Careers › Health

How to become a Dentist

Treats teeth, gums and the mouth.

6 specialties once you qualify →

This needs more than the degree

The BChD is five years, and like medicine you can’t set up in practice straight after graduating – HPCSA registration and (for most routes) a period of community service come first.

Apply early

Selection programmes like this often close months before the standard application deadline, and marks alone don’t guarantee a place. See the Dates page for the exact closing dates.

What does a Dentist actually do?

More about this career

Treats teeth, gums and the mouth – most dentists run or work in private practice, though some work in public hospitals or academia. The degree (BChD) is five years, and like medicine, specialising (orthodontics, oral surgery) takes further postgraduate training.

Where this degree can take you

  • Orthodontist
  • Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
  • Periodontist
  • Paediatric Dentist

This is our general description of the role and related jobs, not from an official source – it’s here to give you a fuller picture, not as a careers-counselling guarantee.

Not from an official source

Specialising after the Dentist degree

6 specialties

After the BChD, HPCSA registration and (for most routes) community service, dentists apply for a further postgraduate MChD at one of the dental schools - a four-year, mostly full-time specialist training programme in one of the fields below, after which the HPCSA registers the specialty.

Dental specialities

  • Maxillo-Facial and Oral Surgery – 4 years postgraduate
    Surgery of the face, jaw and mouth, including trauma and tumours - the dental equivalent of a surgical specialty.
  • Orthodontics – 4 years postgraduate
    Straightens teeth and corrects bite problems, mainly with braces and other appliances.
  • Periodontics and Oral Medicine – 4 years postgraduate
    Treats gum and other soft-tissue disease, and oral manifestations of wider medical conditions.
  • Oral Pathology – 4 years postgraduate
    Diagnoses disease of the mouth and jaws from tissue samples, mostly lab-based.
  • Prosthodontics – 4 years postgraduate
    Replaces missing teeth and reconstructs the mouth with crowns, bridges, dentures and implants.
  • Community Dentistry – 4 years postgraduate
    Population-level oral health - prevention, public dental health policy and service planning.

General overview, not from one single official source: the HPCSA regulates dental specialities and sub-specialities under GN R590/2001, and the list above matches the postgraduate MChD fields offered at South Africa’s dental schools (e.g. the University of Pretoria) - confirm the current complete list and durations with the HPCSA or a specific dental school before relying on it.

Not from an official source

Subjects that usually help

  • Mathematics
  • Physical Sciences
  • Life Sciences

This is our general guidance about which school subjects suit this career. It is not an admission requirement and not from an official source – the real requirements are on the degrees below.

Not from an official source

Where to check this yourself

What the programmes we’ve captured actually ask for

  • Mathematics – asked for by 4 of 4 programmes
  • Physical Sciences – asked for by 4 of 4 programmes
  • Life Sciences – asked for by 3 of 4 programmes

Counted from the requirements below (an “or” alternative counts for each subject named). Each programme links to the page it came from.

Programmes that lead here

4 programmes at 4 universities. More are added as we verify them.

Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University

Selection programme

BDS (Dentistry / Oral Health Sciences)

School of Oral Health Sciences

SMU APS 37

  • English: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Mathematics: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Life Orientation: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Two more subjects – Your best two other subjects, at level 5 and level 4 or better (ranked highest to lowest) - these ARE on the standard 1-7 NSC scale.

Raw-confirmed 2026-10-04 against SMU’s own admission-requirements page for this school (points and subject minimums match). About 42 places a year, selected by merit order on actual percentage marks. Closes 31 July 2026 for undergraduate programmes (applications open 1 April 2026) - notably earlier than most universities in this batch.

Source: View the official page (smu.ac.za) (opens the official page) · 2027 intake

University of Pretoria

Selection programme

BChD (Dentistry)

Health Sciences · 5 years

UP APS 35 points

  • English: level 5 if it is your Home Language, level 5 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 6 (70% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)

UP calls this the BChD (Bachelor of Dental Surgery), not BDS - corrected from the user-supplied Health Sciences 2027 Faculty Yearbook, which also confirmed the 5-year duration, though its own admission-requirements table wasn't present in that document so the APS/subject figures are carried over unconfirmed by this pass. A selection programme. Most UP closing dates are 30 June; Veterinary Science closes 31 May. Grade 12 applicants apply with their final Grade 11 results.

Source: View the official page (drupalwebprod-files.up.ac.za) (opens the official page) · 2027 intake

University of the Western Cape

Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS)

Dentistry

UWC weighted points 40 points out of 65

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Another language – Another language (Home or First Additional) at level 3.
  • Mathematics: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)

Raw-read 2026-10-04 from UWC’s own 2026 programme rules (the "Program Overview" PDF on the programme page, Calendar 2026). UWC points are its own weighted score (see the calculator note).

Source: View the official page (uwc.ac.za) (opens the official page)

University of the Witwatersrand

No cut-off published

Bachelor of Dental Science

Health Sciences · 5 years

No points cut-off published for this one – see the note below.

  • English: level 5 if it is your Home Language, level 5 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)
  • Job shadowing – A job shadowing certificate of attendance (minimum 16 hours) is required.

CONFIRMED 2026-10-02 by a direct fetch of the live course-finder page (both figures and the Life Sciences AND/OR Physical Sciences alternative, previously shown as Physical Sciences only): Wits Health Sciences uses a Composite Index (75% school average across 5 subjects, 25% NBT), not APS, and does not publish the cut-off scores - the NBT must be written in person by 17 August.

Source: View the official page (wits.ac.za) (opens the official page) · 2027 intake

Are your marks enough?

Put your subjects in once and we’ll check them against every programme above – scored each university’s own way.

What do I qualify for?