Dental School in Indonesia

“How long does it take to be a dentist?” is always the first thing people ask me. Sometimes I think about how my friends graduate, taking job interviews and get married while I continue taking impressions or doing restorations in dental school. Alright, I admit that it’s a long journey but trust me, it’ll be worth it.

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Pre-Clinical and Clinical Years

Basically, there are pre-clinical and clinical years that dental students have to go through. I’ve been reading about this online and apparently it works differently in other countries.

According to the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), dental school is four years long, with two pre-clinical years and two clinical years. Also, before you apply to dental school, you should at least have a bachelor’s degree or a graduate degree. Overall, it will be an eight-year trip to be a dentist in the U.S. (each uni could be different, though).

In Indonesia, you can apply to dental school after you graduate high school through a college entrance exam or SBMPTN. Unlike the U.S., you don’t need a bachelor's degree or graduate degree before applying to dental school. You just have to pass the college entrance exam. Sounds easy right? Nope.

SBMPTN is where you compete with thousands or millions of students to enrol in public universities in Indonesia. If you fail, either retake the exam next year or apply to a private uni. That’s it. I was lucky enough to pass the exam and made it to dental school.

Dental School in Indonesia

Dental school in Indonesia is five and a half years long, with three and a half pre-clinical years and two clinical years. Once you’ve made it through pre-clinical years, you will be granted a bachelor’s degree or “Sarjana Kedokteran Gigi (S.KG)”. You can’t celebrate this just yet!

There will be an exam called OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) and you have to pass this test in order to continue clinical year (again, each uni could be different, but this is how it works in my uni). After that, you will go through clinical rotations for two years, take two exams called UKMP2DG and OSCE, then you’ll be granted the title “Dokter Gigi (drg)”, which is similar to DDS or DMD in the U.S. if you pass both exams.

It’s a long and rigorous journey, so my advice is to only apply to dental school if you’re passionate in dentistry. Put your heart into it, and you’ll see the fun part of dentistry.