Undergraduate Essay Competition 2026

The BAOS dental undergraduate prize is available to all undergraduate dental students in the UK and Ireland and is designed to improve awareness of Oral Surgery in the undergraduate curriculum and engagement with the Specialty.

The competition will be open to 4th and 5th year undergraduate dental students. The prize will be awarded for the best essay (1500-word max) on the following topic:

Optimising Surgical Endodontics in Oral Surgery Practice

Each essay should be the undergraduate’s own work, without any input, review, assessment from dental hospital staff.

• Essays submitted will be subject to satisfactory plagiarism checks.
• Each essay must be accompanied by a signed declaration of Academic Integrity Form (this is available on the BAOS website or from your university)
• Essays should be 1500 (+/- 200 words), EXCLUDING references and words included in tables and figures. Wordcount must be stated at the end of the essay before references.
• References should be in Vancouver style and a maximum of 20
• Essays must be submitted in word format (Not PDF) using Arial font size 12 with double spacing.
• Essays not compliant with the above will be automatically withdrawn from the competition.
• The two top marked essays for each region/University will be judged by the BAOS regional representatives and will be put forward for the National BAOS Undergraduate Essay Prize. These essays will also receive a certificate of merit.
• The National BAOS Undergraduate Essay Prize winner will receive £250 and will be invited to submit a letter to the Journal of Oral Surgery as an opinion paper.
• The essays should be submitted via e-mail no later than 5pm on Monday 8th December 2025 to the BAOS office (mail@baos.org.uk). The subject line of the email should state “Undergraduate Essay Competition”
• Please include the following details in your email:
  • Full name
  • Dental School you are attending
  • What year you are in
  • Contact phone number

The winner of the National BAOS Undergraduate Essay competition and the 2 runners up will be notified early March 2026.

View details as PDF

Essay entry and marking criteria 2026

Delaration of Academic Intergity