The Comparison of Iranian and Foreign Students’ Motivations to Choose Dentistry Field of Study

Background Because of some special and privileged attractions of dentistry discipline, the first choice of volunteers who want to enter university is dentistry. The students usually choose it regardless to their interests and talents. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate Iranian and Foreign student’s motivations to choose dentistry field of study. Materials and Methods We searched international databases such as PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Iranian databases such as SID, Magiran, Iranmedex using a searching strategy during 2000 to 2015 years. Database without language restriction, since 2000 sources, with the MeSH term "Choose dentistry field" AND "Students". At first, in the initial search,152 articles were found, and finally, 51 of them which were related to the subject of this research were used. Results In general, the motivation of students to choose field of study in Iranain and Foreign students include the following:: an independent office or job independence, high economic income, appropriate social status,  job attractiveness of dentistry, appropriate job position, individual longing, help others, top rank of student in the university entrance exam, continue to study at specialized PhD in one of dentistry trends, successful marriage nd interest in the field of dentistry. Conclusion It seems that with regard to the high unemployment rate of university graduates in Iran, the most important incentives of applicants who want to enter the dentistry discipline are high income and  particular social prestige at this major. Moreover, high income and independent job situations are the most important factors in Foreign students for choosing this filed of study in the overseas studies.