Welcome to Our Online Course on Becoming a Dentist

Welcome to the online course. We look forward to working with you over the next two weeks. Are short courses aimed at people who are exploring the possibility of studying dentistry at university and would like to learn more about the dental profession and what it’s like to be a dentist. Our course is interactive and throughout you’ll get the opportunity to participate in discussions and polls, which will allow you to interact with the course facilitators. Will also invite you to read articles, watch videos and listen to podcasts to illustrate the key learning points from each week. We know that COVID-19 has had a big impact on everyone’s ability to access work shadowing, particularly in dentistry.

This short course aims to improve your understanding of dentistry by offering an alternative to work shadowing and will help you to decide if this is the right career for you. During week one, we’ll look at the qualities and skills we think prospective dentists should have and why those are important. This might help you when writing your personal statement or when deciding on extra curricular activities that might help you with your application. Next, we’ll take you on a tour of a dental practice to introduce you to the dental team. Here you’ll meet one of our general dental practice.

Colleagues will tell you about his career path and help you to understand what sorts of treatments are provided in dental practice and how the whole team contributes to a patient’s treatment and experience in the practice. Lastly, in week one, we’ll look at the impact of COVID-19 on dentistry and take a look at the cross infection measures we now have to comply with to provide dental care safely. In week two, we’ll tell you about the process of getting into dental school, and we’ll hear from dental students about their experiences of applying to dental school and studying dentistry. We’ll cover some of the topics you’ll study and speak to the students about their experiences of treating patients as students.

We’ll then take a look at the various career paths open to you when you graduate from dental school and hear from people at various stages of their careers about the best and most challenging parts of their jobs. Lastly, in week two, we’ll learn about why good oral health is so important in terms of your general health. We hope by the end of the course that you’ll have enough information to feel ready to make your decision about studying dentistry.