List of Interview Questions for Dentistry/Medicine MMIs
Updated: May 23, 2021
Personal Questions
What is your greatest achievement to date and how does this make you the ideal dental candidate?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
What examples of dexterity do you have, any examples?
What can you offer us as a student?
If you weren't offered a place, what would you do?
Imagine a time you were faced with a stressful situation. Please explain how you coped with the stress.
Tell me about your communication skills
Negative aspects of dentistry
What qualities should a dentist have?
Describe a time when you had to lead a team of people?
How is dentistry different to other jobs?
Tell us about one time you failed
What makes you better than the other candidates? Name three strengths with examples for each one.
Now that A Levels aren't happening what are you doing with your time?
Do you believe teams need leaders?
Tell us about a time you worked in a team and failed
What have you done to prepare yourself for a career in dentistry?
If you were to become a dentist, how would you like your patients to describe you and why?
How would you organise a campaign to improve dental health?
If you had to have a gap year, and could go anywhere in the world or do anything, what would you chose to do, and why?
Tell us about a time when you cheated/lied/broke the law
Tell us about a time when you had to make a hard decision
Tell us about a time when you helped someone in need
Tell us about a time when you yourself were treated unfairly and what did you do about it
Tell us about a time when you doubted whether you were doing the right thing
Tell us about a time when you had to change your habits in order to improve yourself
Tell us about a time when you sought out help from a person of authority
Tell us about a time when you had to say “no”
Tell us about a time when you felt extremely euphoric
Tell us about a time when you had to deliver bad news
Tell us about a time when you were wrong about something very important
Tell us about a time when you stood up for someone else
Tell us about a time when you disappointed your parents/grandparents
Tell us a joke!
Tell us about a time when you were scared
What do you feel your weaknesses or limitations are, and how will those affect you being a dentist?
Can you think of a good example of your team working skills?
How would you go about a group task if you and your team mates did not see eye to eye?
What is one detail in your application you would like us to overlook?
What are you looking forward to most about becoming a dentist?
What's the most dangerous thing you've ever done?
Tell us about your work experience
Why dentistry/ as opposed to medicine?
What do you do in your spare time to relax?
What is your greatest strength?
Tell us about a group activity you have organised. What went well and what went badly? What did you learn from it?
Why X university?
What area of dentistry interests you most and why?
Tell me about a non-academic project you were involved in and how it went?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of being in a team?
What previous experiences have you had of learning in small groups?
What contribution do you hope to make to the field of dentistry?
What's the worst thing you've done.
When you read our prospectus, what interested you most about the course here?
How has the pandemic affected you?
How do you cope with stress?
Personal statement questions
Dentistry Specific Questions
Hot topics in dentistry
How do you feel about the lack of dentists in this country and the lack of funding for dentists?
How should the government spend money on NHS dentistry and prevention of dental disease?
Describe to me your understanding of tooth decay
Should dentistry performed by the NHS be free?
Seven Day Dentistry
What precautions need to be taken with patients who are HIV positive?
Why is research important to science and how is this related to dentistry?
How would you explain to a patient how you are going to extract their tooth?
Are dentists portrayed badly in the media?
Why do you think that many NHS dentists are going private?
Why do some people underestimate the value of their teeth?
How do you diagnose oral Cancer what would you look for? and importance of dentists in diagnosis
How to take a patient history?
Vaccines and COVID
Glossary
Role of GDC
What is preventative dentistry
Who are the members of the dental team?
What do you think was the greatest public health advance of the 20th century?
How to treat tooth decay
How to treat root canal?
What are UDAs
What is gingivitis
Periodontitis
Significance of aging population
Tooth erosion vs decay
Types of fillings
Medical trials
If taxpayers pay tax for dental students to become dentists do you think all dentists should have to work in the NHS for a certain number of years?
Can you tell us about any modern advances in dentistry?
Scenario/Ethical Questions
Doctor comes to you for help
A 63-year-old man who is a lifelong smoker and a 23-year-old pregnant lady both need dental implants, but there is only one set of dental implants, who should get the implants
Patient thinks he needs braces or whatever but no clinical evidence, not eligible for NHS braces, person has bad mental health
girl has lots of tooth decay and needs to be extracted but father says no
You notice one of your colleagues, Michael, doing work experience- he looks at his neighbours confidential records and apparently is speaking to his neighbours son about this - mother complains
When you make mistake/when things go wrong
Person too heavy for the dentists chair
You are a dentist expecting a patient you haven’t seen in a few years. This low-income individual does not have dental insurance and makes appointments only when significant treatment is needed. The last time you saw them, they were unable to pay for their dental services. What do you do?
You are a dental student and pass a group of people, one of whom is your patient. They tell their friends about how you messed their teeth up
Colleagues drinking
When is confidentiality allowed to be breached
Patient dies who wanted their organs to be donated but their relative refuse
If your friend was seriously injured and you had to get them to hospital, would you go through a red light? Is there any situation where you would?
How Would You Go About Treating A Non-English Speaking Patient?
Boy requires treatment and asks what the problem is
You are a medical student in a GP surgery, shadowing one of the GP partners, who is also your supervisor. Your next patient is Mrs Collins, a 30 year old secretary who your supervisor states is a ‘typical hypochondriac…always coming in with new concerns, with no real medical problems’. Your GP supervisor advises you that placebo medications (sugar pills) are the best treatment for these patients, and ‘always do the trick’.
What 5 items would you bring to x
A friend has appendicitis in hospital, what 5 items would you bring to him?
Should doctors be allowed to strike?
Practice won't offer treatment unless patient stops smoking a loses weight
You are a second year medical student preparing for your end of year examinations. One week before your examinations, you have a Molecules, Cells and Diseases (MCD) coursework due. One of your friends has just emailed you a selection of coursework, completed by students in prior years for the same project. Explain your actions in this scenario.