Medicine or biomedicine?

[suskieanna]

Hello I am currently in year 11 and i would like to be a dentist. I want to go to either melbourne uni or monash uni. My father told me that I can do biomedicine to do dentistry. But my friend said that it would be better to do medicine because it is shorter (but she said that UMAT is a lot harder than the one for biomedicine). I am just so confused can anyone help me?

And also, do I need to do any work experience or volunteering at hospital?

[spectroscopy]

You can't be a dentist just from doing a medicine degree, you'd have to do a dental degree on top of that which is the biggest waste of time energy and money in your life unless you specifically want to be a maxillofacial surgeon. You should do a bachelor of biomedicine or science then do post grad dent, or application for undergraduate dentistry somewhere (not offered at Melbourne or Monash). Don't worry about volunteering etc too much at the moment l, just focus on getting a really high atar

[Sine]

if you want to cut down time (to 5 years) do dentistry @latrobe which is a direct entry undergrad degree

[Bell9565]

Hi, so I'm only in year 12 myself however I have been researching medical courses recently as I would like to get into medicine myself. There are a few pathways into dentistry but basically there's undergraduate dentistry (do it straight out of school) and postgraduate dentistry (after a degree). Neither Melbourne or Monash offer undergrad dentistry therefore you would either need to go to LaTrobe or Interstate to study it (I will outline potential benefits later). I'm 99% sure if you study med at monash however you will not be able to go practice as a dentist so to become a dentist you would still have to do a dentistry degree and considering med is 5 years vs 3 years for biomed then time is actually against you at monash.
I understand if you are certain you want to go via postgraduate pathway via melb uni though, however with the government soon to cut back on CSP for postgraduate degrees, it may end up by costing you a lotttt (and I mean like 200+k for med because that what i have looked into) more than if you just did a single undergrad degree plus it will take you longer. Also you arent guaranteed a place postgraduate at all (yes if you get a 99.90+ atar you get guaranteed CSP and if you get 98.00+ for dentristy guaranteed paid place) so if you can get into undergad dentistry it may be a better option.
But yeah if you want to do it postgrad I'd recommend biomed at melb/monash.

Oh and also some undergrad dentistry courses require UMAT so i'd look into that for next year.

Hope it helps and I answered your question 

[The Special One]

Medicine always.

[Potatohater]

If you want to do dentistry as an undergrad and moving out of home doesn't phase you, University of Sydney has a seperate faculty of dentistry in which you can do undergrad Bachelor of Science (advanced) and bachelor of dentistry as a double degree if you get really good high school marks. Obviously not wanting to leave Victoria is perfectly understandable but I do have friends who moved to Queensland for speciffic courses they wanted so it might not be entirely out of the question.
Otherwise, from reading this thread, sounds like undergrad at Latrobe or postgrad after biomedicine are also good options.

[Quantum44]

If you want to do dentistry there is absolutely no reason to do a medical degree. In Victoria, the most common pathways are Melbourne biomed/science—> Melbourne DDS or Latrobe Dentistry. Latrobe requires a higher ATAR as it is undergrad and more desirable however neither require UMAT. There are also various interstate options such as JCU, UQ, Griffith, CSU, USyd, UAdel and UWA.

[The Special One]

[cookiedream]

Hello I am currently in year 11 and i would like to be a dentist.

Awesome! A dentist is a great career path and, while it's quite intensive and heavy on precision, having a passion for the profession helps ease off some of the stress.

I want to go to either melbourne uni or monash uni.

As the others have already said, Monash doesn't offer dentistry and Melbourne offers dentistry via the postgraduate pathway. I suggest you consider Latrobe Dentistry if you want to study via the undergraduate pathway. Is there any specific reason why you want to study at either of these unis only?

My father told me that I can do biomedicine to do dentistry.

You can in Melbourne uni, where you graduate from the Bachelor of Biomedicine (three years) then go into the Doctor of Dental Medicine (4 years, I believe).

But my friend said that it would be better to do medicine because it is shorter (but she said that UMAT is a lot harder than the one for biomedicine).

Again, as said before, you can't be a dentist via studying medicine, unless you want to be a maxfax (maxillofacial surgeon), in which case you must do both dentistry and medicine. Not sure if your friend knows you want to be a dentist specifically; that's another case in itself haha. Additionally, UMAT is used for many other interstate dent courses (e.g. University of Adelaide) so I recommend you try for the UMAT just to keep your options open

Not sure what you meant by the "one for biomedicine". Are you referring to the Biomedical science pathway into med at Monash? If so, I'd say they're both hard in their own ways, considering that biomed is really competitive (presumably since most biomed students are studying for this pathway) and only 50 or so students will be chosen out of the 500+ biomed cohort.

And also, do I need to do any work experience or volunteering at hospital?

In one of my dentistry interviews, I was asked about my work experience and whether I undertook it with a dentist. So I suggest you seek work experience at a dental clinic or dental hospital since this gives you a greater perspective on the profession itself, possibly giving more reasons or strengthening your reasons as to why you wanted to do dent, and it can really help you with these interview questions.

Best of luck for VCE and your dent endeavours (dent-eavours)!!!

- cookiedream

[Quantum44]

Not much reason not to do one either keeps OPs options open in case of a career change and they decide dentistry isn't for them and offers further advancement for advanced dentistry specialisation

Well if you do a medical degree you cannot practice as a dentist so I don’t see how it keeps options open.

[The Special One]

For various reasons I cannot expand on my initial post.  Just know I have very valid reasoning for thinking it

If anyone OP or otherwise  wants to know why Med is a good pathway to dentistry pm me instead of asking on here.

Other than that all I can do is leave my recommendation  for direct entry med, med over biomed and move on.

[vox nihili]

I think you'd save yourself a lot of time and stress if you did Biomedicine—>Dentistry or Science—>Dentistry or even high school—>dentistry than starting off with medicine. You'll just be miserable during your medical degree working at something you don't want to do with your life. It is also unlikely to add anything much to your career prospects, other than opening up the option of oral/maxillofacial surgery (as TSO correctly pointed out in the split thread).