Glasgow Dentistry Interview Questions & Format

All 50 Glasgow dentistry practice interview questions

Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.

Motivation

1. You are attending an admissions interview for the BDS programme at the University of Glasgow with a senior dental tutor and a community dental officer. You have five minutes remaining in this station to discuss your motivation and your preparation for the programme. How does Glasgow's emphasis on biomedical science, clinical dental science, and patient management align with your strengths and your reasons for choosing dentistry?

   Follow-up: How would you prepare for the area you expect to find most demanding?

   Follow-up: How would you maintain your motivation when studying theoretical sciences in the early years of the course?

2. Imagine your school careers adviser suggests you only want to study dentistry because you enjoy biology. How would you show them that your commitment is based on a realistic understanding of the profession?

   Follow-up: Which aspect of the dental course do you expect to find most difficult?

   Follow-up: How would you keep yourself motivated during early terms if practical training takes longer to start than you hoped?

3. You are an applicant on work experience shadowing a foundation dentist in a general dental practice. The dentist has just finished an oral hygiene review with an adult patient who has recurrent gum inflammation and struggles to follow home brushing advice. What would you find rewarding and challenging about supporting a patient with long-term prevention?

   Follow-up: What would lead you to adapt your approach to supporting this patient?

   Follow-up: How would you manage frustration if a patient continued to struggle with advice despite several discussions?

4. As an applicant considering dentistry at Glasgow, why is it important to connect biomedical science, clinical dental science and patient management during your training?

   Follow-up: Can you give an example of how understanding human biology helps a dentist communicate treatment options clearly to an anxious patient?

   Follow-up: What risks to patient care might arise if a clinician focuses purely on technical manual skills while neglecting patient communication?

5. A close friend thinks dentistry is simply a mechanical job focused on drilling and filling damaged teeth. How would you explain the wider responsibilities of a dentist to them?

   Follow-up: What is an example of preventative advice or communication that demonstrates this wider role?

   Follow-up: How would you address their view if they still insist that patients only care about getting a quick fix?

6. During your work shadowing, you observe that dentists sometimes have to decline a patient's request for a cosmetic procedure or treatment because it is not in their best interests. How does saying no fit with your understanding of patient-centred care?

   Follow-up: How could a dentist decline a patient's request while showing empathy and involving them in decisions about their care?

   Follow-up: What steps should you take as a student to become comfortable setting professional boundaries with others?

Experience

1. Tell us about a personal experience outside healthcare, such as a job, sports team or hobby, that taught you about respecting another person's dignity and autonomy. What did you learn from it?

   Follow-up: What specific action on your part demonstrated that you respected that person's wishes?

   Follow-up: How would you avoid assuming that every person defines dignity in the same way you do?

2. For this hands-on practical station, set up at home with a pair of household tweezers, a small bowl of dry rice and an empty egg carton. Transfer one grain at a time into each cup using your non-dominant hand while talking the interviewer through your technique.

   Follow-up: How did you track your improvement in a manual skill you had to practise repeatedly?

   Follow-up: How would you adapt your practice if your progress slowed?

3. Tell us about a time at school, work or in an extracurricular activity when constructive feedback revealed something you had not noticed about your behaviour. What changes did you make in response?

   Follow-up: How did you feel when you first received the feedback?

   Follow-up: How did you check whether the changes you made led to lasting improvement?

4. Think of a team experience from your studies, work experience or an extracurricular activity where you were a supporting member. How did you contribute, and what did you learn about teamwork?

   Follow-up: How did communication within the team affect its progress?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if a team member felt their voice was not being heard?

5. You are an applicant being interviewed for the BDS course at the University of Glasgow. The interview panel consists of an admissions tutor and an experienced dental nurse. You have three minutes left in the station to explain how your wider caring, voluntary or customer-facing experience prepares you for a career in healthcare. What has this experience taught you about treating people with dignity, and how will you apply this in dental practice?

   Follow-up: How have you explored aspects of dentistry that your wider experience could not show you?

   Follow-up: How would you adapt your communication to build trust with someone who was stressed or confused?

6. Tell us about a successful project or group activity in which you had a minor role. What did you contribute, and what did you learn from the other members?

   Follow-up: How did you feel about having a limited role?

   Follow-up: Which lessons from this experience could you apply to group work at dental school?

Communication

1. You are a first-year dental student helping the reception team at a university dental hospital. An elderly patient who has travelled for two hours on public transport arrives for an appointment to fit a new denture. The supervising dentist has just been called away to attend to an urgent clinical emergency. The receptionist asks you to speak with the patient to explain that the appointment cannot go ahead today. How would you explain to this patient with honesty and empathy that their appointment must be rescheduled?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if the patient becomes distressed and insists that they cannot make another journey on public transport?

   Follow-up: What practical steps could you check with the administrative team to ensure the patient receives a convenient replacement appointment without making promises you cannot keep?

2. You are an applicant volunteering at a community oral health stand run by a local dental charity at a public health fair in a community hall. You are assisting a qualified dentist and a dental nurse. After a basic dental screening, a visitor asks whether a clear check means they will never need dental treatment. Five people are waiting, and the event must pack up in twenty minutes. How would you explain clearly and politely what the screening can and cannot show, without giving clinical advice or making false promises?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if the visitor continues to seek reassurance that their teeth are completely free from disease?

   Follow-up: How would you manage the conversation if the people waiting began to complain about the delay?

3. You are a second-year dental student co-presenting an oral hygiene workshop with a fellow student to adult patients in a community clinic waiting room. You have only ten minutes left before the dentists call the patients into their surgeries. While you demonstrate interdental brushing, your partner repeatedly talks over you and contradicts your explanation, leaving the patients looking confused. How would you manage this situation professionally in front of the patients?

   Follow-up: How would you check that the patients have understood the advice?

   Follow-up: How would you address your partner's behaviour with them privately after the session?

4. You are a sixth-form volunteer assisting at a local community health information desk. A visitor approaches you looking frustrated and explains that a health professional recently made them feel judged and criticised over their eating habits. They seem hesitant to speak openly but clearly want some guidance on healthy living. How would you speak with this visitor to acknowledge their feelings and encourage an open, supportive conversation?

   Follow-up: How can you validate their frustration without speaking negatively about the professional involved?

   Follow-up: What open questions could you use to explore the barriers they face in making lifestyle changes?

5. You are a Year 13 student with a close friend in your school common room. Your friend has a dental appointment tomorrow and is feeling extremely anxious and thinking about cancelling. They are struggling to explain what is worrying them. How would you support your friend in this conversation to help them feel heard and calm?

   Follow-up: What would you say if your friend asked you whether they should cancel the appointment?

   Follow-up: What would you do if your friend went quiet and seemed reluctant to talk any further about it?

6. You are a first-year dental student shadowing the reception and triage team in a busy dental hospital. A new patient arriving for an initial assessment is asked by the receptionist for a list of their current medications. The patient becomes visibly annoyed and insists that their general prescriptions have nothing to do with their teeth. How would you explain why an up-to-date medication list is essential for safe dental care without giving medical advice?

   Follow-up: How would you check that the patient has understood your explanation?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if the patient insists they left their list at home and demands to be seen immediately anyway?

7. You are a volunteer at a local refugee and community support centre helping to staff the welcome desk. A visitor who has recently arrived in the area asks you for help finding and registering with an NHS dental clinic. You know that local availability varies widely and that you cannot guarantee them an immediate place. How would you talk to this visitor to understand their needs while being honest about service availability?

   Follow-up: What questions would you ask to find out whether they need urgent advice or general information about local services?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if they pressed you to promise them a guaranteed appointment nearby?

8. You are an applicant on work experience shadowing a general dental practitioner in a high-street clinic. A mother and her anxious seven-year-old child have arrived for the child's first routine filling. The appointment is scheduled for twenty minutes, and the dentist has briefly stepped out of the surgery to collect materials. While you are alone with them, the mother quietly asks you to promise the child that the injection and filling will be completely painless so that they stop crying. How would you reassure both the parent and the child honestly without making false promises about pain?

   Follow-up: How could you explain common sensations, such as numbness or vibration, to a seven-year-old in a calm and non-threatening way?

   Follow-up: How would you handle the situation if the parent becomes frustrated with you for not repeating their exact reassurance?

Ethics

1. 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?

   Follow-up: What impact could completing someone else's logbook entry have on trust within the student group?

   Follow-up: Under what circumstances, if any, would you feel obligated to report this conversation to a tutor?

2. You are a third-year dental student observing a consultation in a university restorative dental clinic. The supervising consultant dentist is examining a young adult patient who wants veneers placed on healthy, intact front teeth. The patient explains that they saw an online influencer undergo the same procedure and demands the same look. The dentist explains that the procedure offers no clinical benefit and would involve permanently removing sound enamel. Afterwards, your supervisor asks you to reflect on the consultation. What ethical values and professional principles would you consider when reflecting on the patient's request?

   Follow-up: How can the dental team explore the patient's cosmetic goals respectfully without demeaning the information they saw online?

   Follow-up: How would you explain the limits of patient autonomy if the patient continued to request treatment despite understanding its long-term consequences?

3. You are a second-year dental student working on an assessed clinical ethics group project. During a rehearsal in a university seminar room, you notice that a group member has added an invented quotation and attributed it to a real patient. Your group must present to your course tutor in one hour. When you quietly challenge your peer, they dismiss your concern and say that nobody will check the original clinic notes. How would you address this dishonesty and protect the integrity of the team's presentation?

   Follow-up: What steps would you take if your peer refuses to remove the fabricated quotation before the presentation starts?

   Follow-up: Why is maintaining truthfulness in academic work directly relevant to your future fitness to practise as a dentist?

4. You are a fourth-year dental student on an outreach placement at an independent dental clinic. In the staff room, an associate dentist announces plans for a public online livestream that evening about a rare surgical complication that occurred in the clinic earlier that day. They say that leaving out the patient's name will protect their privacy, but the case details and local references would make the patient easily identifiable to the community. How would you raise your concerns about patient confidentiality with the dentist before the broadcast?

   Follow-up: What would you do if the dentist still intended to go ahead with the broadcast?

   Follow-up: What guidance from the General Dental Council applies when dental professionals use social media to discuss clinical work?

5. You are a first-year dental student shadowing a dentist during an emergency walk-in clinic. An elderly patient with severe toothache attends with a friend for an urgent assessment of a heavily broken molar. Whenever the dentist asks the patient about their symptoms or treatment choices, the friend interrupts, contradicts them and insists that the tooth must be pulled out immediately. The dentist asks you afterwards to reflect on what happened. How might the friend's behaviour affect the patient's autonomy?

   Follow-up: How could you raise a concern with your supervising dentist if you felt the patient was not being heard?

   Follow-up: If the patient asked you privately to help them speak to the dentist without their friend present, how would you respond within your student role?

6. You are a first-year dental student who belongs to an informal online study group with your university peers. The night before dental school admissions interviews begin for prospective applicants, a classmate posts screenshots in the group chat containing confidential interview questions and scoring rubrics from the admissions team. The classmate encourages everyone to circulate or sell the material to applicants they know, and several students react positively. What actions should you take to address this breach of integrity and protect the fairness of the admissions process?

   Follow-up: How would you decide whether to report the issue directly to the faculty or speak to the student who posted it first?

   Follow-up: What are the broader professional consequences for dental students who distribute confidential university materials?

7. You are a third-year dental student seeing an adult patient under supervision in a university teaching clinic. Your supervising tutor is briefly attending to another cubicle, and the clinic closes in ten minutes. The patient becomes tearful and says they are terrified to go home because their partner has become violent. They beg you to promise not to tell anyone, saying that involving others will put them in greater danger. How would you respond compassionately to the patient's distress?

   Follow-up: How would you explain the limits of confidentiality without suggesting that every disclosure of domestic abuse must automatically be reported?

   Follow-up: How would you seek timely support from your supervising tutor while respecting the patient's privacy and concerns about their safety?

8. You are an applicant on work experience in a private general dental practice. While observing the reception team, you learn that staff are instructed to send review links only to patients whose treatment was straightforward and successful. The practice manager says patients who experienced complications, delays or dissatisfaction are excluded to maintain a five-star online profile. Why is this selective review practice ethically misleading to prospective patients?

   Follow-up: How could selective review filtering affect informed consent for prospective patients choosing a provider?

   Follow-up: What would a fair and transparent system for collecting and publishing patient feedback look like in a dental practice?

Dental team

1. You are a dental applicant shadowing a general dental practice. During a routine check-up with the dentist and dental nurse, a patient says they have recently lost their job, are experiencing homelessness and cannot afford basic toiletries. The clinic is running 15 minutes behind schedule, with two patients waiting. How could the dental team support this patient's wider needs, and what are the limits of your own role?

   Follow-up: How could the team balance this patient's needs with those of the patients waiting?

   Follow-up: How could the team discuss local community support services with this patient sensitively?

2. You are a first-year dental student on an observational placement in a hospital dental clinic. A written handover between the supervising dentist and the dental nurse does not mention that an incoming patient has severe hearing loss and uses British Sign Language. The patient is due in five minutes for an orthodontic consultation, and the clinic is running 20 minutes late. Why is it important for the team to record and share the patient's communication preferences accurately before the appointment?

   Follow-up: How would you raise the missing information with the team before the patient arrives?

   Follow-up: How can the clinical team ensure that communication adjustments are permanently recorded in the patient notes?

3. You are a dental applicant on work experience at an NHS dental practice. The practice has introduced a new digital appointment system, but the receptionists have received no formal training. The clinic is running late, and frustrated patients are waiting. A patient wants to book a follow-up appointment, but the receptionist cannot use the software and the dentist is calling for the next patient. How would you raise your concerns about patient care and staff support with your supervisor?

   Follow-up: How could you help the waiting patients feel heard while staying within your work-experience role?

   Follow-up: What could you suggest to your supervisor about gathering team feedback and identifying training needs?

4. You are a prospective dental student shadowing in a mixed NHS and private practice. A patient has missed their periodontal review appointment. The dental therapist and supervising dentist disagree about whose job it is to follow up. Afterwards, the supervising dentist asks for your observations about the disagreement. How would you respond within the limits of your role as a work-experience student?

   Follow-up: Why is clear communication between dentists and dental therapists crucial for patient safety?

   Follow-up: What system could the practice introduce to ensure missed appointments are handled consistently?

5. You are an applicant observing at a dental hospital clinic. A patient receiving treatment from a consultant dentist, a dental hygienist and an oral surgeon has received contradictory appointment letters. The clinic is running late, and the patient is distressed because they took unpaid leave from work to attend. They ask you why the letters conflict and who can help. How would you respond and seek help from the dental team within your role as an observer?

   Follow-up: What would be important for the reception team to communicate to the patient while the clinicians check the records?

   Follow-up: What practical safeguards could the hospital put in place to avoid sending conflicting letters in the future?

Public health

1. A local council plans to introduce a tax incentive for local shops and cafes that sell lower-sugar drinks to help reduce childhood tooth decay. Critics worry that this policy might place unfair pressure on small corner shops or make higher-sugar drinks more expensive for families on low incomes. What health benefits and unintended effects should the council consider before introducing this policy?

   Follow-up: How could public health leaders check whether this scheme actually reduces childhood tooth decay?

   Follow-up: What other community measures could support oral health alongside price incentives?

2. 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?

   Follow-up: Why might improved awareness and knowledge fail to increase attendance at local dental practices?

   Follow-up: How would you evaluate the longer-term impact of this campaign?

3. You are a prospective dental student discussing healthcare access at a Glasgow interview. In this fictional practice example, a remote rural community dental service replaced in-person consultations for routine advice with video calls in April 2026. The graph shows made-up monthly percentages of patients requesting routine advice who were recorded as having completed a consultation, grouped by age and measured using service records. Face-to-face appointments remain available but have a long waiting list, and some older patients lack reliable internet or cannot travel easily. From April, the service began recording any successful video connection as a completed consultation, even if technical problems prevented the discussion from finishing. Look at the graph below. How would you evaluate whether this video service genuinely improves access to dental care for the whole community?

   Follow-up: How does the change in recording completed consultations affect the conclusions you can draw from the graph?

   Follow-up: What further information would you want about patients who cannot use video calls or travel to the clinic?

4. You are a dental student in a public health tutorial. A published report compares oral health outcomes in two neighbouring towns and concludes that one has far poorer health standards than the other. The study did not adjust for differences in the populations' age profiles. Why might this conclusion be misleading, and how could you make the comparison fair?

   Follow-up: How could a misleading comparison affect decisions about local dental services?

   Follow-up: How would you explain the report's limitations to someone without a background in statistics?

5. You are a sixth-form student volunteering with a local youth charity that visits schools to promote healthy habits. The headteacher asks whether classroom presentations alone can close the dental health gap between pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds. Some local families struggle with low incomes and limited access to services. How would you explain the limitations of education alone when people face structural barriers?

   Follow-up: How would you gather feedback from local families before rolling out a new health campaign?

   Follow-up: What evidence would demonstrate that a community initiative had achieved lasting improvement?

Dexterity

1. Choose a familiar practical activity, such as playing an instrument, drawing or assembling a model. Describe one small movement that was difficult at first and explain how you practised it until you could do it reliably.

   Follow-up: How did you check your consistency across several attempts?

   Follow-up: What would you avoid claiming about your dental skills based on this experience?

2. You and a partner each have six building blocks. Build a low structure behind an upright notebook, then describe it so your partner can recreate it without seeing yours. Agree a front edge and use positions, directions and colours where available. If alone, record your directions and follow them later after dismantling the structure. Compare the results.

   Follow-up: Which instruction relied too much on words such as here or there?

   Follow-up: How would you check understanding before your partner placed the next block?

3. Fold three paper strips so their finished lengths are similar, then join their ends with paper clips to form a flat triangle. Prepare the strips before starting and use no sharp tools during the exercise.

   Follow-up: After inspecting the joins and side lengths and making one correction, how can you tell whether the triangle became more even?

   Follow-up: What could you compare before joining the strips?

4. Roll reusable putty into a sphere, then divide it into two pieces and try to form two matching smaller spheres. Place them side by side and inspect them from more than one angle. Adjust only one sphere and explain how you judged whether their size and shape were becoming more similar.

   Follow-up: Which comparison revealed a difference you had not noticed initially?

   Follow-up: When would you stop adjusting to avoid making the match worse?

Teamwork

1. You are a Year 13 student working with three peers on a collaborative project for your school science exhibition. The supervising teacher tells you that the submission deadline has been brought forward by one week. Your team has only completed half of the planned displays, and there is a real risk of burnout if you try to do everything. How would you help the group separate essential tasks from optional extras and agree on a plan?

   Follow-up: Whose perspectives might be overlooked if the team prioritised tasks based only on what seems easiest?

   Follow-up: How would you address concerns from a teammate whose chosen task had to be dropped from the final plan?

2. You are a first-year dental student working with four classmates on an academic poster presentation. During a team meeting in an open study space, a teammate publicly criticises your section, calling it sloppy and inadequate. You need to protect the working relationship while ensuring the poster meets the required standard. How would you respond in the moment, and how would you follow up with that teammate in private?

   Follow-up: How would you help the group agree on a constructive way to give feedback in future?

   Follow-up: What would you do if your attempt to clear the air in private was met with defensiveness?

3. You are a sixth-form student on the committee of your school community service society. The committee has published a programme of events, but the group lacks the volunteers and resources to run them all. Changing the programme could disappoint students and damage their trust in the society. How would you work with the committee to review the programme and explain any changes to students openly and fairly?

   Follow-up: How would you handle disagreement within the committee about which events to keep?

   Follow-up: How could the committee avoid overcommitting when planning future programmes?

4. You are a first-year dental student working with three peers on an academic poster for an assessed module, due next week. During a group meeting in the campus library, one student loudly calls another member's slides careless and embarrassing in front of nearby students. The criticised student looks upset and leaves abruptly. How would you address this conflict and help repair the working relationship between the team members?

   Follow-up: How would you check what kind of support the upset student wants without making assumptions or overstepping?

   Follow-up: What would you do if your initial approach to help resolve the tension was met with defensiveness?

5. You are a sixth-form student working with four classmates on an extended project due in three weeks. Two group members keep pushing for the quickest and easiest options, overlooking possible flaws and safety concerns. What structured approach would you propose to help the group assess risks while keeping the project moving?

   Follow-up: How would you introduce this approach without making the team feel you are unnecessarily slowing down their work?

   Follow-up: How would you handle a disagreement about whether a risk is acceptable?

Reasoning

1. You are a dental applicant reviewing made-up figures from a fictional NHS dental practice in Glasgow. From January to March 2025, all check-ups were during the daytime; from April to June 2025, the practice moved some check-ups to evening slots. The graph shows missed appointments as a percentage of the 200 check-ups booked for each age group in each three-month period. In April to June, 100 appointments for patients aged 18 to 30 were evening appointments, compared with only 10 for patients aged over 65. The practice manager thinks evening appointments improve attendance and proposes moving most daytime check-ups to the evening. Look at the graph below. What might explain the different attendance patterns, and what further information would you want before commenting on the manager's proposal?

   Follow-up: How might moving most check-ups to the evening affect different groups of patients?

   Follow-up: How could the practice evaluate whether appointment timing, rather than other factors, explains the change in attendance?

2. 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?

   Follow-up: What alternative methods would you suggest to gather more reliable data?

   Follow-up: How could the practice use the existing findings while recognising their limitations?

3. You are a student shadowing a general dentist. An adult patient requests the removal of two healthy front teeth so they can get cosmetic bridge work done. The dentist believes this would cause irreversible harm to healthy tissue. The patient turns to you and says, "They are my teeth. Surely I have the right to choose my treatment?" What would you need to consider when responding to the patient within your role as a student?

   Follow-up: How could you acknowledge the patient's perspective without endorsing their request or giving clinical advice?

   Follow-up: If the patient remained unhappy, how could you seek support from the supervising dentist while respecting the patient's concerns?