A Dental Applicant’s Guide to Getting into Dental School: The Interview
NEW- If you have an interview coming up soon, or need help with your application, myself and another KCL dental student have set up a ‘personal tutoring’ service of sorts, to sharpen up your dental knowledge, interview skills and do a mock interview with written+verbal feedback. If you’re interested in finding out more, or have any other questions, get in touch!
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Introduction
So you’ve got through the first stage of your dental application, you’ve put all your grades and personal statement through UCAS and your hard work has been rewarded with a Dental Interview at one of the 15 dental institutions in the UK. (Well done!)
Whilst the ‘application’ stage is arguably the most unpredictable and competitive of a dental application, it’s not an excuse to relax when it comes to the ‘interview’ stage. Hard work, focus and passion go a long way throughout studying dentistry and the dental school interviews are no exception.
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I regularly get emails from prospective dental students asking me about what to expect from a dental school interview and if I can give them any advice on the best way to approach answering questions. I’ve tried my best to answer as many emails as I can, but the best way for me share my knowledge with you is via this written article.(Do still feel free to contact me)
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Get in the zone, we’re going to be discussing what I feel are some of the safest ways to get through a dental school interview successfully.
N.B. I’m not on an interview panel, nor am I a man who has been through dozens of interviews. I am however a keen public speaker, student president-elect at my dental school and like to think I have a sense of how to put myself across decently. The following tips are not a definite guide, but rather there to help you put the interview process into perspective and have an idea of a standard you could aim for.
#1- “Why did you apply to [our amazing university]?”
A common question, to the point that you could put money on them at some point in your interview asking you is, why you chose their university. You’ll be prepared for this one, so my advice is that you must have a solid appreciation of the dental school physically, academically and in terms of location.
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Physically
Get yourself to an open day before application (at least before interview).
The facilities are going to be excellent at any of the dental schools in the UK. Take note of the atmosphere, which should be joyfully positive. Finally, go out of your way to talk to one of the students (the person showing you around is usually a dental student), and get an idea about how they find the university, the course, and the location.
With your homework in place it becomes simple to string together a genuine comment on how “the open day” showed you that the dental school has “excellent facilities” with a “positive atmosphere” and “enthusiastic students”.
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Academically
Read the prospectus. Read it again. Talk to current students.
Just as an example, the King’s College London Dental Institute page on their course structure, is detailed and clear. It would be invaluable to have an understanding of what is written there and be able to bring out the positive points they emphasise such as “early clinical exposure/contact” when answering this question.
Use the open day students, find a friend of a friend, send me an email if you’re interested in KCL, it makes a difference if you have access to a current student at your university of choice to be able to ask them for details about the course. (When they first see patients? How many lectures they have? What procedures they do on phantom heads/patients? And with caution what the dental school is highly regarded for in terms of postgrad education and research).
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Location
Explore/read about the area. What could you do there as a student?
I’m going to take this opportunity to highlight, in my opinion, the most important secondary factor for these interviews, enthusiasm. Even if you have multiple interviews, at each interview it should come across that this institution is you first choice. Interviewers see through most of the acting that us 18 year-olds can pull off, you have to genuinely want to study in this city. A genuinely enthusiastic student with the right qualities beats a half-hearted student with the right qualities any day. Every place has its charm, keep reading up on it and it never hurts to watch a funny dental school video here and there:
#2- A Basic Knowledge of Dentistry: “What is Caries?”
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Caries is the scientific name for tooth decay, a process involving the bacteria in dental plaque metabolising carbohydrates in food to produce acid that demineralises the tooth substance. Eventually leading to cavity formation, compromising the tooth and eventually requiring treatment (e.g. fillings, extractions).
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- You might be asked about fundamental dental conditions such as caries, tooth erosion, dentine hypersensitivity or gum disease.
- You could also be asked what you understand by a certain speciality in dentistry, such as endodontics,periodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics or oral surgery.
- Finally, if you’ve commented on it, more complex topics such as “what is root canal treatment?” and “what is the procedure of implant placement” could come up.
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The 2 key rules
Answering & preparing for questions that test your knowledge and grasp of key dental concepts:
1) They aren’t expecting you to be an expert!!! I can’t stress this enough, you need to have a basicunderstanding of all the key topics listed above. They want to see you’ve gone away, put the time in to do some research, then processed, understood and revised these dental concepts correctly.
2) PREPARATION. Work hard, read, think and question your understanding, it’ll pay dividends in the interview.
#3- “Why would you want to be a Dentist?!”
Again, a question that will almost inevitably come up, and one that the interviewers are going to know you’ve prepared for. It goes without saying that your answer shouldn’t sound rehearsed and it should be genuine and confident (as should your answers to all the questions in the interview).
I’m trying to avoid putting words into your mouths, but your answer should have structure and not just dive into the good points about dentistry. e.g. structured in the order of: 1)’When/how did your interest in dentistry begin’, 2)’what you did to make that interest develop’, 3)’what makes dentistry the ideal profession for you':
- Strongly scientific.
- Practical application of science, with intricate work requiring high level of manual dexterity.
- Emphasis on interpersonal communication (teamwork, leadership & with the public).
- Business aspect of dentistry.
- Variety of career paths available
- Flexible working hours + job security + good pay (no other profession with this combination) (be careful if saying this in interview)
This is a crucial question for two reasons. First, it usually comes quite early on during the interview, and a smooth answer can set the tone of the interview. Secondly, it is perfectly set up to lead onto more questions regarding your work experience, which you should be referencing throughout answering “why do you want to do dentistry?”, with lines such as “during my work experience…”.
Also, I wouldn’t advise taking any tips from the following video:
#4- The Work Experience Diary
When asked about your work experience, the question could be as vague as “Tell me about your work experience“, to a more specific one such as “Tell me about one procedure you saw during your work experience.”
Regardless of the question, you should be using sentences with “For example, the dentist did…” or “For instance, the dentist said…”. You want to get across not only what you saw during your work experience, but also that youanalysed and took away the important points of what it is to actually be a dentist in the real-world.
Your life will be so, so much easier if you had a log of everything you saw whilst doing your work experience. Of particular importance and easily forgotten, is noting down the way that dentists deal with difficult situations, for example:
- Anxious, elderly or very young patients.
- Particularly difficult/unsuccessful treatment.
- Logistical issues with appointments or other team members.
Read through any notes you made to refresh your mind before interview, then work on structuring/practicing answers to possible questions:
#5- Practice makes Perfect: Mock Interviews
You’re bound to get some surprises thrown at you in the interview, awkward question like “How would you deal with a crying patient?” or “How would you improve the provision of dental care under the NHS?”. While you might be forced to think quickly on your feet for those, you don’t want to be answering the questions we’ve discussed in the sections before like, “Why Dentistry?” or “Why x university?” for the first time out-loud in your actual interview.
Nothing will make more of a positive impact to your interview performance as practicing answering questions out-loud regularly will. Keep trying to answer example questions until you can remove all the “ehmm…”, “like“, “sort of“, “yeh“, awkward silences, and rambling non-sensical statements/arguments from your answers. The aim is to get yourself comfortable with the kind of questions that could come up so that you can answer confidently, concisely and calmly (Three C’s that can make almost any answer sound pretty refined).
Finally, get someone, a family member, friend, dental student or dentist you know to give you mock interviews, I’ll list some example questions you can use in the section below, but you should be able to easily come up with more questions. If possible, get a video recording of yourself answering a few questions or an entire mock interview, I promise you, it makes a phenomenal difference being able to see the how you come across to the outside world. You’ll be able to pick up on things that can make a real difference to how you present yourself. The cringeyness is so worth it, you’ll be able to highlight mannerisms in a video recording which other people wouldn’t feel comfortable or think important enough to comment on.
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- “Why dentistry?”
- “During your work experience, did you find anything particularly interesting?”
- “During your work experience, did your dentist have to deal with any difficult situations?”
- “Why did you choose dentistry over medicine?”
- “Do you think being a dentist is a stressful job?”
- “Why did you apply to our university?”
- “What do you think is the most important quality of a dentist?”
- “Can you give me any examples of when you’ve demonstrated said quality?”
- “What are your strengths/weaknesses?”
- “What is Caries?”
- “What do you know about periodontics?”
- “How are dentists paid under the NHS?”
- “Do you have any suggestions on how this system can be improved?”
- “What are your thoughts on water fluoridation?”
- “What are your thoughts on the use of amalgam fillings?”
#6 “Am I Talking too Fast?”- General Interview Tips
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What the interviewers are going to be scoring you on: [Getting into Dental School (2011)]
- Reason for choice of Dental School.
- Motivation to study Dentistry.
- Awareness of Dental issues.
- Communication skills.
- Personal qualities.
- Academic ability.
Have a good think about how you can make it clear that you have all the above qualities, it’ll make a difference.
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Verbal and non-verbal communication:
Body Language:
- Maintain good posture. Stay comfortable.
- Maintain eye contact, primarily to the person asking you the question, but also give eye contact to the other members of the interview panel. Nothing screams composure and confidence more than being able to hold eye contact whilst talking during a high-pressure situation like an interview!
- Syncing- A technique of imitating the interviewer to build a deeper rapport. This can come across as extremely fake if you haven’t practiced it, so the only application of this technique I’d suggest is mimicking the way the interviewer(s) agrees/nods to your statements (hopefully they will be!). Give it a shot if you can, but this isn’t crucial!
- Keep those hands in check, don’t leave them nervously under the table, and don’t wave them around as you ‘describe how you’ve dreamt of being a dentist all your life’. Keep them relaxed and lightly resting on the table, slight movement of your hands while you’re speaking can help to add non-verbal emphasis to the points you are verbally-emphasising.
Speech
- Speak at a controlled pace (not too slow and not too fast). Aim for clarity.
- If you get flustered, try to focus on coming to a conclusion to your point, rambling on can get you into trouble!
- Avoid slang!
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And a few diagrammatic tips: [Lifehacker]
The Dress Code
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Suit Colour?
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The Handshake
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Facial Enthusiasm
#7 ‘That Something Extra’- Further Reading
If you’re as passionate about dentistry as you’re going to be portraying yourself to be, it’s only natural for the interviewer to expect you to have done some further reading into the subject. You can’t go wrong regularly checking out the BBC website, www.dentistry.co.uk and the forums at Dentinal Tubules. You’re bound to start noticing a trend of what are the interesting topics that are relevant in dentistry at the moment. For this guide, we’ll discuss a few of the topics which I feel are most relevant for you as dental applicants, and that you should definitely be prepared for come interview time:
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The NHS Contract
I wrote an article just over 3 years back, discussing my thoughts and understanding of the current NHS contract (April ’06 – now). The big difference since then, is the introduction of the new ‘NHS Dental Contract Pilots’. The pilots are currently in stage 1 with 70 practices being involved, in April 2013 the pilots will enter stage 2 and the number of practices piloting different aspects of the new contract will increase to between 90-95.
This page, neatly put together by the BDA contains all the relevant documents that should have you covered with the basic information you need to be able to string together a solid answer that questions your understanding ofwhat and why they are implementing pilots for a new dental contract.
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The Dental Amalgam Debate
Dental Amalgams, are the metal filling material used in dentistry, and contain mercury. Concerns about the exposure of mercury from dental amalgams, and the toxicity of mercury has brought the ‘amalgam debate’ into public light, with ITV making a documentary on the topic in Feb, 2009.
As a dental applicant, you need to be considering this debate from an academic and public health standpoint. In terms of the current research, the mercury exposure of an individual due to the placement/presence of amalgam fillings is low enough to not be causing any problems at all. Some patients however, seeing the way the debate is presented in the media may feel that their health is at risk if they were to have an amalgam filling. It’s also worth mentioning that there is a very real environmental issue of safely disposing of amalgam.
The WHO, in their report from a meeting on “The Future Use of Materials for Dental Restoration” hit on the point that I feel needs to be emphasised for you to be able to show an understanding of this topic at interview:
Modern Dental Materials
The development of tooth-coloured, adhesive restorative materials in the form of dental composites (and glass ionomer cements) is a hot field of research and development in dentistry.
Amalgam is neither aesthetic nor adhesive to the tooth surface, it is however an effective filling material in terms of it’s physical and mechanical properties, having good longevity and wear characteristics. Composite on the other hand is aesthetic, and because it is adhesive can be used to follow a minimally-invasive approach for restorative procedures.
The diagram below shows how an amalgam filling would need to remove healthy tooth tissue to create a mechanically-retentive cavity preparation for the material to stay in place, whereas a composite filling can follow the biological margin of the the tooth decay present, as the material is adhesive to any shape of cavity preparation:
In conclusion, the WHO reasonably suggests that amalgam restoration will be ‘phased-down’ and not ‘phased-out’ over time, as we see the continued development of aesthetic, minimally-invasive dental materials. Amalgams still have their uses, they are long-lasting, relatively non-technique sensitive and very effective over the long-term in large load bearing cavities where aesthetics aren’t a concern (i.e. the back of the mouth).
For more information on the differences between the main types of dental materials, go to page 10 of the previously mentioned WHO report.
Water Fluoridation
I’m going to leave this one for you to make some opinions on, as it’s relatively easy to find information and understand the “Water Fluoridation Controversy”. You need to get an understanding of the ethics of water fluoridation, the dental benefit (reduction in caries), the possible risks of excessive fluoride consumption (dental fluorosis). Here are a few useful websites & articles to get you going:
Systematic Review of Water Fluoridation BMJ (October, 2000)
Ending Note
Phew, there ends my attempt at a general guide to the tips I feel will have the greatest positive impact on your performance at your dental interview.
Best of luck, and hopefully in the near-future, I’ll have the pleasure of meeting you as a colleague!
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