Medicine or Dentistry? What the IMAT Lets You Choose

Most people talk about "the IMAT" as if it only leads to Medicine and Surgery. It doesn't. The actual call for applications every year covers both Medicine and Surgery and Dentistry and Dental Prosthodontics - the same exam, the same day, the same national restricted-access process, feeding two different degree tracks. Almost nobody weighs this choice properly before ranking their preferences.

Same exam, genuinely different careers

Your IMAT score qualifies you for both tracks - the exam content doesn't differ by which one you're aiming for. What differs entirely is what comes after: six years toward a general medical degree with the option to specialize later, versus a dentistry-specific programme leading toward oral and maxillofacial care from early on. These are genuinely different careers, not a "backup" version of each other, even though people sometimes frame dentistry that way.

Why this matters for your ranking, not just your intentions

Because both tracks draw from the same exam and the same national process, your university preference ranking needs to account for which track you're ranking, university by university - not just which city or school you'd prefer. A seat in dentistry at one university and a seat in medicine at another are not interchangeable outcomes, even if both technically "got you in" on paper. Get clear on which track you actually want before you build your ranked list, not after.

How to actually decide

If you're genuinely unsure, talk to people currently in both programmes rather than guessing from the outside - the day-to-day reality of dentistry-track coursework and clinical exposure differs meaningfully from the medicine track from fairly early on, more than most pre-admission research conveys. Don't default into medicine simply because it's the track everyone talks about; dentistry is a full, respected medical field with its own genuinely rewarding path, not a fallback. (And if you do pick one and later change your mind, here's how switching between the two actually works.)

The exam doesn't ask you to choose. Your ranked list does. Decide deliberately, not by default.