I'm from the US, but went to McGill undergrad for 2 years, researched a ton of dental schools all over both for myself and a relative of mine who's a dentist in Europe. I've met and worked with a lot of residents and dentists and here's my 2 cents.
Being a med student for the first 1.5 to 2 years is an advantage in terms of overall knowledge, not to mention when it comes to studying for the boards. Now if a student is highly motivated they will do great on the boards anywhere, but taking classes with the meds is a definite positive. That's the trend in dental education among top tier schools (Columbia, Harvard, UConn, McGill). It's alot better than taking classes with nurses (what is NYU thinking??...ok that's another thread). So yes I disagree about UBC. From what I've heard it has a very good specialty rate and a strong clinical program. Sure they start in the clinic later than Toronto, but after 3rd year they're caught up. Toronto has all the positives and negatives of having specialty programs along with it. Toronto class size is larger I believe. Let's face it smaller class size the better for a lot of reasons. Toronto has a better research reputation though, and you'll have exposure to all the health care centers around the downtown area (world class hospital for sick kids, etc).
Now your theory about UBC running out of people for waitlists I don't believe at all. Everyone knows how competitive any dental school in Canada is.
Bottom line is you'll get a great education at either school. Ya there's advantages and disad's to each. But both are definitely above average. If you're wondering I would rank U of Montreal and Saskatchewan among the lowest.
