My sister is almost 28 years old and dissatisfied with her present career in the computer industry. She recently considered med school but has given up on the idea b/c of it's daunting length (at least 8 years with residency). I had my mom mention the idea of going to Dental school to her, and she seemed very interested at the idea. I'd like to help her in anyway I can.

She's the type that likes to travel, so I think an International program in Europe or maybe even South America (she speaks fluent Spanish) would be ideal for her, and maybe somewhat easier to be accepted into compared to a U.S. Dental School.

Could anybody please offer some suggestions? If you could just point me in the right direction, I will do any further research necessary. Thanks :)!

Hi. From what I've read it sounds like your sister is not totally sold on the idea of studying and practicing in the dental field - yet! Anyway, the choice of school really depends on where does she want to practice later on after graduation. If she qualifies outside of the US, then she would have a few more hurdles to jump through when she tries to get licenced in one of the US states. However, if she wants to practice overseas, then I suppose any country (eg. Spain or South America) would do fine. Due to the fact that she is from computer industry, she would have to satisfy all the basic undergraduate dental requirements no matter where she goes! That means she would need DATs if she was staying the US, A-Levels in the UK, School Certificate in Australia, Bursary Exams in NZ... ie. she would need to complete all the basic sciences plus others such as physics, chemistry and biology!

28 is not too late to start dentistry. Usual length is around 5 years and if she wants to specialize that means another 2-3 years with or without Master's degree. The undergrad courses can be quite expensive and will need strong family support!

Hope this was helpful to you and your sister.

Good luck

Cheerio.

mightymolar

Thanks Mightymolar for the informative reply... another question if you don't mind...

Can you recommend any good International "combo" programs... i.e. programs that would take a student with essentially zero science background, and teach her from the ground up... chem, biol, physics, basic sciences, and dentistry itself? I know that there are some 5-6 year International Medical schools out there like this... are there any Dental Programs out there like this that you know of and/or recommend?

Hiya again.

Well, one program that I would recommend you and your sister to check out is the dentistry program at University of Sydney, Australia. Their new program requires the person to hold a Bachelor's degree in any field. Then she would have to sit either DAT or GAMSAT. DATs are held in the US and GAMSAT (which stands for Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test) also held in LA and Washington DC each year. GAMSAT basically test you on your ability to reason and recall some basic science facts. It also includes two essay sections where you have to write an argumentative type essay and a descriptive (I think) type essay. GAMSAT basically assumes that you are fully aware of all the secondary school physics, chemistry, biology and most of all a good command of English language. Once she is in the Sydney dental program, she will graduate with Bachelor of Dentistry (BDent) and will be able to practice dentistry in the state of New South Wales immediately (no further licensure exams like in the US!). Of course, if she wants to return to the US, then she will have to go through a number of big and small hurdles (like so many in this Dental International column!!!)...

Here are some web site addresses for your info:

University of Sydney www.usyd.edu (then follow the link to Dental under Colleges/Departments)

ACER/GAMSAT www.gamsat.org

It's a tough exam (I sat it in March 2002). However, you will need a solid GPA for your Bachelor's degree. They look at the combo of GPA+GAMSAT (or DAT)+ Interview + Bench Test (wire bending).

The USyd Dental Program is a new innovative program in Australia/NZ and is 4 years long. I have heard some good stories of the course (I was in Sydney for 1.5 years prior to the US).

Good luck and post back if you have any further questions.

Cheerio.

28 is not too late to start looking into dentistry. However, if she considers going abroad for a dental degree, you have to realize that you CAN NOT practice dentistry in the United States without re-enrolling in an American dental school for at least 2 to 3 more years (in a special international dentist program) to earn an American DDS (on top of the foreign dental degree you already have.) There is no way around this. It is not like medicine where if you have a foreign medical degree, you can apply to American residencies and practice in the US afterwards as long as you do well on all the USMLE sections. There is no way you can get an American license and practice dentistry in the US without an American degree of some form - either one you earn in the traditional 4-year course or in the 2-3 year international dentist course.

A foreign dentist can apply and get accepted to American specialty programs. Usually they want you to return to your home country after you finish the specialty. You still can't practice the specialty without an American DDS. There are many foreign dental students at my dental school who are in specialty programs and decide after finishing the specialty that they will re-enroll in an American dental school to earn an American DDS in order to practice in the US. So these people end up doing this order of stuff - earn degree in foreign dental school, earn specialty training in a US school, re-enroll back in a US dental school (in an international dentist program) to earn American degree.

The normal course to be a practicing dentist is to earn a 4-year DDS/DMD degree from an American dental school, pass NBDE I & II before you graduate from dental school, and pass the clinical exam of the region you intend to practice in. For foreign dentists, they have to pass NBDE I and sometimes II first, enroll in a US dental school for 2 - 3 years to earn a DDS/DMD, and then pass the clinical exam of the region you intend to practice in.

The only exception to all this that I can think of is if you have a Canadian DDS degree, you can practice in the US without doing the whole international dentist program, as long as you take NBDE I & II and the clinical exam of the region you intend to practice in. However, it is way harder to get into a Canadian dental school than an American dental school b/c there are only like 10 Canadian schools vs 50+ American dental schools.

For a US dental school, she would need to take pre-req undergrad courses (bio, general chem, organic, physics, english) and take the DAT exam in order to apply to dental school.

Mightymolar & Griffin, my sincere thanks for taking the time out to give your detailed replies. Mightymolar, Australia sounds like a great option... in fact I have already had some correspondence with the U of Queensland... looks like a great program. I was gonna check deeper into those links you gave me, but if what Griffin is saying is accurate (and it sounds like he knows his stuff) -- that going to a foreign dental school with the intent of eventually returning to practice in the U.S. would tack on another 2-3 years to one's training, effectively extending it to 6-8 years -- well, that changes things. I don't know how many 28 year olds would agree to 6-8 years of training at that point in their lives.

So what do y'all think about the U.S. route? How would you gauge the difficulty of getting into a U.S. dental school... including the difficulty of all of the prereq courses and the DAT exam? Would you say it's pretty much the same as the MCAT?

Hi Dr Cuts

No worries mate. I'm glad I was able to shed some light about dentistry on international scale. However, I am afraid I wouldn't have any idea about the difficulty of DAT versus MCAT. I did however flick through those DAT booklets and have spoken to some of the US dental graduates regarding DAT and its worth.

Most said to pass DAT it was just a matter of doing the test over and over (as practice runs) before you sat for the final. I have many colleagues now who did non-science background degrees eg. finance, and took the DATs and got into the dental school without too much hassle. So if your sister has lots of spare time, then perhaps she should go and do some DATs and even get some extra hours of DAT practice runs with private tutors (if you can afford it at Kaplan) and just familiarize herself with DAT questions. [Live and breath DAT?!]

Well, that's about as far as I know about the US dental system! I trained in NZ and have worked in Australia so I guess you would be better off getting the answers off the local (the US) dental graduates or dental students if you are interested in US route. I am now in the US completing a Masters degree, but who knows with my life I might want to repeat that 1 or 2 years of extra US undergraduate??? As Monty Python would say, "Just don't expect the Spanish Inquisition!!!!"

My 2 cents worth mate!

Cheerio

Mightymolar

Thanks Mightmolar for your time and advice :)...

The dental school in the University of Sydney accepts MCAT score as well... I saw it in ACER application. Also it has a small amount of scholarship (I think $Aus 4000 dollars) for a couple of students.
Hopefully this info. helps.