Dentistry Interview Questions

Sample university interview questions for a dentistry degree

Once you’ve applied to study dentistry and gotten the required grades the last hurdle in front of you will be an interview. You might think that compared to the other steps the interview is the easy part, but it’s not time to relax just yet.

Essentially the interview stage is designed to show your suitability, knowledge, and passion for the subject so you’ll need to craft potential answers that show all of these things.

Here are some questions you might be asked in your interview and the things you should think about when answering them:

“Why do you want to study at [insert dental school here]?”

This is one of the questions you can almost put money on being asked and you’ll need to have a good answer for it. Talking about the open day and using phrases like “excellent facilities”, “positive, professional atmosphere”, and “enthusiastic students” is a good start.

You can also talk about the location if this was relevant to your application and showing knowledge about the academic side of that particular dental school is good as well.

“Why do you want to study dentistry?”

This is the second question you can almost guarantee to be asked and there’s no excuse for not being able to answer it. Talk about whatever aspect of dentistry genuinely interests you, making sure to link into other areas of dentistry.

For example, you could be interested in the practical side of the job, but being able to talk about the business aspects of running a dental practise will show you have a good all round knowledge of the industry.

“What is [insert common dental condition here]?”

They want to see you have a basic knowledge of the most common dental conditions, usually: caries, gum disease, tooth erosion etc. The interviewer won’t expect you to be an expert but they would expect you to be able to show you’ve done some research and have a basic understanding of dentistry.

Having knowledge of current dental techniques and specialities, such as oral surgery, will also stand you in good stead.