Apologies about the new thread but goddamn this is a long post
I was gonna put it into a blog post but the blogs are gone
Disclaimer: It’s been 4 years since I did this so things might have changed!
Okay, maybe I’m too much of a softie but my first piece of advice is this - BE YOURSELF. This is not some hour-long Australian interview, this is 10 minutes to make sure that you’re not awful in some way or another. I know these people (well half of them) - they’re my tutors, my lecturers, postgrad students I say hi to. You do not need the perfect answer! You do not need to be amazing and know everything! Be friendly and conscientious, come across as hard-working (which I’m sure you all are) and you’ll be fine. If you’re not those things...well why are you in the health sciences?!
You will most likely be terrified and that’s okay, the format is unfortunately something that is pretty scary. You’ll go wait in a room with other hopefuls shitting your pants waiting to be called, and then you’ll be called into a room with two interviewers - one ‘dent’ person, and one person from the community. It will go by so fast!!! 10 minutes is no time at all. And after that you’ll have no indication of if you did well or not until December.
So to go onto the questions (which is what you guys are here for):
NB: these are MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS, DO NOT REGURGITATE THIS, these are GUIDELINES to help YOU answer the questions.
Questions are taken from Otago Interviews! | Page 2 | Med Students Online and they were very similar to what my year got.
1. What have you done to look into the field of dentistry?
I personally had done nothing, at this point in time I was still thinking about doing med. But things you could say are - talking to friends who are in dentistry (I count if you want to talk to me about it!), talking to your dentist back home, looking up things online. You don’t need to have done tons, but try and come up with at least one thing - this is just to cull out the people who don’t want dent but are maybe just hoping it can be a backup (which is most of you I know, and that’s okay).
2. What is your motivation?
This should be your own personal motivation, but things you could say are
Dentistry is a VERY wide field, something I didn’t appreciate until after I’d already gotten in. A general dentist does fillings, cleanings, crowns, root canal treatments, dentures, extractions…
Specialties include those and oral surgery, maxillofacial surgery (head and neck surgery), oral pathology (cancers, cysts…), paediatrics (kids), special needs, geriatrics, orthodontics, public health…
Dentistry is also a big thing in forensics, lots of research…
4. What does a dentist do in daily life?
A general dentist will see patients and this can be varied - fillings, cleanings, crowns, root canal treatments, extractions, check-ups. In between there’s writing notes about what happened at this appointment, maybe writing referrals, maybe contacting GPs about patients, contacting the dental lab (they make crowns and dentures). Depending on the dentist’s role, they may also be in charge of running the clinic (like a business) so business-y stuff, ordering new materials, etc.
5. What things are unpleasant about dentistry?
We get a bad rep It’s quite stressful, it’s easy to burn out. Dealing with people all day also means that you can take on their worries as well as your own. There’s a lot of admin, a lot of organisational stuff. Some people’s mouths are gross! (this is pretty rare though). But again this may be a personal opinion thing.
6. Give an example of an important decision you have made in the past.
Can’t help you here guys lol
7. Give an example of a difficult decision a dentist might face.
It can be difficult when you’re treating someone who can’t afford the ‘ideal’ treatment and you have to compromise.
8. If a patient presents with rare symptoms how would a dentist go about to research it?
For some reason when I got this question I assumed it meant that you had to research it right then and there, but you can just say to someone I’m going to do some research and get back to you haha. Personally it would depend on the severity - if they’re in pain, referral to a specialist. If it doesn’t seem urgent, I would talk to colleagues, do some research using dental journals/textbooks (not wikipedia guys).
9. What are some of the qualities a dentist must have?
They must be able to talk to people!! Something I didn’t appreciate when I was in health sci is that dentistry is like 70% talking to people, if your patient likes you or not literally makes or breaks your treatment. They need to be able to talk through things that aren’t fun to talk about - how much treatment costs, breaking bad news (recently a dentist told us a story about having to tell a girl she had a really destructive kind of cancer :/).
They need to care! They need to be hard-working, it’s hard work (like physically hard!), and you have to spend your entire life keeping up with research so you can give the best treatment.
They need to be able to work in a team. As a dentist you are NEVER alone - you are with your assistant every hour that you’re working. Then there’s receptionists, practice managers, other assistants, other dentists, lab technicians, dental hygienists, specialists etc etc etc
Scenario question: you are currently studying dentistry, but after 2 years of study you decide to pull out.
This is a pretty personal question, but the way I answered it (I actually got this one!) is that I said I would talk to friends and family, talk to course co-ordinators, and think through why I wanted to pull out. And that I would probably give it another semester or so before actually pulling out.
Post #2
1. What makes you want to enter dentistry as opposed to other professions?
This is a personal thing again, but the thing that I like about dentistry are -
The biggest drawcard of dentistry to me was that it was 5 years of study as opposed to up to 13 as a doctor, that was really really appealing to me. Also it’s not as hard work as med - there are no long hours, no on-call, it’s a 9-5 job and you generally can leave work behind. There’s a really wide range of things you can do as a general dentist, you will never be bored.
Personally I also really like working with people, and I hope you guys have realised by now that there is a LOT of talking to people and getting to know people as a dentist.
Unlike what some people might tell you, it’s really rewarding work - toothache fucking sucks, some people are too self conscious to show their teeth when they smile, it sucks eating when you’ve lost a lot of teeth. These are all things dentists deal with on a daily basis.
You also get to work with your hands and that’s seriously fun, especially if you’re artsy/craftsy like me.
2. What do you think are some of the bad aspects of dentistry?
$$$$$$$ Dentistry is fricking expensive, no one is denying that, but there are a lot of reasons for that that I won’t go into now. It sucks telling someone that the treatment they NEED is this much money, and it sucks that there are a lot of people who need treatment who aren’t getting it.
It’s stressful, it’s physically and mentally hard work. We have super high rates of back/neck pain, depression and burn out is a serious problem in the profession, sometimes you screw up and that feels pretty goddamn awful.
4. What past experiences have you had with a dentist?
Personally this was just going to the dentist for me lol, and I had ortho when I was 14. I wouldn’t overthink this question too much, you can say maybe you’ve had a chat to them or asked them questions but don’t bs too much.
7-9. Are you good at decision making?
Lol ummmm...this is a bit of a strange question I guess. I would talk about being able to weigh up the pros and cons of whatever decision you’re making idk
10-11. These are weird I hope you don’t get them (I didn’t)
12. In what situation would you have difficulty in research in Dentistry?
That’s a hard one haha...maybe if it’s a very new topic with little background knowledge. People are bad at filling out questionnaires (I can tell you from first hand).
Other questions I’ve heard of:
What does ____ do in a dental practice?
The dentist - performs the dentistry (obviously). Also has to write up and keep very good notes, is in charge of taking radiographs and therefore in minimising radiation, is in charge of making sure that other employees are thingying with practice standards, eg. making sure sterilising, amalgam waste, that kind of thing, is done at a particular standard. Is in charge of the patient’s safety.
The dental assistant - helps the dentist in whatever they do, they also often do sterilising. Making sure the patient is comfortable when the dentist is too caught up in their procedure.
The receptionist - makes sure people are booked in, maybe calls them up to make sure they’re coming.
The practice manager - this is a mean question! I barely even get what a practice manager does! Anyway some clinics have a specific practice manager, at other clinics an assistant or the receptionist or the dentist will act as the practice manager. They’re in charge of the business side of things - making sure people are getting paid, supplies are getting ordered.
What’s the difference between bachelor of dental technology and bachelor of oral health?
Also a mean question!
The Bachelor of Dental Technology - dental technicians fabricate crowns and dentures, have a really thorough understanding of all dental materials.
Bachelor of Oral Health - is dual-training, so you qualify to become both a dental therapist and a dental hygienist. Dental therapists treat children under 18 - they’re the ones who see you at school when you’re in primary/intermediate. Dental hygienists do cleanings only, and can see children or adults.
What are some challenges you think are facing NZ dentistry?
An ageing population, most of whom still have their teeth
Inequalities between ethnicities
NZ is supposed to be phasing amalgam out
How does a dentist work as part of a team?
I already semi-answered this question - but in general practice and in hospital you will never be working by yourself. In general practice, you are constantly with your assistant, there’s the receptionist, any sterilising assistants/other assistants, practice managers, other dentists, specialists, dental technicians, you’ll be contacting GPs and other medical specialists to ask about patients or to ask questions etc etc etc. One of the awesome things i’ve found about dent is there’s a strong sense of community, and you can go to anyone with questions and they’ll probably be happy to help.
In a hospital - similar, working with your assistant, theatre nurses, anaesthesiologists and other specialists in theatre, working with doctors and pharmacists and OTs and literally anyone you can think of in healthcare. The only field I haven’t found a lot of overlap with is Physio!
Can you tell us about the different types of dentistry
Don’t feel like you have to go and look everything up and remember it, they just want to know you’ve done a little bit of research.
Here’s a breakdown of the common areas:
Periodontics - gums, bone, all the stuff around the actual teeth holding it in place
Endodontics - root canal treatments - the roots supply blood, nerves and nutrients to the tooth
Removable prosthodontics - dentures
Fixed prosthodontics - crowns, bridges, but they often also are really good with fillings/restorations
Oral surgery - extractions and some other minor (?) surgeries
Those are the most common ones, I doubt you would need to know any others, but feel free to ask me if you want to know more.
Good luck guys, don't stress too much about it!! I'm sure you'll all do wonderful. I know this is a long post but don't feel intimidated, and also don't feel like you have to have a perfect answer - there is such a thing as overpreparing! Feel free to comment/PM about this or anything else related to Dent - like I said at some point (after I've handed in my stupid assignment) I'll write an overview of the course.
I was gonna put it into a blog post but the blogs are gone
Disclaimer: It’s been 4 years since I did this so things might have changed!
Okay, maybe I’m too much of a softie but my first piece of advice is this - BE YOURSELF. This is not some hour-long Australian interview, this is 10 minutes to make sure that you’re not awful in some way or another. I know these people (well half of them) - they’re my tutors, my lecturers, postgrad students I say hi to. You do not need the perfect answer! You do not need to be amazing and know everything! Be friendly and conscientious, come across as hard-working (which I’m sure you all are) and you’ll be fine. If you’re not those things...well why are you in the health sciences?!
You will most likely be terrified and that’s okay, the format is unfortunately something that is pretty scary. You’ll go wait in a room with other hopefuls shitting your pants waiting to be called, and then you’ll be called into a room with two interviewers - one ‘dent’ person, and one person from the community. It will go by so fast!!! 10 minutes is no time at all. And after that you’ll have no indication of if you did well or not until December.
So to go onto the questions (which is what you guys are here for):
NB: these are MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS, DO NOT REGURGITATE THIS, these are GUIDELINES to help YOU answer the questions.
Questions are taken from Otago Interviews! | Page 2 | Med Students Online and they were very similar to what my year got.
1. What have you done to look into the field of dentistry?
I personally had done nothing, at this point in time I was still thinking about doing med. But things you could say are - talking to friends who are in dentistry (I count if you want to talk to me about it!), talking to your dentist back home, looking up things online. You don’t need to have done tons, but try and come up with at least one thing - this is just to cull out the people who don’t want dent but are maybe just hoping it can be a backup (which is most of you I know, and that’s okay
).2. What is your motivation?
This should be your own personal motivation, but things you could say are
- Working with people (being a dentist is literally just talking to people all day erry day)
- Working with your hands
- Good lifestyle - 9-5 job, easy to cut back on hours if you want family
- Wide scope as a general dentist, and further opportunities to specialise
Dentistry is a VERY wide field, something I didn’t appreciate until after I’d already gotten in. A general dentist does fillings, cleanings, crowns, root canal treatments, dentures, extractions…
Specialties include those and oral surgery, maxillofacial surgery (head and neck surgery), oral pathology (cancers, cysts…), paediatrics (kids), special needs, geriatrics, orthodontics, public health…
Dentistry is also a big thing in forensics, lots of research…
4. What does a dentist do in daily life?
A general dentist will see patients and this can be varied - fillings, cleanings, crowns, root canal treatments, extractions, check-ups. In between there’s writing notes about what happened at this appointment, maybe writing referrals, maybe contacting GPs about patients, contacting the dental lab (they make crowns and dentures). Depending on the dentist’s role, they may also be in charge of running the clinic (like a business) so business-y stuff, ordering new materials, etc.
5. What things are unpleasant about dentistry?
We get a bad rep
It’s quite stressful, it’s easy to burn out. Dealing with people all day also means that you can take on their worries as well as your own. There’s a lot of admin, a lot of organisational stuff. Some people’s mouths are gross! (this is pretty rare though). But again this may be a personal opinion thing.6. Give an example of an important decision you have made in the past.
Can’t help you here guys lol
7. Give an example of a difficult decision a dentist might face.
It can be difficult when you’re treating someone who can’t afford the ‘ideal’ treatment and you have to compromise.
8. If a patient presents with rare symptoms how would a dentist go about to research it?
For some reason when I got this question I assumed it meant that you had to research it right then and there, but you can just say to someone I’m going to do some research and get back to you haha. Personally it would depend on the severity - if they’re in pain, referral to a specialist. If it doesn’t seem urgent, I would talk to colleagues, do some research using dental journals/textbooks (not wikipedia guys).
9. What are some of the qualities a dentist must have?
They must be able to talk to people!! Something I didn’t appreciate when I was in health sci is that dentistry is like 70% talking to people, if your patient likes you or not literally makes or breaks your treatment. They need to be able to talk through things that aren’t fun to talk about - how much treatment costs, breaking bad news (recently a dentist told us a story about having to tell a girl she had a really destructive kind of cancer :/).
They need to care! They need to be hard-working, it’s hard work (like physically hard!), and you have to spend your entire life keeping up with research so you can give the best treatment.
They need to be able to work in a team. As a dentist you are NEVER alone - you are with your assistant every hour that you’re working. Then there’s receptionists, practice managers, other assistants, other dentists, lab technicians, dental hygienists, specialists etc etc etc
Scenario question: you are currently studying dentistry, but after 2 years of study you decide to pull out.
This is a pretty personal question, but the way I answered it (I actually got this one!) is that I said I would talk to friends and family, talk to course co-ordinators, and think through why I wanted to pull out. And that I would probably give it another semester or so before actually pulling out.
Post #2
1. What makes you want to enter dentistry as opposed to other professions?
This is a personal thing again, but the thing that I like about dentistry are -
The biggest drawcard of dentistry to me was that it was 5 years of study as opposed to up to 13 as a doctor, that was really really appealing to me. Also it’s not as hard work as med - there are no long hours, no on-call, it’s a 9-5 job and you generally can leave work behind. There’s a really wide range of things you can do as a general dentist, you will never be bored.
Personally I also really like working with people, and I hope you guys have realised by now that there is a LOT of talking to people and getting to know people as a dentist.
Unlike what some people might tell you, it’s really rewarding work - toothache fucking sucks, some people are too self conscious to show their teeth when they smile, it sucks eating when you’ve lost a lot of teeth. These are all things dentists deal with on a daily basis.
You also get to work with your hands and that’s seriously fun, especially if you’re artsy/craftsy like me.
2. What do you think are some of the bad aspects of dentistry?
$$$$$$$ Dentistry is fricking expensive, no one is denying that, but there are a lot of reasons for that that I won’t go into now. It sucks telling someone that the treatment they NEED is this much money, and it sucks that there are a lot of people who need treatment who aren’t getting it.
It’s stressful, it’s physically and mentally hard work. We have super high rates of back/neck pain, depression and burn out is a serious problem in the profession, sometimes you screw up and that feels pretty goddamn awful.
4. What past experiences have you had with a dentist?
Personally this was just going to the dentist for me lol, and I had ortho when I was 14. I wouldn’t overthink this question too much, you can say maybe you’ve had a chat to them or asked them questions but don’t bs too much.
7-9. Are you good at decision making?
Lol ummmm...this is a bit of a strange question I guess. I would talk about being able to weigh up the pros and cons of whatever decision you’re making idk
10-11. These are weird I hope you don’t get them (I didn’t)
12. In what situation would you have difficulty in research in Dentistry?
That’s a hard one haha...maybe if it’s a very new topic with little background knowledge. People are bad at filling out questionnaires (I can tell you from first hand).
Other questions I’ve heard of:
What does ____ do in a dental practice?
The dentist - performs the dentistry (obviously). Also has to write up and keep very good notes, is in charge of taking radiographs and therefore in minimising radiation, is in charge of making sure that other employees are thingying with practice standards, eg. making sure sterilising, amalgam waste, that kind of thing, is done at a particular standard. Is in charge of the patient’s safety.
The dental assistant - helps the dentist in whatever they do, they also often do sterilising. Making sure the patient is comfortable when the dentist is too caught up in their procedure.
The receptionist - makes sure people are booked in, maybe calls them up to make sure they’re coming.
The practice manager - this is a mean question! I barely even get what a practice manager does! Anyway some clinics have a specific practice manager, at other clinics an assistant or the receptionist or the dentist will act as the practice manager. They’re in charge of the business side of things - making sure people are getting paid, supplies are getting ordered.
What’s the difference between bachelor of dental technology and bachelor of oral health?
Also a mean question!
The Bachelor of Dental Technology - dental technicians fabricate crowns and dentures, have a really thorough understanding of all dental materials.
Bachelor of Oral Health - is dual-training, so you qualify to become both a dental therapist and a dental hygienist. Dental therapists treat children under 18 - they’re the ones who see you at school when you’re in primary/intermediate. Dental hygienists do cleanings only, and can see children or adults.
What are some challenges you think are facing NZ dentistry?
An ageing population, most of whom still have their teeth
Inequalities between ethnicities
NZ is supposed to be phasing amalgam out
How does a dentist work as part of a team?
I already semi-answered this question - but in general practice and in hospital you will never be working by yourself. In general practice, you are constantly with your assistant, there’s the receptionist, any sterilising assistants/other assistants, practice managers, other dentists, specialists, dental technicians, you’ll be contacting GPs and other medical specialists to ask about patients or to ask questions etc etc etc. One of the awesome things i’ve found about dent is there’s a strong sense of community, and you can go to anyone with questions and they’ll probably be happy to help.
In a hospital - similar, working with your assistant, theatre nurses, anaesthesiologists and other specialists in theatre, working with doctors and pharmacists and OTs and literally anyone you can think of in healthcare. The only field I haven’t found a lot of overlap with is Physio!
Can you tell us about the different types of dentistry
Don’t feel like you have to go and look everything up and remember it, they just want to know you’ve done a little bit of research.
Here’s a breakdown of the common areas:
Periodontics - gums, bone, all the stuff around the actual teeth holding it in place
Endodontics - root canal treatments - the roots supply blood, nerves and nutrients to the tooth
Removable prosthodontics - dentures
Fixed prosthodontics - crowns, bridges, but they often also are really good with fillings/restorations
Oral surgery - extractions and some other minor (?) surgeries
Those are the most common ones, I doubt you would need to know any others, but feel free to ask me if you want to know more.
Good luck guys, don't stress too much about it!! I'm sure you'll all do wonderful. I know this is a long post but don't feel intimidated, and also don't feel like you have to have a perfect answer - there is such a thing as overpreparing! Feel free to comment/PM about this or anything else related to Dent - like I said at some point (after I've handed in my stupid assignment) I'll write an overview of the course.
