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UoO A Quick Overview to Dentistry for Health Scis who are Yet Undecided

Ruth

Maderator
Emeritus Staff
Now that I’ve graduated (!!!!) I feel especially well-prepared to write this haha. This is just something brief so that I can get it out ahead of offers coming out mid-late December (LOL JK), I’ll write something a bit more indepth later. But this is just for anyone who’s still not sure what they want to do, or for the inevitable few who don’t end up getting into med and need a back-up plan.
I’ve loved the last 5 years – there’s been highs and there’s been lows but I wouldn’t change them for anything. I loved dental school and I can’t wait to be a dentist – I think I’m incredibly lucky to be able to have such a bright future with a fulfilling career with a surprising amount of career paths and opportunities.

Pros
So these are the pros as I see them, especially they’re ones that I took into account when I was making my decision:
5 years – important if you’re wanting to start a family (ages away I know, but it was an important consideration for me at least)
Tight knit group
Career opportunities
Good lifestyle and stable job
Wide range of things you can do as a general dentist (you will not get bored)
You really make an impact on people’s lives!!

Cons
It’s not med lol
Burnout is a real issue (but the suicide thing is a myth!)
Lots of people think you’re greedy :( but most of your patients super appreciate you <3
Big student loan!! It’s an expensive course – in 2nd year you’ll need to fork out $1k for lab equipment, not part of the $13k course fees


Overview
Dentistry (BDS) is a 5-year degree, after which you’re set loose in the world! No intern year like pharmacy, nothing like medicine, after your degree you’re free to go. If you choose to, you can specialise which most people will do after two years of work, and there are further opportunities with diplomas etc.
The first year (2nd year) is very pre-clinical, but you will get to do some things on each other (injections, scaling), and you’ll go up to clinic once a week in second semester with your 4th year buddy. In 3rd year, you’ll start seeing patients in pairs, with one person assisting, and start doing fillings and basic stuff, in 4th year you’ll be working by yourself and you’ll be doing more complex stuff – by 5th year you will be doing pretty much everything that isn’t specialist work. 2nd, 3rd and 4th year are pretty full-on, especially 4th year, with 30+ contact hours a week – clinics, labs, lectures, tutorials. 5th year is super chill though, with pretty much solely clinics, and maybe one lecture a week (usually < 20 contact hours a week). It’s all pretty manageable – no long hours or on-call weekends or anything like that. There will be times when you’ll have an assessment every week for almost the entire semester, but the nice thing about dent is that cos it’s a smaller year group, you become pretty tight and people in the years above are usually pretty happy to give you resources.

A lot of people tend to get kind of burnt out in 3rd or 4th year, apparently it’s pretty common to start wondering if you made the right choice…but I haven’t heard of anyone dropping out, and everyone I know who felt like that (me included) has got to the end of the degree absolutely loving it – dentistry is great, there’s a bit of everything – diagnosis, ‘surgery’/practical work, interaction with patients, and it’s such a wide field that if you get bored, well you can go on a course and learn to do something new!

Employment prospects
At the moment, they’re pretty good – if you’re not fussy about where you work, you will 100% get a job. If you want to work in Auckland, you’re looking at part-time work so you might have to get two jobs, and jobs in Dunedin and Invercargill are hard to come by. There are ~20 DHB/hospital jobs which are highly sought after, as you get a lot of experience in trauma and emergency care, and they’re good for those who want to specialise later. Most people will work privately, but you can also work for the Defence Force. Getting a job in Australia is verrrrrry difficult as they’ve got an oversupply of dent grads atm, and I’ve heard that Otago is looking to increase the number of students they’re taking in, which will make things more difficult in the future – but having said that, 98% of my year will find work and I don’t see things getting that much worse – probably more new grads will end up rurally though.

Wow I am not good at quick or short! Hope this is useful, feel free to PM or write on my profile. (or reply to this thread)
 

Venronux

Member
Hi @Ruth , can NZ grads apply for hospital jobs in Australia?? Thanks.
 

Ruth

Maderator
Emeritus Staff
Hi @Ruth , can NZ grads apply for hospital jobs in Australia?? Thanks.

Yep, but from what I've heard (have a friend at Adelaide) it's pretty selective and they tend to favour Aussies. Are you thinking of applying?

edit: a guy in my year actually got an interview at Syd/Brisbane dental hospitals but he didn't get either of them
 
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Mana

there are no stupid questions, only people
Administrator
I'm not a dentist, but as far as I know, hospital jobs are difficult to get even as an Australian dentist; the vast majority of Australian dental graduates will go into private practice.
 

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
Hi,

Is it okay if we made a separate thread about this topic of NZ graduates working in Australia?
 

Kiwiology

MSO Lawyer
For the uber keen you can complete a BDS/MBChB and become an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Talk about a license to print serious money.
 

Ruth

Maderator
Emeritus Staff
For the uber keen you can complete a BDS/MBChB and become an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Talk about a license to print serious money.

It's also many many years of training consisting of very hard work and long hours on call treating patients who have undergone some serious shit. There's much easier ways to make money.

Otago literally takes less than one person a year. You do it because you have a passion for it, not for a 'licence to print money'.
 
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Mana

there are no stupid questions, only people
Administrator
Bear in mind that there is a minimum post limit to initiate new private conversations (no limit required to reply to a PM though). This is to prevent bots making new accounts and spamming members with ads for R-rated websites or worse, expensive UMAT preparation.
 

Mandem

Member
Bear in mind that there is a minimum post limit to initiate new private conversations (no limit required to reply to a PM though). This is to prevent bots making new accounts and spamming members with ads for R-rated websites or worse, expensive UMAT preparation.

What is the minimum post limit?
 

Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

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