Common questions about applying to dentistry

The UCAT Method Coach gives you five questions per section each day.

UCAS checks personal statements for patterns of similarity and reports what it finds to applicants and universities.

From 2026 the statement is three questions: why you want to study the course, how your studies have prepared you, and what else you have done. Each answer needs at least 350 characters, with 4,000 in total.

Our Personal Statement Reviewer tells you what to change and leaves the writing to you. It never gives you sentences to paste in.

Source: UCAS: fraud and similarity

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• AAA with Biology and Chemistry: Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Queen's Belfast. Glasgow asks for AAA with both sciences at A.
• Bristol: AAA with Chemistry and one of Biology, Physics or Maths.
• Sheffield: AAA, or AAB with a B in a dentistry or health-related EPQ.
• Plymouth: A*AA to AAB.

Contextual offers are usually one or two grades lower where a dental school runs one, though three schools give dentistry no reduction. Gateway routes ask for less: BBC at Bristol, AAB on King's Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme, and BBB at Plymouth.

Source: Dental Schools Council: entry requirements for 2027

Some dental schools set a threshold before they look at anything else, and others combine the UCAT with your GCSEs. Queen's Belfast adds UCAT points to points from your best nine GCSEs.

Several also screen on the Situational Judgement band: Manchester does not consider Band 3 or 4, Sheffield takes only Bands 1 and 2, and Queen Mary does not consider Band 4.

Cut-offs are set each year after the test, and since 2025 the UCAT is scored out of 2,700, so older numbers do not compare. Trinity and Cork do not use it.

Source: Dental Schools Council: entry requirements for 2027

The Dental Schools Council asks you to show an informed choice, meaning you know what the job involves. Healthcare experience is something you would ideally have, not something you must have.

• Cardiff: says it is not a specific requirement.
• Portsmouth: calls it desirable rather than required.
• Plymouth: does not require it.
• Lancashire: has stopped using it.

Caring work, paid or voluntary, can count as much as shadowing a dentist. What matters is what you took from it.

• Aberdeen: a 2:1 or above in biosciences or an allied health profession degree.
• King's (A202): a 2:1 in biosciences, or a 2:2 plus a postgraduate degree at Merit.
• Lancashire: a 2:1 in a biomedical subject, plus three A levels at C or above including two sciences, and GCSE English and Maths at grade B.
• King's three-year course (A204): only for doctors who have finished Foundation Years 1 and 2.
• Liverpool: a foundation year for mature students who have been out of education.

Source: Dental Schools Council: entry requirements for 2027

• Trinity: a B and a C in two of Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
• Cork: at least two A levels at grade C, with Chemistry and either Physics or Biology.

These are minimums, and places are competitive. The Irish HEAR scheme is closed to UK applicants. DARE, for disability, sets no residence test we could find.

Registering with the GDC on an Irish degree currently depends on recognition arrangements extended for five years from June 2023, and the GDC has not said what replaces them.

• England and Wales: £9,790 a year for home students in 2026/27.
• Northern Ireland: at Queen's University Belfast, £4,985 a year for students from Northern Ireland and £9,790 for students from England, Scotland and Wales, in 2026/27.
• Scotland: Scottish students at Dundee and Glasgow pay £1,820 a year, normally paid by SAAS. That is the 2025/26 figure; the Scottish Government has not yet confirmed 2026/27. Students from elsewhere in the UK pay a fee each university sets (Dundee lists £10,050 for 2027 entry).

From the fifth year the NHS Bursary also pays a £1,081 bursary that is not means-tested, plus a means-tested one of up to £3,447 in London. Before that, you use student finance as on any degree.

Funding depends on which UK nation you live in. International fees are much higher, commonly £30,000 to £55,000 a year. None of this includes living costs, equipment or professional memberships.

• NHS Bursary Hardship Grant: £100 to £3,000.
• BDA Benevolent Fund: helps dental students in unforeseen hardship with less than £10,000 in savings.
• Christopher Frederick Edwards bursary, Bristol: £750 to two first-year students with household income of £25,000 or under.
• University bursaries: most dental schools run their own means-tested bursaries.
• NHS Learning Support Fund: does not cover the dentistry degree.

Your fifth choice must be something else, and using it does not count against your dental applications. Most people use it for a related backup, such as biomedical science, biochemistry, biology or dental therapy. Choose something you would be willing to study.

Applying to both medicine and dentistry is not penalised, but a personal statement can only be written for one of them.

The Foundation Training salary is £43,893 from 1 April 2026. Some things are not decided yet:

• whether Foundation Training counts towards the three years
• how much of your week must be NHS work
• what happens if you cannot complete it

The government has not yet published its response to the 2024 consultation. The plan applies to England, and the arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not confirmed.