Choosing Dental Schools

You get four choices. How to spend them, how each school actually uses your UCAT, and what sits behind the entry requirements.

Dental Schools Council, 2027 entryChecked 26 September 2026Written by a practising dentist
Compare the schools
The thing that matters most

Work out how each school uses your UCAT before anything else.

A middling UCAT is close to decisive at a threshold school and far from fatal at a holistic one.

UCAS

01. Your four choices

You may apply to a maximum of four dentistry courses on UCAS. Your fifth choice must be something else, and using it does not disadvantage your four dental applications.

Sixth-form students in school uniform talking together at a careers fair, exhibition stands behind them
Deadline15 October 2026 at 18:00 UK time, for 2027 entry.
Four dental choicesThe maximum UCAS allows for dentistry.
A fifth choiceSomething you would be willing to study, such as biomedical science or dental therapy.
Read more

Most applicants use the fifth choice for a related backup — biomedical science, biochemistry, biology, or a dental therapy course — and it is worth choosing something you would be willing to study, because if it becomes your only offer you will have to decide quickly.

On applying to both medicine and dentistry: no UK dental school publishes a policy of penalising it, but your personal statement can only be tailored to one subject, and a statement written to cover both is weaker for each. Splitting your choices tends to weaken both sets of applications even though nobody formally marks you down for it.

The schools

02. Where you can study dentistry

Fifteen UK dental schools take school leavers onto the standard five-year course. Portsmouth is the newest and takes its first dental students in September 2027.

Standard five-year entry, straight from school (15)
BirminghamBristolCardiffDundeeGlasgowKing's College LondonLeedsLiverpoolManchesterNewcastlePlymouthPortsmouthQueen MaryQueen's BelfastSheffield
Graduate entry only (2)
AberdeenUniversity of Lancashire

Aberdeen is open to UK applicants only. Lancashire takes UK and overseas applicants.

Dentistry with a gateway or foundation year (4)
BristolKing's College LondonLiverpoolPlymouth

Designed for students whose circumstances have held their grades back. These lead to the same degree.

Ireland, through the CAO (2)
University College CorkTrinity College Dublin

Applied for through the CAO rather than UCAS. Neither uses an admissions test.

Selection

03. How each school uses your UCAT

Every UK dental school uses the UCAT, and what they do with it differs so much that treating it as one number with one cut-off will cost you choices.

A thresholdYour score has to clear a bar before anything else is looked at.
One ingredientCombined with GCSEs, your academic record and sometimes a separate questionnaire.
Combined pointsQueen's Belfast adds UCAT points to points from your best nine GCSEs. The total is what counts.
Situational Judgement band gates

Separate from the score: pass-or-fail gates you cannot make up for elsewhere.

  • ManchesterDoes not consider Band 3 or Band 4.
  • SheffieldTakes forward Bands 1 and 2 only.
  • Queen MaryDoes not consider Band 4.
Two warnings about cut-off numbers you read online

1. They move each year. Most thresholds are set after the fact, from how that year's applicants scored. Last year's number is a rough guide, not a target.

2. The scale changed in 2025. Abstract Reasoning was removed, leaving three cognitive subtests scored out of 2,700 rather than 3,600, with Decision Making expanded to 35 questions in 37 minutes. A cut-off on the old 3,600 scale cannot be compared with your score.

Grades

04. Entry requirements

Typical A-level offers for the standard five-year course. Where a school runs a contextual or widening participation offer it is usually one to two grades lower: see our guide to widening participation and contextual offers.

  • AAABirmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Queen's Belfast
  • AAA or AABSheffield
  • A*AADundee, King's College London, Queen Mary
  • A*AA to AABPlymouth
  • AAB to AAA*Portsmouth

Subject, resit and GCSE conditions differ from one dental school to another, so check each school's page in Universities before you apply.

Same degree

05. Gateway and foundation years

Four schools run an extra year at the start for students whose circumstances have held their grades back. These are not lesser routes: they lead to the same degree.

BristolGateway to Dentistry · Six yearsEntry: BBC, including a B in Biology or ChemistryWho: Attended an aspiring state school, spent time in care, or eligible for free school meals.
King's College LondonEnhanced Support Dentistry Programme · Five yearsEntry: AAB, with an A in Biology or ChemistryWho: Educated in a non-selective state school in a London borough since the age of 11.
PlymouthIntegrated Foundation Year · Six yearsEntry: BBB, no admissions testWho: You must meet at least three contextual indicators.
LiverpoolFoundation year · Mature studentsEntry: Five GCSEs at grade 6; no A-levels consideredWho: For mature students who have been out of formal education.
Check Bristol's eligibility carefully. You are ineligible if you are predicted or achieve AAB or above, or an A in Chemistry: strong predicted grades can rule you out, which is the opposite of how applicants expect eligibility to work.

If you are eligible for one of these, check it before you finalise your four. More on each in Alternative routes.

Not in a league table

06. Resits and the personal statement

Resit policy varies more than anything else and can decide where you can realistically apply. The personal statement matters unevenly too.

Resits
Bristol
Accepted in all circumstances.
Leeds
One allowed.
Cardiff
GCSE resits accepted, A-level resits not.
Newcastle
Only from candidates who previously applied to Newcastle.
Birmingham, Dundee, Glasgow
Not accepted.
Personal statement
Sheffield
Screens on it to select for interview.
Cardiff
A satisfactory one is required to be eligible.
Bristol
Used to separate applicants with similar academic profiles.
Plymouth
Not considered at any point in the process.
Lancashire
Replaced by an academic reference.

If your statement is your strongest asset, that changes which schools reward it.

Starting September 2027 or later

07. The NHS commitment from 2027

The government has stated its intention to require newly qualified dentists to work in the NHS for a minimum period after graduating, which it intends to be at least three years.

SettledIt will apply to people entering a dental course from 2027/28. The minimum period is intended to be at least three years. The 2027 entry guide carries a DHSC note confirming 2027/28.
Not settledWhether part-time NHS work counts, whether foundation training counts, what happens if someone does not complete it, and arrangements outside England.
Read more

The stated reason is cost: when it consulted in 2024, the Department of Health and Social Care put the cost of training one dentist at up to around £300,000, of which around £200,000 is not repaid by the student. The note in the dental schools' 2027 entry guide does not give a length. This applies to England; arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not confirmed.

Check the current position before you apply — this is live policy and may have moved since this guide was written.

Beyond the grades

08. What people forget to weigh

Cost of livingFive years in London costs substantially more than in most other dental cities, and maintenance support does not close the gap.
Travel to placementsSome courses place you well outside the city. The cost and the time are yours.
When you first treat a patientPlymouth and Portsmouth put students into primary care and community settings early; more traditional courses run science and skills laboratories for two years first.
Whether you would be happy living thereFive years in one place, on a course with far more contact hours than most degrees.
Where you want to end upWhere people train tends to be where they practise.
Checklist

09. Putting your four together

  1. 1Work out which UCAT model each school uses, and put your score against the model rather than a headline number.
  2. 2Check whether you are eligible for a gateway or contextual route anywhere. It can change which four are realistic.
  3. 3Look at your GCSEs honestly. Cardiff, Liverpool and Queen's Belfast weight GCSEs heavily.
  4. 4Read the resit policies if any part of your record involves one.
  5. 5Spread the risk: four schools using the same selection model means one weakness knocks out all four.
  6. 6Then, and only then, think about location and course style.
What we could not confirm

Intake numbers at most English and Welsh schools. Widely quoted figures exist, but the universities' own pages either do not state them or state something different, so we have left them out rather than repeat numbers we cannot stand behind. Cohort sizes at University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin, and Portsmouth's intake. The split between home and international places at several schools. Exact UCAT thresholds for the coming cycle, most of which are set after applications close. And whether any school informally disadvantages applicants who also apply to medicine — none publishes such a policy, and we found no authoritative source either way. Where a school's own page contradicts anything here, the school is right and we are out of date.

Drawn from the Dental Schools Council, 2027 entry guide and checked on 26 September 2026. Source: Dental Schools Council: 2027 entry requirements. Written and checked by Dr Julius K. Babayemi, GDC number 76198.

Back to top