Xavier University of Louisiana

This document is one in a series designed to provide basic information about mainline health professions and the Premedical Office at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Have You Considered Dentistry? Choosing an occupation is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. Now is the time to start. This leaflet will help you investigate one exciting possibility—dentistry. If you enjoy helping people, would like a career with potential for advancement, and would enjoy the prestige and challenges of a profession in health care, dentistry could be for you.

Why Dentistry?

Security: Dentistry can provide considerable financial reward. And the need for professional dental services will remain strong in the years ahead.
Advancement: Dentistry offers excellent opportunities for professional growth. Dentists often advance from positions as hired associates to senior partners to owners of independent practices with satellite offices. In terms of financial growth, the outlook is also quite good. Dentists under the age of 30 earn, on an average, double the starting income of other college graduates. By the time they've reached 40, dentists are earning double the income of those under 30.
Flexibility: Dentists in private practice have considerable freedom to plan their work schedules around their individual needs and desires.
Variety: Dentistry is a rapidly changing, expanding profession. The number and range of services dentists provide keeps growing. Dentists treat people of all ages, from many backgrounds, and develop unique treatment plans for each.
Creativity: Dentists constantly make creative decisions to produce maximum results for patients. Much of dentistry involves careful, precise handwork and artistic judgment.

What Dentists Do: In addition to providing primary health care, dentists educate patients and the community about dental health and its relationship to total well-being, provide leadership in practice settings, and handle business and financial matters. Dentists often conduct research or teach at the university level and are sometimes called upon to lend their expertise to criminal and legal investigations.

Dental Specialties: Though most dentists become general practitioners, the profession offers several specialties, allowing practitioners to concentrate exclusively on special areas of interest and patients with specific types of problems. Some dentists care solely for children. Others treat only diseases of the gums. And some work in laboratories, performing tests needed to diagnose diseases. From oral surgery to public health dentistry, dentistry's specialties offer a wide variety of opportunities to help others.

Basic Data

Time Required to Complete Dental Education: Usually 4 years, 2 taking general science and two gaining clinical experience. The fourth year of dental school is generally much like serving as an apprentice to a dentist. Dentists are not required to complete an internship or residency unless they wish to specialize.
Educational Requirements for Entry: A minimum of 40 semester hours of mathematics and science in specified courses. An undergraduate degree and a course in which one must develop manual dexterity, such as sculpture or ceramics, are also often recommended. (See Info4 and Info5 for additional information.)
Admissions Test: The Dental Admission Test (DAT). The DAT is offered in a computerized version ONLY. For registration information, visit http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/index.asp.
Content of Dental Admissions Test (DAT): There are four parts to the DAT...
- Natural Sciences (40 questions from General Biology, 30 from General Chemistry, 30 from Organic Chem.),
- Quantitative Reasoning (40 math and applied reasoning problems),
- Reading Comprehension (3 reading passages on various topics with 50 questions total),
- Perceptual Ability (90 2-D and 3-D problems)
Scoring on the Dental Admissions Test (DAT): Five scores are reported for the DAT, one for each of the four areas tested (above) as well as an average for the Science, Reading, and Quantitative sections. Each score is based on a scale of 1-30 with "15" being the average. Although we have no data on the new test as yet, we expect that a "10" will be minimum needed to gain acceptance into dental school.
Where one submits an application for dental school: Most dental schools in the U.S. participate in the American Dental Education Association's (ADEA) centralized application service Associated American Dental Schools Application Service (AADSAS). Thus, for most medical schools one submits the major application to ADEA headquarters in Washington, DC first. Then, at some later time, most schools ask for a brief supplemental application.

Where to Get Additional Information:

About the general requirements/application process: Attend Overview Meeting in September of Junior Year (look for signs announcing the date, time, and place when you return to XU each fall) and check bulletin boards in Premed Office or check http://www.adea.org.
About Xavier's Pre-Dental Club: Visit http://webusers.xula.edu/predenta/
About the DAT: American Dental Association, Dental Admission Testing Program, 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60611-2678 or http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/scoring.asp for additional information and on-line registration.
About the application process: Central application service (AADSAS), 1625 Massachusetts, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2212 or http://www.adea.org for additional information or an on-line application. If you are applying to dental schools in Texas that particpate in the Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service (TMDAS) you must go to www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/.
About requirements for individual schools:
- From the ADA publication Admissions Requirements into Dental Schools available in Premed Office
- From the dental schools directly from their websites (complete list available at http://www.adea.org.)...
  - LSU School of Dentistry, http://www.lsusd.lsuhsc.edu/
  - U of Alabama-Birmingham School of Dentistry, http://www.dental.uab.edu/
  - U of Tennessee College of Dentistry, http://www.utmem.edu/dentistry/
  - Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry, http://www.dentistry.mmc.edu/