Dundee Dentistry Interview: Questions & MMI Format

All 50 Dundee dentistry practice interview questions

Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.

Motivation

1. What single experience or observation during your preparation convinced you that dentistry suited your strengths better than other healthcare professions, such as medicine or nursing?

   Follow-up: How does dentistry fit with your long-term goals?

   Follow-up: What realistic challenge or limitation of the profession did you take into account before making your final decision?

2. Tell us about a non-academic challenge or practical project where the problem changed unexpectedly halfway through your work. How did you adapt, and what was the outcome?

   Follow-up: What made you realise your original plan was no longer suitable?

   Follow-up: What did this experience teach you about staying flexible and calm when unexpected difficulties arise?

3. Tell us about an aspect of modern dentistry or the dental profession that you feel you understand least well. How have you explored it, and what have you learned?

   Follow-up: What evidence or new insight would make you reconsider your current perspective?

   Follow-up: How will you continue to evaluate this topic without relying entirely on a single point of view?

4. What everyday motivations led you to pursue dentistry? In your answer, avoid using the phrases 'science', 'helping people' or 'hands-on'.

   Follow-up: Which personal strength would help you cope with the day-to-day demands of dental training?

   Follow-up: How would you manage your responsibilities as a university student on a demanding vocational course?

5. Dental teams bring together dentists, dental nurses, therapists, hygienists and technicians. Which of these professional relationships are you most keen to understand better during your university training, and why?

   Follow-up: How do you plan to learn from their skills as a student?

   Follow-up: What qualities do you consider most important for building mutual trust within a dental team?

6. How has your awareness of oral health inequalities across UK communities influenced your motivation to study dentistry?

   Follow-up: How do you plan to engage with diverse and underserved communities during your training?

   Follow-up: How would you avoid assuming that a single simple intervention could solve complex access issues?

Experience

1. Think of a practical activity or hobby you have undertaken that required sustained fine hand-eye coordination, such as playing a musical instrument, detailed drawing or intricate model-making. You have five minutes to discuss your experience with the dental school interviewer, focusing on your own actions. What did you learn from this activity?

   Follow-up: How did you measure improvements in your coordination through practice?

   Follow-up: Why does having good manual dexterity not automatically make someone clinically skilled as a dentist?

2. Set-up to try at home: gather five dry spaghetti sticks, three pipe cleaners and a small piece of Blu Tack. Working under time constraints, build a free-standing tower that can hold a coin at the top for ten seconds, and talk the interviewer through your decisions as you work.

   Follow-up: How would you test your tower for structural weaknesses?

   Follow-up: What would you change if you built the tower again?

3. Tell us about a time at school, while volunteering or at work when you helped someone communicate a worry they found difficult to put into words. How did you help them share their worry, and what did you learn about communicating patiently?

   Follow-up: What non-verbal cues, if any, did you notice during the conversation?

   Follow-up: How did you check that your support addressed their worry?

4. Tell us about a professional interaction you observed during work experience, employment or volunteering without knowing the full background. How did you keep an open mind about what was happening?

   Follow-up: What communication behaviours suggested that the people involved felt heard and respected?

   Follow-up: How has this experience influenced your approach to situations where you have incomplete information?

5. Tell us about a time outside school or work when you and someone else had completely different priorities on a shared project or task. How did you listen to their perspective and work towards a fair outcome?

   Follow-up: How did you manage your emotions during the task?

   Follow-up: What did this experience teach you about the limits of your own perspective?

6. Describe a real situation where you had to stay composed while someone around you was upset, angry or overwhelmed. What did you say or do to reassure them?

   Follow-up: How did you find out what the person needed from you in that moment?

   Follow-up: How would you adapt your approach to a similar situation during dental training?

Communication

1. You are a dentistry applicant speaking to your uncle Raymond on the phone. He says he has not visited a dentist for ten years because he feels ashamed of his teeth and fears being judged. You cannot give clinical advice. Listen to his worries and support him in thinking about booking an appointment.

   Follow-up: How would you discuss Raymond's concerns about dentists' attitudes without promising how a particular dentist will behave?

   Follow-up: What would you do if Raymond asked you to look at his teeth over a video call to tell him what treatment he needs?

2. You are a dentistry applicant working part-time as a café assistant. During a staff break, your co-worker Chloe approaches you because she feels upset after colleagues teased her for sharing a social media video about whitening teeth with lemon juice and baking soda. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Chloe, acknowledge her feelings respectfully, and discuss how she could find reliable dental information.

   Follow-up: How would you respond if Chloe became defensive during the conversation?

   Follow-up: What would you do if colleagues continued teasing Chloe?

3. You are a dental student volunteering at a community food bank. Ash, a regular visitor, approaches you because their food parcel labels and correspondence still show their former name despite several requests to update it. You cannot give clinical advice or change database records without the supervisor's permission. Speak directly to Ash to acknowledge their frustration and explain how you will seek the supervisor's help to correct the record, without making promises beyond your authority.

   Follow-up: Why is it important to apologise for a repeated administrative error even if you did not cause it personally?

   Follow-up: How would you protect Ash's privacy while raising this issue with the supervisor?

4. You are a dentistry applicant volunteering at a public library help desk. David, a library visitor with a speech impairment, approaches you for help booking a room. You cannot give clinical advice. David asks you to slow down, allow him time to speak, and not finish his sentences for him. Speak directly to David. Adapt your pace and communication style to support him without making assumptions about his capabilities.

   Follow-up: How would you check that David has understood the booking information?

   Follow-up: What practical steps can you take if you genuinely do not understand what a person is saying?

5. You are a dental student volunteering as a guide in a hospital outpatient waiting area. A visitor named Marcus approaches you on his way to an appointment and asks for one tip for keeping his teeth healthy. He says he has only one minute. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak to Marcus, explain the limits of your role and signpost him to a dentist for personalised advice.

   Follow-up: Why is it useful to clarify a person's specific worry before answering a broad question about oral health?

   Follow-up: How would you check that Marcus understood what you had said?

6. You are a dental student running a student society stall at a university freshers fair alongside your course peer, Sam. Sam has misplaced twenty pounds from the float for a dental charity raffle and asks you to keep quiet so the treasurer does not find out. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Sam to explain why the discrepancy cannot be hidden and agree on how to report the issue honestly together.

   Follow-up: How would you support Sam if they remained anxious after the issue was reported?

   Follow-up: What would you do if Sam refused to report the missing money?

7. You are a dentistry applicant volunteering as a sixth-form mentor at school. During a mentoring session, Casey, a Year 9 pupil, tells you they have avoided dental visits for years because they feel embarrassed about their teeth and worry people will laugh. You cannot give clinical advice or make promises. Respond to Casey's worries without judgement and explore how they might take a first step towards getting support.

   Follow-up: What would you do if Casey told you they were scared to discuss this with their parents or carers?

   Follow-up: How would you adapt your approach if Casey became quiet and stopped answering your questions?

8. You are a prospective dental student on work experience at a dental practice. In the staff room, Billie, a dental nurse, asks for your reaction to an influencer's claims about charcoal powder. They are considering switching their family from their usual toothpaste to charcoal powder. You cannot give clinical advice and must stay within your work-experience role. Speak to Billie about their decision without sounding critical or dismissive, and ask what appealed to them about the product.

   Follow-up: How could you help Billie assess the reliability of the influencer's claims?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if Billie became upset during the conversation?

Ethics

1. You are a first-year dental student shadowing in an NHS dental practice. Your supervising dentist is preparing an adult patient for a routine tooth extraction, but the clinic is running 15 minutes late. When the dentist briefly leaves the room, the anxious patient tells you they signed the consent form without understanding the procedure or its risks. You have about two minutes before the dentist returns to start the procedure. How would you reassure the patient, and what would you say to your supervising dentist when they return?

   Follow-up: Why is the patient's understanding important for valid consent?

   Follow-up: How would you handle the situation if the dentist feels frustrated about losing more time on a busy clinic?

2. You are a prospective dental student on work experience at a community dental clinic. The morning check-up clinic is running late. You notice that an oral health poster features an identifiable photograph of a patient. A dental nurse quietly tells you that she is not sure whether anyone obtained written permission from the patient to display the photo. What ethical issues would you consider, and how would you raise your concern within your role as a work-experience student?

   Follow-up: Why is consent to dental treatment different from consent to display a patient's photograph in a public waiting area?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if a member of staff dismissed your concern because the clinic was too busy?

3. You are a first-year dental student observing at the reception desk of a busy general dental practice. A 16-year-old patient has gone into the surgery alone for an orthodontic check-up after asking the team to keep her consultation private. Her mother approaches you and demands to read her daughter's appointment notes immediately. How would you respond while respecting the patient's confidentiality and the limits of your student role?

   Follow-up: Under what circumstances can a 16-year-old patient make confidential healthcare choices without parental involvement?

   Follow-up: How would your approach change if the patient later agreed to share her appointment notes with her mother?

4. You are a first-year dental student on clinical placement, shadowing a dentist and dental nurse during a routine check-up with an adult patient. As the dentist takes the medical history, the patient asks you to step outside because they have a sensitive personal issue to discuss. How would you respond to the patient's request, and what would you need to consider as a student?

   Follow-up: Why is it important that patients feel entirely free to decline having a student present during their care?

   Follow-up: How could you seek other learning opportunities from your supervisor without compromising the patient's privacy or comfort?

5. You are a student on work experience shadowing a dental receptionist at a city dental practice. The receptionist takes a telephone call from an employer whose staff member took emergency leave for a toothache. The employer demands confirmation of whether the named patient attended an appointment this morning and insists that they only need a yes or no answer. After the call, the receptionist asks for your views. What confidentiality issues does this request raise?

   Follow-up: How might a breach of confidentiality affect the patient's trust in the practice?

   Follow-up: What would you do if the employer later approached you directly and pressed you to confirm the patient's attendance?

6. You are a first-year dental student on placement in a hospital restorative dentistry clinic. The clinic is running behind schedule, and staff feel pressured to catch up. In the staff room, you overhear a senior dentist tell a dental nurse that treating an incoming adult patient who uses an electric wheelchair is a huge inconvenience that will ruin the afternoon schedule. What professional and ethical concerns does this comment raise, and how would you respond within your role as a student?

   Follow-up: How might dismissive attitudes among healthcare professionals affect a patient's access to treatment?

   Follow-up: What could the clinic do to reduce barriers for patients with physical disabilities?

7. You are an applicant on work experience shadowing a general dental practitioner during an afternoon clinic. The dentist has recommended an elective cosmetic crown to an adult patient with full decision-making capacity. Three more patients are waiting, and the dentist says the patient must agree now or lose their treatment slot for months. The patient looks hesitant and wants a few days to consider the cost and treatment options. They ask you whether they have to decide immediately. What ethical principles would you consider, and how would you respond within your role as a work-experience student?

   Follow-up: Why is freedom from pressure essential for valid consent?

   Follow-up: How could you raise your concerns with your supervisor while recognising the practice's scheduling pressures?

8. You are a first-year dental student observing at the reception desk of a dental clinic. A prospective cosmetic patient notices a computer monitor showing clinical records and asks you to show them before-and-after photographs of a named local resident who had dental veneers. They want to assess the practice's work before booking treatment. What would you need to consider, and how would you respond within your role as a student?

   Follow-up: Why might clinical photographs of teeth and smiles still be identifiable even if the rest of the face is hidden?

   Follow-up: What clear safeguards must a dental practice establish before using any clinical images for patient education?

Dental team

1. 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?

   Follow-up: What would you say to the patient while the team looks for a solution?

   Follow-up: How would you stay within your role as a first-year dental student?

2. You are a dental student working on a shared project with a local dental laboratory. A dental technician contacts your department to say that a plaster study model sent from your clinic has arrived cracked and chipped. The lab work is needed urgently, but nobody is certain whether the damage happened during clinic preparation, packaging or postal transit. How would you handle this communication professionally before any blame is assigned?

   Follow-up: What information would you gather to establish how the model was damaged?

   Follow-up: How could the clinic and laboratory work together to reduce the risk of similar damage in future?

3. You are a work-experience student shadowing the reception desk at an NHS dental practice during a busy morning emergency clinic. An anxious patient approaches you with severe facial swelling and bleeding. They are trembling and struggling to speak clearly, and other patients can hear them. You cannot give clinical advice. How would you respond to the patient and get urgent help from an appropriate member of staff?

   Follow-up: How would you protect the patient's privacy without delaying urgent help?

   Follow-up: What information would you pass on to the member of staff taking over?

4. You are a first-year dental student shadowing a multi-chair general practice team. During a team meeting, an experienced dental nurse suggests changing the layout of frequently used instruments on trays to improve efficiency and reduce accidental reach-over risks. Some team members are hesitant to change their routine. How should the team assess the nurse's suggestion objectively?

   Follow-up: How could the team involve colleagues who are hesitant about changing their routine?

   Follow-up: How could the practice support and recognise the nurse's initiative?

5. You are an applicant on work experience during a busy morning clinic in an NHS general dental practice. You are shadowing a supervising dentist and a dental nurse alongside another student on placement. The clinic is running late, and the other student suggests that the dentist should prepare all the equipment and take notes alone to save time. How would you explain to this student why clear roles within the dental team are essential for patient safety?

   Follow-up: How could the team coordinate their work when the clinic is running late?

   Follow-up: How would you support a dental nurse who needs to raise a safety concern with a senior dentist during a pressured clinic?

Public health

1. You are a first-year dental student on a community outreach placement with a local NHS public health team. You are working alongside a public health dental officer and a community health worker in a local neighbourhood centre. The team is drafting leaflets to reduce sugary snack consumption among children. They have only one hour before presenting their proposal to community leaders. The health worker is concerned that the draft advice sounds judgemental and may alienate low-income families. They ask for your views as a student. What would you consider when suggesting how to make these messages encouraging without stigmatising families?

   Follow-up: How could you help the outreach team involve local parents in reviewing the wording before distributing the leaflets widely?

   Follow-up: What barriers to changing snack choices would you want the team to understand before discussing practical support for families?

2. You are an applicant on work experience at a high-street dental practice on a Friday afternoon. In this invented example, the practice launched a Saturday morning check-up clinic in January to help working parents and children, and staff are now reviewing January to March. The graph shows the number of completed check-up appointments and the total appointment slots offered each month, counted from the appointment book. In March, only half the usual Saturday sessions ran because staff were unavailable. The practice manager describes attendance as very low and wants to cancel the service before the next staff rota is published at five o'clock. Look at the graph below. What factors would you suggest investigating before the practice decides to withdraw this Saturday service?

   Follow-up: How might local transport availability, opening hours, or public awareness influence whether patients attend on Saturdays?

   Follow-up: What methods could the practice use to gather feedback from patients who find it difficult to attend weekday appointments?

3. You are a dental applicant in Dundee shadowing a public health dental officer at a local NHS health board office. You are meeting a clinical audit coordinator to discuss an explanation of attendance patterns for the board by the end of the week. The chart uses invented practice numbers from community dental clinics in one fictional region between June and September 2025, not real NHS statistics. Monthly appointment records show completed preventive appointments for children and available appointment slots, counting each appointment once even if it included both a routine check-up and fluoride varnish. For this exercise, July and August represent the school holiday period, and the number of available slots varies between months. Look at the graph below. What plausible explanations would you explore for the lower number of completed appointments during the holiday period, and what can and cannot be concluded from these figures?

   Follow-up: What additional information would help you distinguish changes in clinic staffing and appointment availability from changes in family routines?

   Follow-up: How could the team explore barriers faced by families and evaluate a trial intended to improve holiday access?

4. You are a sixth-form volunteer assisting a local council health team with a new oral hygiene leaflet campaign. The leaflet is available in six common community languages, but there is no easy-read, pictorial or large-print version. The project lead believes the translations are sufficient to reach all underserved groups. What changes would you recommend to make the campaign more accessible?

   Follow-up: How would you explain the need for these changes to the project lead?

   Follow-up: How would you gather feedback from local service users to check that the material is easy to follow?

5. You are volunteering with a public health initiative running weekend toothbrushing workshops in a community centre. You notice that almost all the parents attending are already highly motivated and visit local dental practices regularly with their families. The programme is declared a huge success based purely on attendance numbers. How would you evaluate whether this service is reaching the communities with the greatest oral health needs?

   Follow-up: What local data or community contacts would help you identify families who are currently missing out on the programme?

   Follow-up: How would you discuss these findings with the project organiser without undermining the hard work already done?

Dexterity

1. Put ten dried pasta pieces in a shallow bowl and an empty bowl beside it. Use blunt-ended tweezers to transfer each piece, then repeat with the bowls slightly closer together. Count drops on both attempts and describe how the workspace affected your control. Keep small items away from young children and pets.

   Follow-up: Which part of the movement was hardest to control?

   Follow-up: How would you check whether the improvement was consistent across several attempts?

2. Using three sheets of paper and up to 20 cm of tape, build a freestanding tower at least 15 cm tall on a flat table. Allow five minutes, then check whether it remains upright without support for 30 seconds. Inspect the base and make one change before testing again.

   Follow-up: How did your change to the base affect the result of the second test?

   Follow-up: How would you compare two designs fairly using the same materials?

3. Draw a three-by-three grid with squares large enough for nine small pieces of folded paper. Place one piece in each square, with two deliberately turned diagonally. Use blunt-ended tweezers to align those two pieces with the grid without moving the others. Explain how you checked alignment and whether nearby pieces shifted.

   Follow-up: Which reference line helped you judge the position most accurately?

   Follow-up: How would you test a different grip on a second attempt?

4. Tell us about a time when you continued learning a manual skill after a disappointing result. What did you change in your next practice session?

   Follow-up: How did you check whether your changes led to improvement?

   Follow-up: What would you do if the same error continued despite repeated attempts?

Teamwork

1. You are a first-year dental student working with three peers on an academic poster presentation due in ten days. One member has missed the last three group planning meetings without giving a reason. The remaining members are becoming frustrated and are considering reallocating this person's section. How would you approach this student to discuss their absences without making assumptions?

   Follow-up: How would you decide what support you could reasonably offer this student?

   Follow-up: What steps would you take with the rest of the group if this teammate continues to miss meetings and work remains incomplete?

2. You are a Year 13 student collaborating with four classmates on a science competition entry. After submitting your first draft, the judges return critical feedback on a poorly referenced section, and two vocal group members immediately blame the newest member who joined late. This student looks upset and has stopped speaking during the meeting. How would you intervene to address the criticism fairly and keep the group working constructively?

   Follow-up: How would you approach the new team member afterwards to ask what support they would find helpful?

   Follow-up: What would you do if your attempt to support this student was received as patronising or unhelpful?

3. You are a first-year university student working in a group of four on a graded laboratory report. Just before the final submission deadline, you discover that one set of calculations was based on the wrong baseline formula, altering your final conclusion. Half of the group wants to ignore the mistake to protect their marks, while the other half wants to report the error to the tutor. How would you encourage the group to reach an honest and agreed resolution?

   Follow-up: What would you say to reassure a teammate who is worried that reporting the error will lower your overall mark?

   Follow-up: How would you help the group present the correction to your tutor without placing the blame on any individual?

4. You are a sixth-form volunteer leading a team of students organising a local community charity fair. Several team members are international students with different levels of spoken English. Two dominant members are speaking quickly and making decisions without involving them. How would you organise team discussions so that everyone can contribute effectively?

   Follow-up: How could you check that every team member has understood the plan without putting anyone on the spot about their language skills?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if the two dominant members continued to make decisions without involving everyone?

5. You are a Year 13 student working in a team of four on an assessed group project that is due online in fifteen minutes. Just as your group prepares to upload the file, one teammate spots what they believe is a major contradiction in the final summary. Two other members insist there is no time to alter anything and demand that you submit immediately to avoid a penalty. How would you handle this situation and decide whether to stop and recheck the work?

   Follow-up: What details should your group verify together before deciding whether to make an immediate change to the work?

   Follow-up: What process could your team introduce for future projects to prevent last minute errors without creating conflict?

Reasoning

1. You are a first-year student taking part in a timed university problem-solving challenge with four peers. At the halfway point, your group receives contradictory guidance from two workshop facilitators. Two teammates are arguing for opposite approaches, while the other two have gone silent. How would you work through the conflicting guidance to help your team decide how to proceed?

   Follow-up: What would you do if you were unable to clarify which facilitator's guidance took priority before the deadline?

   Follow-up: How would you encourage the quieter members to share their thoughts without making them feel uncomfortable?

2. You are a first-year dental student attending a journal club discussion on public health research. Your group is reviewing a paper which concludes that people who attend routine check-ups have significantly better oral health than those who do not. The other students take this as clear evidence that simply increasing check-up reminders will solve disparities in oral health. Your tutor asks you to critically evaluate this conclusion before the group makes any recommendations. What confounding factors and alternative explanations would you raise to explain this association?

   Follow-up: What specific information about the participants backgrounds would help you separate correlation from causation?

   Follow-up: How would you explain to your peers that self-selection bias could account for these findings?

3. You are a Year 13 student volunteering with a university outreach committee that ran an oral health information fair in a city centre. Your team sees the high turnout as a complete success, but the postcodes collected show that almost no attendees came from the lower-income communities the fair aimed to support. You are asked to present a redesign of how the project is evaluated in future. How would you evaluate whether the fair reaches the communities it aims to support?

   Follow-up: What practical methods would you use to find out why residents from target areas did not attend?

   Follow-up: How would you assess whether attending the fair benefited people from the target communities?