boxst

Hello

If anyone is a dentist on here, can you tell me the route to get qualified?

I'm interested in amount of time before you become "useful", i.e. not just at University.

Thanks,

Steve

richiewong

Some info here
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/nhs-kno...data/5413.html

Dieseldog

I think you'll get a better response on a Porsche or Fezza forum

Brit_in_Japan

It's similar to becoming a doctor IIRC. So you would be looking at 5 years minimum at university first. You need top A' Level grades to get a place on a course, same as if you wanted to be a doctor.

There maybe some "registration" training you need to complete the training. And if you want to something like orthodentistry then yo would have to do further studying and training as well.

Try HERE

But one things for sure, you don't find many poor dentists.

boxst

Hello

Thank you for your responses. I didn't realise it was five years at University, I thought it was three or four as they are effectively failed doctors.

Steve

richiewong

Got a few friends who are doctors and recently was out and about with one their dentist friends.

He paid for his £250,000 in cash so very poor to call them failed doctors.

boxst

Hello

I didn't say they don't earn enough money and are not good at their job. Just the few people I knew who were dentists in my younger life wanted to be Doctors, studied to be Doctors but swapped to Dentistry half way through as the couldn't cope with the studying to be a Doctor.

And also why I don't know what it takes to be a Dentist "From Scratch" as the people I knew skipped most of it.

Steve

V1CK1

Did you read Clarkson's bit on dentists then to get you interested?

Said they can earn something like 260k a year.

Wouldnt fancy the job myself, wouldnt mind the money tho!

Drnaz_2000

Yeah def failed docs....we medics tend not to like dentists. although we both in the healht profession theres a big difference between where our priorties lie. Whereas dentists primary concern is to line their pockets (could hardly want to be a dentists to make people have a nicer smile) most doctors care about their patients well being. speaking from experience.

Drnaz_2000

Yeah def failed docs....we medics tend not to like dentists. although we both in the health profession theres a big difference between where our priorties lie. Whereas dentists primary concern is to line their pockets (could hardly want to be a dentists to make people have a nicer smile) most doctors care about their patients well being and dont get paid half as much. speaking from experience.

Dieseldog

LOL. I'm seeing the dentist this week. Votes on whether my opening line of "So you're not a doctor then. Tell me, where did it all go wrong?" is a good idea...

V1CK1

I think id use that as a closing line myself

When i was unstrapped from the chair of doom

David Lock

My wife qualified as a dentist and cared very much about her patients so please keep your generalisations to yourself. This was some years back when it was 5 1/2 years at uni. Then you could go straight into Dentistry probably as an Associate or do what my wife did which was spend some time in a hospital before going into practice. Very stressful work at that time and very high suicide rate as a profession. dl

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Woops........

VERY strange idea, being as the results needed to get in to be a dentist are generally higher than those to be a doctor.........

Alcazar

Simon C

Another 1 asking you to keep your generalizations to yourself. I have 3 dentists in my family, well did, sadly my uncle died. Neither, my dad, uncle or cousin wanted to be medics.

Whilst my late uncle and cousin were/ are private, dad is still NHS always has been and well be until the day he retires. They all love their job, as for lining their pockets, pah, I earn about 1/2 what my dad does, after he's paid for his staff, surgery, insurance and medical affiliations, and I'm an engineer, although I now work in IT.

Robbie T

iTrader: (8)

I don't agree with the failed doctors comment either ....


I thought they were failed executioners

Or descended form medieval torturers

Or masochists

Or over paid thugs with a blade

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

WHY are so many people scared of dentists? I've not had a bad experience, and would far rather a bit of discomfort than lose teeth at an early age.

I always refuse the anaeshetic too, except for once when I had wisdom teeth extracted.

There have to be a lot of wimps out there...................

Alcazar

Deep Singh

5 years at Uni, 1 years vocational training and then you can start as an associate. Some take it further and gain further training to become specialists in orthdontics, conservative dentistry etc.
Some I know have done medicine and dentistry to train as maxillofacial surgeons. They didn't become consultants until age 38!!

These days dentists are not 'failed' docs, and indeed dental schools will look unfavourably upon applicants who have been rejected from med school as they don't want that sort of reputation.

Hope that helps

RedFive

Feckinell !

DJ ?

Deep Singh

Thats not true I'm afraid

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I know three people who applied to be dentists, and two who applied to be doctors.

All three dentist applicants were asked to get AAB minimum, while one doctor applicant was asked for ABB, while the other got in on BBB.

Alcazar

boxst

Hello

That is more to do with the popularity of the position I would of thought.

Steve

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Dunno WHAT it means.........except that in my experience, the grades needed to get in to be a doctor are not as high as those needed to be a dentist.......... which is what I said originally.

Alcazar

peterpeter

excuse me,, but they certainly are not failed doctors.

I got straight A's at O and A level.
I applied for dentistry, because my parents put me off becoming a doctor (they were both gps)and I liked the idea of running my own practice and being my own boss. Dentistry can be pretty **** if you get stuck in the NHS, but if you can specialise in a certian field (which requires a lot less ****-licking and waiting than med.) you can do really well.

I only work four days a week and have a really rewarding career. (I earn at least three times as much as doctor friends of mine at the same age--so who has failed eh?)

In fact it always makes me laugh when I hear medics try to put dentists down...
My brother is currently a registrar training to be an opthalmic surgeon.
He will be 40 before he is earning anything like a decent wage.
He is really regretting is now, wishing he had done dentistry too.

Leslie

If you do the training, aren't you so much in debt that you can't afford to work for the NHS any more?

Les

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Won't that just about sum up ANYONE coming out of uni in the next generation, thanks to New Labia

Alcazar

Deep Singh

Alcazar, you miss the point perhaps. In medicine you are often offered 2 Es, especially at Oxbridge. This is because they know the candidate will get much higher, its just to prove that they really want them

Deep Singh

This is the issue. Ask a dentist about his job and he will tell how little he works for a large amount of money. Ask a medic about his job and he will tell about someones life he has had a positive impact on, maybe even saved

Peterpeter all you can say is that you earn four times as much as a Dr. Maybe, but thats not the be and end all of it. Plenty of people earn 4 times as much as a Dr, so what?

As for your brother wishing he was a dentist, I think thats wishful thinking on your part. When he is a consultant he will be saving the sight of many. Ask a blind man what he would give for his sight and you have some idea about what I'm talking about. The feeling when a parent thanks him for saving their babies sight is an experience you will never know.

I'm not trying to put you down my friend, but you save teeth, we save life and limb. You get paid many times more, I'm happy to accept that because you never have the humbling experience of holding a life in your hands ten times a day. That is priceless, it keeps me grounded.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Deep

I save teeth too !! ..............LOL

I don't hold peoples life in my hand ten times a day............there again I don't get the extra PA's and merit / distinction awards etc that medics do !!

hosp docs pee all over me where pay is concerned rightly or wrongly.

Lifetime pay for medics beats NHS dentist hands down !

Midlife.....

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Oxbridge offer two E's? who was the applicant, Charlie Windsor: ?

Seriously, I made no point, just realted my experience. And if somewhere really is asking only two E's, doesn't it reinforce what I said?

Alcazar