.21! I am getting very stressed...Has anyone been in similar situation? She is doing Maths, Biology and Art for A level and I am hoping she can get good predicted grades. Any tips for a good preparation for a dental school application would be highly appreciated!
Thank you!!

You were INSISTING she do a psych degree and somehow get her to like it????
Ok, well I think you should be glad she's wanting to go into dentistry (massive opportunities considering the desire for perfect teeth is more popular than ever) because they're bound to cover subjects such as narcissism, boundaries and coercive control and she might recognise and be horribly familiar with quite a few of those characteristics.

what do you mean you were insisting she do psychology.
i think she needs to get away from you, and choose her own career path.

To do Dentistry you need Chemistry and Biology A levels. If she’s doing Biology, Maths and Art she won’t qualify.

Can I ask what you do for a living

Yep, DS2 is a dentist and studied Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths at A level. Lots of work experience, too. I assume it is still v competitive (12 yrs since he started). Need to also show good manual dexterity, so good to take examples to interview - ie origami etc

It’s usually MMIs now not traditional interviews so more likely to be asked to do origami in 10 minutes there and then.

To do Dentistry you need Chemistry and Biology A levels. If she’s doing Biology, Maths and Art she won’t qualify.

Exactly.

But she could do a graduate entry dental degree entering in year 2 at UCLAN www.uclan.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/dental-surgery-bds

@Christmasfairy2020

Can I ask what you do for a living

Hi. I am an accountant.

[quote DottyWott]But she could do a graduate entry dental degree entering in year 2 at UCLAN www.uclan.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/dental-surgery-bds[/quote]
Thanks for your reply. I checked that Queen Mary, King's College accepts Biology or Chemistry for A level. Bristol University also offers a foundation year for students who did not have both subjects. I hope they won't change it for this year's applications.

As someone with a psychology degree, trust me to get a job in that field is very hard. I'd steer anyone away from it in my opinion, let her do what she wants. Why would you pick psychology anyway? I actually work within the field but most graduates from. Psychology won't make it into about actual job doing anything relevant x

@BunnyRuddington

To do Dentistry you need Chemistry and Biology A levels. If she’s doing Biology, Maths and Art she won’t qualify.

Exactly.

Thanks a lot. I will ask her to look at it, even though she has never done origami.

@BiniorellaSun

It’s usually MMIs now not traditional interviews so more likely to be asked to do origami in 10 minutes there and then.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I know it is a hard work and it is not for everyone, that's why I was so surprised when she expressed her strong wish to do it. I have decided to not stand against it and support her and if she got the luck I will be happy for her.

I have decided to not stand against it and support her

How magnanimous of you

Well that’s your duty as a parent- advise and stand by her whilst she makes her OWN choices

I have decided to not stand against it How remarkably normal of you.

She will need to do a foundation year if she doesn't have chemistry.

Has she done any work experience? Does she have any idea of what being an orthodontist actually entails? Why on earth were you persuading her to do psychology if she wanted to do dentistry?

She will need some sort of volunteering, care homes/hospitals/charity volunteering. St John's ambulance is quite a good thing to do. Plus extracurricular activies, does she do any sports/play any musical instruments? She will need some sort of hobbies that demonstrates manual dexterity, although her art will do this so can be good for dentistry

She will need work experience, in dentistry plus usually a speciality of dentistry. Plus normally medicine so you can say you don't like medicine

She will at some point need to sit the UKCAT as we

Hi. Thanks everyone for your advice. I know I sound a very pushy mother but actually my daughter had no clear idea what she wanted to do ( being in a pandemic and a lot of stress for everyone). After some research psychology seemed a good choice for gaining transferable skills. I always hoped that she would come with her own idea but didn't expect it to be such a serious subject as dentistry. That's why I panicked a bit. Thanks everyone for trying to help and all the best to all of you.

If she likes care and mental health. Maybe a psychiatric nurse? Fingers crossed for dentistry!

What exactly does such a serious job as dentist mean? Are you worried about the uni fees for 5 years?*

If she's been a bit lost as to what her career path should be then perhaps she needs to take a year out to do some soul searching. Deciding to become a dentist is not something you think about over a pandemic lock down. Most people who are dentists have wanted to do this for many years before the ucas application comes about. There needs to be a portfolio of work experience and life long ambition to be firstly a dentist then an orthodontist.

Based on the subjects she has taken she wouldn't be able to apply straight into a 5 year programme but could d explore foundation degrees or alternatively a bioscience or dental related bsc first and then graduate dental course which is then 4 years. I qualified a while back (9 years ago) but if you want to ask anything/further info feel free to message me