The Irish Dental Association is calling for a cap on the number of international students taking up dentistry courses in college in Ireland because of the limited number of available places.
Fewer than 100 places on dentistry courses in Dublin and Cork are available through the CAO.
However, 841 students had it as their first preference.
Irish Dental Association Chief Executive Fintan Hourihan said that about 50% of dentistry college places in Ireland go to applicants from outside the European Union, usually from Asia and Canada.
Since the 1980s until more recent times, around 20% of undergraduate dental places were taken up by students from overseas, he said.
Mr Hourihan said that while association welcomes that, Ireland has "significant shortages" of dentists as the population ages, and more dentists are needed to work in Ireland, as the majority from overseas return to their country of origin.
He said the situation needs to go back to the 20% levels.
"To be fair to the colleges, they have done this at the behest of the Government which has not put the necessary funding into the dental schools."
He added: "The overseas students pay considerably more, so they're effectively cross-subsidising.
"But the reality is we have huge numbers of talented, hard-working students [from Ireland] who want to study dentistry.
"We have a dire shortage of dentists, I don't think it is sustainable to have 50% of the places set aside for overseas students who are not likely to practice here," he said.
