Dentistry Interview Questions

900 free dentistry interview questions for 18 UK dental schools. Practise MMI and panel questions, role-plays, dental ethics, motivation, teamwork and manual dexterity tasks out loud, with a timer. No sign-up needed.

Original MedicHut practice questions, not official or past university questions. Interview formats come from each dental school's admissions pages.

Dental school interview questions by university

• Aberdeen graduate entry dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, station time unclear)
• Birmingham dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, 2027 circuit not confirmed)
• Bristol dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Structured panel, 2027 not confirmed)
• Cardiff dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, timings not published)
• Dundee dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Seven-station MMI)
• Glasgow dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Likely MMI-style for 2027, not confirmed)
• KCL dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Remote panel)
• Leeds dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, timings not published)
• Liverpool dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, timings not published)
• Manchester dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Five-station spoken MMI)
• Newcastle dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Panel, 2027 not confirmed)
• Plymouth dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, timings not published)
• Portsmouth dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Online panel)
• Queen Mary dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Online panel)
• QUB dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Short interviews, timings not published)
• Sheffield dentistry interview questions (50 questions, Panel plus separate group task)
• UCLan graduate entry dentistry interview questions (50 questions, MMI, details not published)
• UEA dentistry interview questions (50 questions, On-campus MMI, 5-minute stations)

Common dentistry interview questions by topic

A few example questions from each topic in the bank. These are practice questions written by MedicHut, not real past questions.

Motivation questions

Why dentistry, and what you have done to find out about it.

• What motivates you to choose dentistry as a career? Bristol
• Tell us about a work experience or shadowing placement that helped you understand what being a dentist involves. How did it influence your commitment to pursuing dentistry? Birmingham
• What prompted you to leave your previous degree or career path to pursue dentistry, and how have you prepared for this transition? Aberdeen graduate entry

Experience questions

What you have done, what went wrong and what you learned.

• Tell us about a long-term commitment outside your academic studies that you maintained over several months. How did you manage it alongside competing pressures? Bristol
• Tell us about a time outside a clinical setting when you tried to support a peer, colleague or family member who was reluctant to accept your help. How did you offer support while respecting their wishes? Birmingham
• Tell us about a practical skill from your studies, work or hobbies that you had to unlearn and rebuild after critical feedback. What changes did you make to your approach? Aberdeen graduate entry

Communication questions

Talking with an anxious patient, a visitor or a classmate.

• A visitor says they cannot afford to take time off work for dental appointments. How would you explore their practical barriers and invite them to share their priorities, without assuming you can solve their difficulties? Portsmouth
• Panel scenario for discussion: a classmate says your explanation of a practical task was too fast to follow. Show how you would apologise and explain the task again. Newcastle
• Panel scenario for discussion: an anxious visitor asks three questions in quick succession and then says, 'You're not listening.' Demonstrate how you would reset the conversation and invite the visitor to share their priorities. Bristol

Ethics questions

Honesty, confidentiality, consent and doing the right thing.

• A colleague asks you to say a simulation task was completed correctly although you saw a missed step. What would you do before the assessment is finalised? Birmingham
• You are a first-year dental student working in the library on your professional portfolio. You notice a coursemate copying a paragraph word for word from an online reflective blog into their own submission. How would you approach this situation with your coursemate? Bristol
• You are a first-year dental student working in the skills laboratory. A classmate privately offers to pay you to complete one of their practical logbook entries because they have fallen behind on deadlines. They say no one will notice and it will help them avoid failing the module. What factors would you consider, and how would you respond to your classmate? Glasgow

Dental team questions

How dentists, nurses, hygienists, therapists and reception work together.

• You are a sixth-form student doing work experience behind the front desk at a mixed dental practice. An upset patient approaches you after their check-up and says the associate dentist spoke to them dismissively and abruptly. The waiting room is full. How would you respond to the patient without taking sides? KCL
• You are a first-year dental student on clinical placement at a community dental practice. The lift has broken down, and an elderly patient who uses a walking frame arrives for a denture adjustment booked in an upstairs surgery. The patient asks you how they will get to their appointment. How would you involve the dental team to help the patient access their appointment? Dundee
• You are a first-year dental student shadowing in a community dental clinic. Before the next appointment, the dental nurse notices that the materials on the tray do not match the day plan. The dentist is reviewing notes and seems keen to stay on schedule. How should the team raise and resolve this discrepancy professionally before any work begins? Aberdeen graduate entry

Teamwork questions

Times you worked with others, supported a group or dealt with conflict.

• Tell us about a time you supported a community, club or group. What role did you play? KCL
• Tell us about a time when you worked in a team and had to put another person's needs ahead of your preferred way of working. How did you adapt your approach to support the team's goal? Liverpool

Public health questions

Oral health campaigns, access to care and health inequalities.

• You are a sixth-form volunteer helping a local public health charity plan an oral hygiene education campaign for older adults who live alone. How would you avoid stereotypes in the campaign and involve older adults in shaping the advice? Birmingham
• You are a dental student reviewing a community oral health promotion campaign. The report shows that awareness and knowledge about oral hygiene improved significantly, but attendance at local dental practices remained unchanged. What can you conclude about the campaign’s success from these findings? Glasgow
• In a remote coastal town, the nearest NHS dental surgery is a forty-five minute drive away, and bus services run only twice a day. The local council wants to understand how travel distance, digital booking systems, and workforce shortages affect different members of the community. In your view, which patient groups would face the greatest challenges in this setting, and why? Liverpool

Dexterity questions

Hands-on tasks and practical skills you have built.

• Fold a sheet of paper into four equal-width panels without using a ruler. Unfold the sheet and identify the largest difference in panel width. Birmingham
• Tell us about a practical task from a hobby, study or employment that did not go as planned. How did you decide whether to repair your work or begin again? Cardiff
• Describe a practical technique from your previous degree or job that took several attempts to learn, including the movement involved. Aberdeen graduate entry

Reasoning questions

Reading data, judging evidence and working through a problem.

• You are a sixth-form volunteer helping a regional health charity prepare a community awareness campaign. The project lead wants to use a single summary statistic to describe the local population's oral health. What are the drawbacks of using one figure for this purpose? Birmingham
• Imagine you have just finished delivering a short presentation on a dental topic, and an interviewer questions the credibility of your weakest reference. How would you assess their criticism and decide whether to defend your argument or revise your conclusion? Bristol
• You are a first-year dental student helping a local dental practice review a service improvement survey. The practice manager concludes that most of the wider community prefers evening appointments, based on a survey given only to people attending clinics after five in the afternoon. How would you explain to the team how selection bias affects this conclusion? Glasgow

MMI and panel dental interviews

MMI (multiple mini interviews)

You move round a set of short stations. Each station has its own task and usually its own interviewer. Some stations use an actor for role play or a hands-on task. The number of stations and their length differ between dental schools.

Panel interviews

One longer conversation with two or more interviewers. Expect follow-up questions on your answers, your personal statement and your work experience.

Manual dexterity tasks

Some dental schools may ask about your practical skills or set a short hands-on task. The bank includes practice tasks you can try at home with everyday items.

How to use the example questions

These are practice questions written by MedicHut, not real past questions. Plan a few points, answer out loud, then look back at what you said. You can record yourself and play it back.

Practise out loud

Book a dentistry mock interview with a trained MedicHut interviewer, with detailed feedback on every answer.

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