Dentists in general practice are responsible for the dental health of their patients, using a variety of preventive and restorative measures. Many whose first preference would be medicine choose dentistry as an alternative and this can be a mistake. You are strongly advised to speak to your dentist and spend a day with him or her to learn what dentistry is about as a profession.
 

Both Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork offer courses in Dentistry. General admission procedures to study of Dentistry is competitive and based on the points systems for students presenting Leaving Certificate or Matriculation examinations.

There is a minimum points entry level and these are minimum subject requirements; these may differ between the two universities.

Because of the demand for places many Irish school-leavers apply to Dental Schools in the United Kingdom throughout the UCCA system.

The Dental Science Course at Trinity College is a full-time five year course. The first part of the course is devoted primarily to the biological sciences, prevention and community care, physiology, anatomy, biochemistry and a course called human diseases, which embraces general medicine, general surgery and pathology. Together with pharmacology and microbiology, these courses are now incorporated into a problem-based learning approach. The clinical dental courses increase in emphasis throughout the five years, incorporating areas of learning associated with dentistry, scientific knowledge, clinical skills, and attitudes to health and disease in society.

At UCC the course leading to the BDS degree also takes five years. The first two years of the course are spent on the university campus studying basic medical science. The last three years are spent in the Dental School and Hospital.