Dentistry at UCC or TCD

Dominique321

I'm applying for Dentistry this year and I would like to know where is the best place to apply to. I've got Trinity as my first option down on my CAO however.. I've reasearched and most people apply and go to UCC and I wanted to know why..

EoghanIRL

I would have to say that dentistry at ucc is an awesome course!
Feel free to ask any questions that you may have.
I just finished first year dent this week and just have to sit semester 2 end of year exams.

Dominique321

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I would have to say that dentistry at ucc is an awesome course!
Feel free to ask any questions that you may have.
I just finished first year dent this week and just have to sit semester 2 end of year exams.

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I would have to say that dentistry at ucc is an awesome course!
Feel free to ask any questions that you may have.
I just finished first year dent this week and just have to sit semester 2 end of year exams.

That's awesome !
First of all thank you very much for your reply !
How many points did you get ?
Have you got any tips for study ... There's only 2 months left and I'm freacking ... Thank you

EoghanIRL

Just work as hard as you can and it should all pay off in the end. My philosophy is that success only comes before work in the dictionary. If you put in the work then the results follow. I was nervous aswell before the lc , it's completely normal don't worry!

It's worth putting in the effort now because it's a great course and your job prospects and the post graduate options available to you once you graduate are pretty good too!

If you have any questions about the course feel free to ask them! I see that I haven't really answered your original question.

Dominique321

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Just work as hard as you can and it should all pay off in the end. My philosophy is that success only comes before work in the dictionary. If you put in the work then the results follow. I was nervous aswell before the lc , it's completely normal don't worry!

It's worth putting in the effort now because it's a great course and your job prospects and the post graduate options available to you once you graduate are pretty good too!

If you have any questions about the course feel free to ask them! I see that I haven't really answered your original question.

Was dentistry your first option? And why UCC.. Because as I said I have Trinity as my first option but everyone seems to have UCC. Is the course content manageable ?

EoghanIRL

Well I'm obviously going to be some what biased in my answer.
I find that the course content is manageable but it's definitely time consuming and apparently every year it gets harder. The first two years are pre clinical. The last 3 years are clinical years spent in the dental hospital.

I will write out a quick overview of first year so that you and anyone else considering the course will have an idea of what they are getting into.

Physiology - expect to cover cardiovascular , respiratory , renal and gastrointestinal physiology in detail over two semesters. About 20 hours of physiology practical labs.

Anatomy- topographical anatomy : expect to cover the head and neck in detail!! No escaping this. You will learn most of the muscles , nerves , blood supply etc to the head and neck.. Requires a lot of learning.
You will cover down to about the lungs.
You will have a 2 hour flame lab each week where you will be getting tutorials by instructors using cadavers. The cadaver lab is really good for seeing the anatomy in real life.
There are also clinical lectures dealing with what happens when anatomy goes wrong - injury etc., illness ,different cancers

Anatomy : principle of human structure- a more general anatomy module dealing with the different systems of the body.

Biochemistry:
Considered a hard module by many students in first year courses.
Divided into biomolecule and metabolism. The biochemistry of metabolism is challenging and require you to learn off many pathways of varying difficulty.
Biomolecule a is about the different molecules and deals with their chemistry.
Biochemistry had a few 4 hour labs.

There is also a module called dental biochem case studies. It consists of a two hour tutorial every week where you will deal with the biochemistry relating to dentistry , tooth development and illness.

Then there are the dental specific modules. There are two dental surgery modules in first year . DS1003 and DS1004.
Expect to learn about dental practice( a large array of topics here- paediatrics,radiology,smoking cessation , public health etc).
There is material sciences. This has 3 two hour labs where you will make impression materials and different filling materials such as amalgam fillings etc.
There is law and ethics in semester two.
Behavioural science is the final component. It will teach you psychology essentially.
There are also clinical sessions where you will be taught cross infection control, how to set up the dental chairs etc and one where you chart someone's teeth.

When you are at the hospital they expect you to be well dressed.

Regards exams. CA is mcq and saq for most subjects. There is negative marking in dentistry unlike some other health sciences.. Got to be careful of this. End of year exams tend to be essays and mcqs . Usually 3 hour long similar to the leaving cert. There is one spot exams
on the cadavers.
Most people do well out of the class.

In ucc you get access to the mardyke as part of your student fee .
Finally most of the lectures are excellent and really enthusiastic about their subjects which makes it easier to learn.
However If you want to do well then there is a lot of work to be done.

Hope this gives you a bit of an insight into the life of a first year.

Dominique321

Thank you so much ! You were a great help !
Well.. If you have any tips at all about uni or leaving cert, somethig that you've done and you regret. Feel free to tell me 😋