QUB Dentistry Interview: Questions & MMI Format

All 50 QUB dentistry practice interview questions

Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.

Motivation

1. The dental course involves academic study, practical skills and professional responsibilities. Which aspect do you expect to find most demanding for you personally, and why?

   Follow-up: What strategies would you use to manage that challenge?

   Follow-up: How would you recognise if stress was starting to affect your work?

2. How would you sustain your motivation when a long-term oral health promotion project does not achieve its goals?

   Follow-up: How have you stayed committed to an objective when a past effort did not go to plan?

   Follow-up: How would you decide whether an initiative needs more time to work or a change of strategy?

3. When choosing a dental school, how much weight would you give research opportunities compared with clinical teaching and student support, and why?

   Follow-up: How might engaging with scientific research during your degree make you a more effective practitioner?

   Follow-up: What steps would you take if you found scientific literature much harder to engage with than practical training?

4. You are a prospective dental applicant shadowing a general dental practice team during a busy morning. After having a filling, an anxious patient warmly thanks the dental nurse for holding their hand and keeping them calm, while barely acknowledging the dentist who carried out the treatment. What does this observation teach you about teamwork in dental practice?

   Follow-up: Why might an anxious patient feel more comfortable opening up to a dental nurse than to the dentist carrying out the treatment?

   Follow-up: As a future dental student, how could you put this insight into practice as you work towards becoming the dental professional you hope to be?

5. How has learning about the supportive and communicative side of dentistry influenced your motivation to pursue it?

   Follow-up: Which personal qualities do you possess that suit the supportive and communicative side of the profession?

   Follow-up: How would you manage your own frustration if someone rejected the advice or support you offered?

6. Describe a personal weakness or habit you have recognised in yourself and worked to improve over the past year. What evidence shows your progress?

   Follow-up: What areas do you still need to develop?

   Follow-up: How do you plan to monitor your wellbeing and performance when academic pressures increase?

Experience

1. Tell us about a time in your school life, volunteering or employment when someone needed you to listen to their concerns. How did you respond, and what did you learn about empathy?

   Follow-up: Why can it be difficult to listen without immediately offering solutions?

   Follow-up: How did you know whether your supportive approach was genuinely helpful to the other person?

2. Think about an experience from your community work, volunteering or employment where you saw how disadvantage affected someone else. What did you learn, and how did it change your behaviour?

   Follow-up: How might your own background have influenced your understanding of the situation?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if someone declined an offer of help?

3. Tell us about a time at school, at work or in a team project when a mistake or delay on your part disrupted someone else's work. How did you address the issue with that person and put things right?

   Follow-up: How has this experience changed your understanding of accountability?

   Follow-up: What practical changes did you make to your routine afterwards to stop the same mistake from recurring?

4. Describe a significant setback in your studies, a hobby or extracurricular commitments that took a long time to resolve. How did you manage your frustration and keep working towards your goal?

   Follow-up: How did you decide whether to change your approach?

   Follow-up: Looking back, what would you do differently if you faced a similar setback again?

5. Describe a time in your school, work, or team activities when you had to explain the reasoning behind an unpopular rule to a peer or colleague. How did you approach the conversation, and how did the other person respond to your explanation?

   Follow-up: How did you take the other person's perspective into account before deciding how to approach them?

   Follow-up: What would you have done if they had continued to ignore the rule despite your explanation?

6. Tell us about a practical or academic project you completed where thorough preparation was more important than working quickly. What checks did you use to avoid errors?

   Follow-up: Which parts of your approach would help you during dental training?

   Follow-up: Are there any habits from that project you would need to change for a dental school setting?

Communication

1. You are a dentistry applicant volunteering in the communal lounge of a local care home. Arthur, a resident, tells you he feels ashamed of his missing and discoloured teeth and has avoided seeing a dentist for years out of embarrassment. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Arthur, listening with empathy and responding without judgement or false reassurance.

   Follow-up: How would you explore whether Arthur would feel comfortable sharing his concerns with the care team?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if Arthur stopped talking after you unintentionally said something judgemental?

2. You are a dental student waiting in a community pharmacy queue. Morgan, another person in the queue, shows you two contradictory articles about fluoride on their phone and says they are confused and distrust dental advice. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Morgan, acknowledge their confusion and explore their concerns respectfully.

   Follow-up: How would you explain to Morgan why reliable evidence and balanced sources matter?

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

3. You are a dentistry applicant volunteering as an assistant coach at a local youth football club. After training, Jordan, another young volunteer, approaches you. Jordan is upset because your unclear instructions led them to lock the first-aid kit inside the equipment shed, and the head coach blamed them. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Jordan to listen to their point of view and accept your part in the misunderstanding.

   Follow-up: How would you avoid turning a discussion of the error into an argument about blame?

   Follow-up: What simple change to the handover could prevent another misunderstanding?

4. You are a dental student volunteering as a student ambassador at a Queen’s Belfast (QUB) university open day. An anxious visitor approaches your information desk to ask whether your department can help with a housing and tenancy dispute affecting their health and wellbeing. You cannot give clinical or legal advice. Speak compassionately and directly to the visitor about the limits of your role and where they could seek suitable support, without promising to resolve the dispute.

   Follow-up: How would you respond if the visitor became upset?

   Follow-up: How would you check that the visitor understood the information you had shared?

5. You are a dentistry applicant speaking on the phone at home with your uncle, Mark. He admits that he has avoided going to the dentist for years because he feels ashamed of the state of his teeth. You cannot give clinical advice. Listen to his worries with warmth and without judgement, and explore what support he might like.

   Follow-up: How can you reassure a family member about seeking care without making assumptions or false promises?

   Follow-up: Why is it important to explore their feelings before suggesting practical next steps?

6. You are a dental student working a part-time shift behind the counter at a local café. A regular customer, Jordan, approaches you because an automated booking confirmation was sent to a shared family phone, revealing personal plans they wanted kept private. They are distressed and want your help with this privacy concern. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Jordan, listen to their concerns, and offer to involve your manager to help update their communication preferences. Do not pry into why they wanted the booking kept quiet.

   Follow-up: How would you handle a customer's anger while keeping the conversation discreet in a public area?

   Follow-up: Why is it important not to make promises about data systems that you do not control yourself?

7. You are a dentistry applicant volunteering at a local food bank. Lou, a parent collecting a parcel, shares their frustration about health visitors lecturing them on sugar and routines without understanding their daily difficulties. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Lou, acknowledge their feelings without being patronising, and ask open questions to understand the challenges they face.

   Follow-up: How would you check that you had understood Lou's concerns accurately?

   Follow-up: How would you respond if Lou asked you for clinical advice?

8. You are a dentistry applicant volunteering at the help desk of a public library. An older visitor, Mrs Hughes, approaches you with a community health booklet because the print is too small for her to read comfortably. You cannot give clinical advice. Speak directly to Mrs Hughes, ask what format she would prefer, and explore suitable alternatives without making assumptions about her abilities or familiarity with technology.

   Follow-up: How do you avoid making assumptions about an older person's technical ability when offering alternatives?

   Follow-up: What options could you provide if a large-print version of a document is not available immediately?

Ethics

1. You are a first-year dental student on placement in a hospital dental clinic. A patient has just signed a consent form for a molar extraction, and the supervising dentist briefly leaves the room. While you are alone with the patient, they say they feel confused and did not realise that saving the tooth with root canal treatment was an option. The clinic is running late. What would you do in this situation, and what would you raise with your supervising dentist when they return?

   Follow-up: What does the patient's confusion mean for their consent to the extraction?

   Follow-up: How should the clinic running late affect your approach to this situation?

2. You are a second-year dental student at a compulsory phantom head simulation session in the university clinical skills centre. A close classmate arrives thirty minutes late, as the session is ending, and says their car broke down. The module tutor has asked for the official attendance register to be handed in within five minutes. Your classmate asks you to sign their name so they do not face disciplinary action. How would you respond to your classmate's request?

   Follow-up: What could be the long-term professional consequences for both you and your classmate if you signed the register falsely?

   Follow-up: How could you encourage your classmate to approach the module tutor directly to explain what happened?

3. You are a dental applicant shadowing in a community dental clinic. An 82-year-old patient is waiting to discuss treatment options for missing teeth. In the adjoining preparation room, the dentist tells the dental nurse not to discuss dental implants because the patient is too old to understand complex options. The dentist also says the clinic is twenty minutes late. What ethical concerns does this raise, and how would you respond within your role as an observer?

   Follow-up: How could the clinic manage the delay while supporting the patient's informed choice?

   Follow-up: What would you look for during the consultation to assess whether the patient was being supported to understand their options?

4. You are a first-year dental student shadowing a dentist in an NHS dental practice. An adult patient attends for a routine check-up and medical history review. They mention taking new prescription medicines for a heart condition but firmly refuse permission for the dental team to contact their GP. The patient asks whether they have the right to refuse this contact. How would you respond within your role as a student?

   Follow-up: How could the patient's refusal affect the planning of their dental care?

   Follow-up: What ethical considerations might justify a healthcare professional sharing patient information without consent in exceptional circumstances?

5. You are a second-year dental student on clinic placement assisting a supervising dentist with a tooth extraction. The clinic is running fifteen minutes behind schedule, and pre-printed post-extraction care leaflets have run out. The supervising dentist tells you to record on the computer system that written advice was handed to the patient so they can be discharged quickly. What should you do in this situation, and why is accurate record keeping essential?

   Follow-up: How could you politely raise your concern with your supervisor without creating conflict in front of the patient?

   Follow-up: What practical solutions could the team use to ensure the patient still receives clear post-extraction instructions today?

6. You are a prospective dental student observing an administrative meeting at a regional dental hospital. The clinical director and practice managers are discussing an automated system to prioritise specialist orthodontic referrals. Patients and referring high street dentists will not be told how the system decides who gets seen first. Is it ethically acceptable to use the system without explaining how referrals are prioritised?

   Follow-up: What information should the dental team give patients about how their referral priority is decided?

   Follow-up: How should the dental team support a patient who wishes to challenge their assigned referral priority?

7. You are a first-year dental student in a small-group seminar. An instructor displays anonymised study materials, and a coursemate takes a photo of a slide on their personal phone for revision. The image includes institutional markings and sensitive background details that should not leave the university network. How would you address this situation with your coursemate?

   Follow-up: What data protection or confidentiality risks could arise from storing these materials on a personal device?

   Follow-up: How would you guide your coursemate towards official, approved study resources provided by the dental school?

8. You are a first-year dental student observing a consultation in a general dental practice. An adult patient who speaks limited English attends with their teenage son to discuss suspected oral cancer. The patient insists that their son translates the sensitive discussion, but the son looks visibly distressed and uncomfortable. Only fifteen minutes have been allocated for the consultation. Afterwards, the supervising dentist asks what concerns you noticed. What ethical concerns would you raise?

   Follow-up: How would the limits of your student role affect your response to this situation?

   Follow-up: What would you want to understand about the patient's reluctance if they initially refused an independent interpreter?

Dental team

1. You are a dental applicant on work experience at a multidisciplinary dental clinic, shadowing a dentist, a dental hygienist and a dental therapist. They are caring for an elderly patient with severe gum disease who has requested short appointments and morning slots. Why is it essential for the whole dental team to communicate and record these preferences consistently?

   Follow-up: How can dental team members ensure that patient preferences are passed accurately between clinicians?

   Follow-up: What would you do if the patient's stated preferences differed from those in their records?

2. You are a work-experience student shadowing reception at an NHS dental practice. With the receptionist supervising, you take a call from a patient who cares full-time for an elderly parent. They say they need an urgent filling but cannot attend standard daytime appointments. The receptionist says the diary is full for the next two weeks and the practice closes at 5:00 pm. The patient is worried their toothache will worsen and asks for help. How would you work with the receptionist to respond while staying within your role?

   Follow-up: How would you protect the patient's privacy when sharing their caring responsibilities with the dental team?

   Follow-up: How could limited appointment times affect patients with caring responsibilities?

3. You are a dental student on clinic placement at a practice meeting led by the practice manager and principal dentist. The practice manager presents a new system for logging patient complaints. The junior dental nurses and trainee receptionists remain silent when asked for feedback and appear nervous about speaking openly. There are ten minutes left before the afternoon clinic begins. After the meeting, the practice manager asks for your observations. What would you say about helping junior staff feel safe to give honest feedback?

   Follow-up: What limitations might anonymous feedback have in this situation?

   Follow-up: How could staff feeling able to voice concerns support patient safety?

4. You are a first-year dental student visiting an on-site dental laboratory attached to a dental hospital. You are observing a qualified dental technician making a partial denture for a consultant dentist's patient. Another student remarks that technicians simply follow written prescriptions without needing to understand clinical care. Why is mutual respect important when dentists and dental technicians work together?

   Follow-up: How could unclear instructions on a laboratory prescription affect the patient's treatment?

   Follow-up: How would you respond to the other student's comment?

5. You are a dental applicant on work experience shadowing a dental therapist in a community dental clinic. During a scaling appointment, an anxious patient asks you whether they should have a painful tooth crowned or extracted. This decision needs an assessment by a dentist and is outside the therapist's agreed treatment plan. As a work-experience student, you cannot give clinical advice. How would you respond to the patient and explain the limits of your role?

   Follow-up: How could you help the patient raise their concerns with the supervising team while staying within your work-experience role?

   Follow-up: What problems might arise if a dental professional gives advice outside their recognised scope of practice?

Public health

1. You are a prospective dental student attending a quality improvement meeting at a fictional community dental service in Belfast. The made-up practice data show mean waiting times from referral to the scheduled routine check-up date for appointments booked in January, February and March 2026. In March, patients needing interpreters had a mean wait of eight weeks, compared with five weeks for other patients. The figures exclude patients still waiting for an appointment to be booked, including those whose interpreter arrangements remain unresolved. The clinic manager is under pressure from the local health board to reduce waiting times across the service by the end of April. Look at the graph below. What would you need to consider when discussing how the team could investigate this inequality fairly and thoroughly?

   Follow-up: What logistical factors might explain why booking an interpreter leads to longer waiting times?

   Follow-up: How could the clinic gather feedback from non-English speaking patients to understand their experiences?

2. You are an applicant on a work experience placement with a dental outreach charity at a community centre. The supervising dentist and project coordinator have been giving free oral health packs to local families. The coordinator must submit a funding report by 5 pm today and plans to measure success only by counting the packs handed out. What patient-centred measures would help evaluate the programme’s impact, and why?

   Follow-up: How could the team make it easier for families to give honest feedback about the programme?

   Follow-up: How would you explain the limitations of evaluating the programme on the day it takes place to the charity’s donors?

3. You are a first-year dental student on a public health placement at a regional health board office, shadowing a dental public health consultant and a service planning manager. The graph shows invented practice figures for monthly appointment records from all dental practices in one town, covering January to June last year and this year. Many new residents moved into the town in April this year. The manager wants to base next year's appointment capacity entirely on last year's records, with the plan due for approval this week in July. Last year's figures count only attended appointments, as do this year's figures up to April. From May this year, the recording system also includes cancelled and missed appointments in the monthly totals. Look at the graph below. What problems could arise from relying only on last year's appointment data, and what should you consider when interpreting this graph and discussing access across the community?

   Follow-up: Which groups of local residents might have unmet dental needs that are not captured in appointment records?

   Follow-up: How could the planning team quickly collect feedback from new community members before finalising the dental capacity plan?

4. You are a sixth-form volunteer helping a local community health project organise a workshop on daily self-care. The room is full, but almost none of the attendees are from the low-income group the session was designed to support. How would you review and adapt your recruitment strategy to reach the target audience more effectively?

   Follow-up: How would you consult community representatives before launching your new recruitment plan?

   Follow-up: What measures besides overall attendance numbers would show that the workshop is genuinely helping the community?

5. You are a dental school applicant shadowing the practice manager and a lead dentist in an NHS dental practice. The team is reviewing routine check-up and prevention capacity, and they are discussing whether to add evening clinics twice a week. The practice needs to decide within 24 hours whether to commit staff to evening shifts starting next month. What data would you suggest the team gather to evaluate whether evening appointments would genuinely improve access for underserved patients?

   Follow-up: Which types of patients might still face barriers to attending even if appointments are offered in the evening?

   Follow-up: How could the practice monitor whether evening slots are being used by new patients who genuinely cannot attend during standard working hours?

Dexterity

1. Use six paper cups to build a pyramid with three on the bottom, two above and one on top. Place each cup carefully and check alignment before adding the next level. Dismantle it and repeat once.

   Follow-up: Based on any slips or uneven placements across your two attempts, what one change would you make to your handling?

   Follow-up: How would you check whether your change helped over several attempts?

2. Draw five small dots around the edge of a paper circle. Using a pencil, connect them in sequence with short straight lines, rotating the paper if needed. Repeat on a fresh circle while keeping the paper still.

   Follow-up: Which approach gave you better line control, and why?

   Follow-up: How could you compare the two methods without changing several things at once?

3. You and a partner each have three paper cups labelled A, B and C. Place yours upside down in a triangle, with A at the back and B and C at the front. Agree a viewing direction with your partner. Explain how to recreate your arrangement without showing it, then compare the labels and positions. If alone, record and test the instructions later.

   Follow-up: Which instruction could cause the front cups to be swapped?

   Follow-up: How would you invite clarification without giving away the whole arrangement?

4. Describe a time when a peer was more experienced than you at a practical skill. How did you learn from them and practise the skill yourself?

   Follow-up: How did you assess your progress beyond comparing yourself with your peer?

   Follow-up: Why should stronger practical skills not be treated as proof that someone would be a better clinician?

Teamwork

1. You are a first-year dental student on your cohort social committee, which has booked a venue for a group study session. An upset coursemate tells the committee that the venue lacks step-free access, preventing them from attending. Other students have criticised the committee for overlooking accessibility and are reluctant to participate. How would you respond to the coursemate's concerns?

   Follow-up: How would you check accessibility before making future committee bookings?

   Follow-up: How would you rebuild other students' confidence in the committee?

2. You are a sixth-form volunteer coordinating student helpers at a busy school open evening. Two volunteers are arguing because both believe they were assigned to the main registration desk, leaving the signage station unmanned. Visitors are queuing out the door and becoming frustrated. How would you resolve the disagreement and reallocate responsibilities?

   Follow-up: How would you find out what caused the overlapping assignments without blaming either volunteer?

   Follow-up: What would you change when organising the next event to prevent similar confusion?

3. You are a sixth-form student volunteering with a local youth group that runs weekend activities for teenagers. The founder and lead organiser is clearly exhausted and wants to step down soon. Without a clear transition plan, the sessions might have to pause or close altogether. How would you work with the other volunteers to plan a fair and sustainable handover of responsibilities?

   Follow-up: Whose perspectives or needs might be overlooked if the team assigns new roles based only on who shouts the loudest or has the most free time?

   Follow-up: How would you communicate the new division of roles to volunteers who feel disappointed that they were not given their preferred tasks?

4. You are a first-year dental student working on a compulsory group presentation with four classmates. You need to explain complex laboratory findings about material science to a public audience with no scientific background. Some group members want to include full technical detail, while others want to simplify it so much that key facts are lost. How would you help the group agree on an approach to the presentation?

   Follow-up: How would you divide the workload among the group?

   Follow-up: What would you do during the presentation if you noticed the audience was confused by a key concept?

5. You are part of a university student committee organising a charity fundraising week. After discussing several themes, the group held a fair and open vote, but one member strongly disagrees with the winning choice and refuses to help unless the plan changes. The deadline to book venues is tomorrow, so delaying further will disrupt the entire schedule. How would you address this person's concerns while keeping the team focused on moving the project forward?

   Follow-up: What objective criteria could you bring into the conversation to shift the focus away from personal preferences?

   Follow-up: How would you handle the situation if the teammate still refuses to participate after you have heard their concerns?

Reasoning

1. You are an applicant on work experience observing the receptionist at a community dental clinic. Two patients need booking for routine follow-up care. One is a working parent who relies on limited public bus routes. The other is an elderly patient who requires wheelchair transport support. There is only one morning appointment slot left this week, and both patients need an answer before reception closes in 15 minutes. You are not responsible for allocating appointments. What would you consider when discussing a fair allocation of the slot with your supervisor?

   Follow-up: What further information would help you understand each patient's needs?

   Follow-up: What practical options could the receptionist explore to support the patient who does not receive the morning slot?

2. You are a sixth-form student helping evaluate a school health awareness initiative run by the student council. The organisers report that digital posts reached 10,000 views across social media, but only 30 students completed the anonymous feedback survey. The committee wants to claim the project was an overwhelming success based on these figures alone. How would you analyse this data objectively and explain its limitations to the rest of the team?

   Follow-up: What essential context or comparison data is missing before you can draw any firm conclusions about the project's impact?

   Follow-up: What alternative explanations could account for the large number of views alongside such low survey participation?

3. You are a first-year dental student in a university teaching clinic, paired with a close classmate. Your clinical tutor is in another cubicle. Your classmate is preparing an instrument tray for a routine filling on a seated patient. The procedure is due to start in two minutes. You see your classmate drop an instrument on the floor and put it back on the sterile tray. What would you do immediately to protect the patient's safety?

   Follow-up: How would you manage your friendship after raising this concern?

   Follow-up: How would your actions change if your friend refused to replace the contaminated instrument and insisted on using it on the patient?