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FAQ: Should I Attend an International Dental School to Save Time?

"Spotlight FAQ" questions may be edited for privacy, length, and clarity. This post was last updated in October 2011.

Question: Anonymous on July 13, 2008 asked...
What do you think about attending a dental school in another country and saving yourself four years of study? In the U.S., the majority of students are required to have a bachelor's degree to be be accepted to dental school. In other countries to have a bachelor's degree is not a requirement and you can start dental school when you graduate from high school. What are the pros and cons of this idea?

Response: Top Ten Nation Writers replied...
Re: Foreign dental schools

It initially sounds as if it's a great idea, however, I recommend otherwise. If you attend a dental school outside of the U.S. or Canada or Australia (We'll call this trio USCanAus), those schools are not accredited by the ADA or the CODA, and therefore, you will be unable to practice in the U.S., Canada, or Australia upon graduation. This restriction includes schools in England or any other developed country outside of the U.S., Canada, and Australia. USCanAus all have reciprocal agreements within one another that allows portability to dental licensure. As a foreign graduate the only way to qualify to enter USCanAus is to take a 2 or 3 year Advanced Standing (AS) or Qualifying Program (QP) to earn a DMD/DDS in USCanAus. There may be exceptions or slight variations to these rules in a handful of states. These Advanced Standing seats are significantly harder to gain entry into than just the straight 4-year DMD/DDS seats. This doesn't mean that it isn't possible, plenty of people do what you have suggested. Other problems that you may face include a lack of a quality education, and unbeknown issues arising from the introduction of pass/fail NDBE Part 1 exams in the near future. Please note that currently all dental schools with Advanced Standing seats in the U.S. use NDBE Part 1 scores to scrutinize candidates for admission. This is all "up in the air" after somewhere potentially around 2011/2012, as dental schools will be scrambling to come up with other ways to scrutinize foreign applicants.

The only 'pro' of doing what you have suggested is saving potentially 2-3 years of education at most (and that is if you are an excellent student, and make no mistakes.) A lot of foreign dental schools that don't require undergraduate education are 5-year programs as well, so an additional year may be lost there. You may or may not also lose more years while applying for - and potentially waiting for - an Advanced Standing seat in USCanAus. It is of my personal opinion that this route of attending an international school is not recommended due to the mixture of all of these following reasons: you probably aren't going to save any time anyways, most dental schools that don't require undergrad education aren't in developed countries anyways (i.e. England or Ireland would require undergrad...) so you'd have to deal with safety issues being overseas. Dental school is difficult and it's better being somewhat closer to your family so you can go see them more often during short vacations. Why deal with Visa and student immigration issues? Furthermore, why deal with having to compete for heavy-in-demand AS seats, all for an attempt to save at most 1 or 2 years of education?

Take the safer route and apply to a U.S. or Canadian or Australian dental school. You'll get a quality education from the beginning, with the security of knowing that you will qualify for a dental license without having to seek admission to an Advanced Standing program. You'll be closer to your family. You'll also be more comfortable not having to deal with the language, cultural, dietary, and societal differences. At the end of the day, you'll probably spend less on your dental education as well by staying in the USCanAus. I hope this long winded answer helps.

Spotlight FAQ's is an idea to attempt to highlight interesting and relevant admissions questions for pre-dental students.

7 comments:

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    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for all your help Top Ten, your site is a fantastic reference.

    This is a bit unrelated to the preceding post, but I have a friend entering dental school and to pay his tuition, he has signed on with the Air Force to serve for 4 years after dental school. Could you please expound on the military option and your thoughts on it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

    ReplyDelete
  4. hello,

    im about to graduate business school with a 3.5 GPA but suddenly am interested in going to dental school. what should i do about fulfilling my prereq's and then applying to dental school?

    thanks,
    mcap

    ReplyDelete
  5. Japan, Taiwan, hong kong doesn't require an undergrad but aren't developed countries? I disagree.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is exactly what has been in my head lately. I plan to study in the Philippines, but am also considering its 'pros' and 'cons' I am from there but have lived in Minnesota for over 8 years. I would love to get educated there because it's home and it's much, much, much more affordable. However, when I think about how the US wouldn't credit my 5-year-DMD from there, I start getting discouraged. It all depends on the state you want to practice in.

    According to the article that I read, Minnesota accepts internationally-educated dental graduates to apply for MN licensure without additional education. I can obtain a "three-year limited general dentist license" then then the board will grant you an "unlimited license" if no corrective or disciplinary actions have been taken during the 3-year limited general dentist license.


    Thanks for posting this topic!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another thing...

    Which would weigh more in gaining acceptance to US Dental schools: a 5-year DMD from a different country or a 2-3 years of Post-baccalaureate/ Master's Degree that is done in the US?

    ReplyDelete

 
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