Big List of "Back-Up" Plans for Premeds- Part 1: Dentistry

This is Part 1 of my Big List of "Back-Up" Plans for Premeds series, intended to give a brief introduction to some alternate careers in health care that premeds might consider pursuing.

Dentistry is not a "Back-Up" in the traditional sense, in that it's almost as difficult to get into compared to medical schools (in Canada). Instead of "Back-up", "alternate" should be more appropriate. However, it is true that there are many people that switched from medicine to dentistry for various reasons.

Some important points regarding Canadian Dental Schools:

• Limited # of programs & very limited # of seats.
• Required/competitive GPA is often higher than med school admissions, unless you're considered in-province in certain provinces.
• Much more emphasis on GPA, while there is much less on DAT and extracurriculars.

I noticed that when people start looking into fields other than medicine, some of the things that everyone is concerned about are: GPA, DAT scores, number of interviews vs seats, prerequisites, as well as extracurriculars. So I tried to compile most of them here:

Figure 1. Most recent statistics available for Canadian Dental schools admissions- click to enlarge.

Figure 2. Required courses for Canadian Dental schools- click to enlarge. 

Non-academic
As previously stated, dental schools tend to put much less emphasis (or almost none) on ECs- check individual school websites for further information.

Deadlines
Generally much later than med apps, often in December. Again, check websites for information.

Potential salary & Job security/market
Average income: $166,885 (2005). Similar to physicians, dentists are also decently saturated in urban areas, but still needed in less-than-urban regions. Consult the Dental Student section on Premed101 for more information.

Links to school websites

Dalhousie University

McGill University

University of Alberta

University of British Columbia

University of Manitoba

University of Saskatchewan

University of Toronto

University of Western Ontario

Université de Montréal

Université Laval

Note: All statistics used for this post were retrieved from individual school websites.

Part 2 will feature PA (Physician Assistant) programs in Canada.

Matt