Careers › Health

How to become a Oral Hygienist / Oral Health Practitioner

Prevents and treats gum and dental disease alongside dentists.

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 Oral Hygienist / Oral Health Practitioner actually do?

More about this career

Works alongside dentists on preventive dental care – cleaning, fluoride treatments, educating patients – usually in a dental practice or public clinic. It’s a shorter, more accessible route into dentistry-adjacent work than the full dentistry degree.

Where this degree can take you

  • Dental Therapist
  • Dental Practice Manager
  • Community Oral Health Educator

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

Subjects that usually help

  • Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy
  • 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 7 of 7 programmes
  • Life Sciences – asked for by 6 of 7 programmes
  • Physical Sciences – asked for by 4 of 7 programmes
  • Mathematical Literacy – asked for by 2 of 7 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

7 programmes at 5 universities. More are added as we verify them.

Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University

Bachelor of Dental Therapy

School of Oral Health Sciences

SMU APS 28

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Mathematics: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)

Raw-confirmed 2026-10-04 against SMU’s own admission-requirements page for this school (points and subject minimums match). A mid-level dental qualification distinct from the full BDS - selection is competitive with demographic quotas even above the minimum. 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

Bachelor of Oral Hygiene

School of Oral Health Sciences

SMU APS 28

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Mathematics: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)

Raw-confirmed 2026-10-04 against SMU’s own admission-requirements page for this school (points and subject minimums match). APS 28 on the Mathematics route, 31 with Mathematical Literacy (level 7). Selection is competitive with demographic quotas even above the minimum. 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 KwaZulu-Natal

From an older document

Bachelor of Dental Therapy

Health Sciences · 4 years

UKZN APS 30 points out of 48

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Life Orientation: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Mathematics: level 3 (40% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 3 (40% or more)

Read 2026-10-04 from the table in the Study@UKZN 2026 brochure (CAO code KN-W-BDT); published APS range 48-30. First to third choice only. The brochure prints levels only for Life Orientation (4) and Mathematics (3); English at 4 and Life Sciences at 3 follow UKZN’s other health rows and should be checked. This comes from the Study@UKZN 2026 brochure, the most recent official source we could find. UKZN had not published a 2027 table when we checked, so treat these as 2026 figures pending a 2027 update. Applications go through the CAO.

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

From an older document

Bachelor of Oral Hygiene

Health Sciences · 3 years

UKZN APS 30 points out of 48

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Life Orientation: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Mathematics: level 3 (40% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 3 (40% or more)

Read 2026-10-04 from the table in the Study@UKZN 2026 brochure (CAO code KN-W-BON); published APS range 48-30. First to third choice only. The brochure prints levels only for Life Orientation (4) and Mathematics (3); English at 4 and Life Sciences at 3 follow UKZN’s other health rows and should be checked. This comes from the Study@UKZN 2026 brochure, the most recent official source we could find. UKZN had not published a 2027 table when we checked, so treat these as 2026 figures pending a 2027 update. Applications go through the CAO.

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

University of Pretoria

Selection programme

BOH (Oral Hygiene)

Health Sciences · 3 years

UP APS 25 points

  • English: level 4 if it is your Home Language, level 4 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Physical Sciences: level 4 (50% or more)

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 Oral Health

Dentistry

UWC weighted points 33 points out of 65

  • English: level 4 (50% or more)
  • Another language – Another language (Home or First Additional) at level 3.
  • Mathematics: level 3 (40% or more) OR Mathematical Literacy: 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 Oral Health Sciences

Health Sciences · 3 years

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

  • English: level 4 if it is your Home Language, level 4 if it is your First Additional Language
  • Mathematics: level 4 (50% or more) OR Mathematical Literacy: level 7 (80% or more)
  • Life Sciences: level 4 (50% or more) OR Physical Sciences: level 4 (50% 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?