The Launch Pathway
Compare dental schools side by side, check your grades and UCAT against what they ask for, and practise interviews and your personal statement with free tools.
Getting your application ready
Launch is for students in Years 12 and 13, and career changers, who are applying to dental school. It takes you through the application year in order: the UCAT, choosing your dental schools, your UCAS application and personal statement, interviews, and offers.
How applying works
Sit the UCAT
UK dental schools use the UCAT. You sit it in the summer between Year 12 and Year 13; in 2026, testing ran from 13 July to 24 September.
UCAT prep guideChoose your dental schools
You can apply to up to four dentistry courses. Work out how each school uses your UCAT and what it asks for before you choose.
Choosing dental schoolsSend your UCAS application
Dentistry has an early deadline: 15 October in Year 13, at 18:00 UK time. Your personal statement goes with it.
Personal statement templatePrepare for interview
Interviews are either multiple mini interviews (MMI) or a panel, depending on the school. Each school sets its own dates.
Dental school interviewsReply to offers and sit your exams
Reply to any offers by your UCAS deadline, then sit your A-levels in May and June. Results come out in August.
If you do not get an offer
What Launch gives you
MMI mock interview circuits
Practise MMI stations against the clock, speaking your answers, then get feedback.
Free with an accountPractise a circuit
Personal statement review
Get structured feedback on a draft you have already written.
Free with an accountGet feedback on a draft
Work experience
Time in a dental practice helps, but it is not the only experience that counts. If your school can arrange a placement, we host students at our own practice.
At our practice in Rainham, KentWhat dental schools actually want
How does your profile compare?
See how your UCAT score and grades compare to commonly cited thresholds, and reflect on your work experience so far. This isn't a prediction — meeting a threshold doesn't guarantee an interview or offer.
Select your entry profile
Three cognitive subtests, 900-2700 in total. Deciles are from the 2025 test; 2026 scores ran higher, so a 2026 score may sit a decile lower than shown.
Most schools ask AAA; Dundee, King's and Queen Mary ask A*AA, and Plymouth between A*AA and AAB.
Placements, shadowing, a part-time job, volunteering or reading — schools want an informed choice, not a set number of hours.
Compare dental schools
Compare A-level offers, admissions tests, and contextual/widening participation offers across the 17 UK and Ireland schools offering standard-entry dentistry.
Select up to 4 schools above to compare their entry requirements side by side.
Requirements can change year to year — always confirm current figures on each university's own admissions page before applying.
Source: Dental Schools Council, “Entry requirements for UK and Ireland dental schools: 2027 entry.”
Working in the NHS after you qualify
If you start a dental degree in England in autumn 2027 or later, a new requirement will apply to you. Check your intended start year, not your qualification year — that is what the rule is based on.
The rule
At least 3 years of NHS work after qualifying, for dentists starting a course from 2027/28. How much of each week has to be NHS work has not been decided.
Why it might not change much
Foundation Training is already NHS-based, and about four in five UK dentists already do some NHS work — 41% spend at least three quarters of their time on NHS care.
Still to be decided
Whether Foundation Training counts, what proportion of the week, and exceptions. The government consulted on the idea in 2024 but has not yet consulted on the details.
Not everyone agrees
The BDA opposes it, the GDC has raised concerns, and the Dental Schools Council is open to it only if NHS careers are improved first.
More places too
England is adding 50 funded dental school places from 2027/28, from 809 to 859, all at two universities: the University of East Anglia and the University of Portsmouth.
This is an England policy. If you plan to study or work elsewhere in the UK, check the position for that nation separately.
Sources: NHS 10 Year Health Plan, July 2025. DHSC written ministerial statement, 10 March 2026. DHSC, new dental school places, 3 June 2026. General Dental Council working patterns data, March 2026, and response to the DHSC consultation, July 2024. BDA and Dental Schools Council published positions. Checked 26 September 2026.
Full policy briefing (PDF)