Situational Dental School Mock Interview

Master 30 situational dental school interview questions covering clinical scenarios, ethical dilemmas, and patient care.

Question 1 of 30

When you start treating patients directly, how will you handle a new situation that you are unfamiliar with?

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Ryan Brunner

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

Training as a dental student will put you into new situations daily, especially when you are caring for and treating patients for the first time. In asking this question, your interviewing team wants to hear that you can walk a fine line between diving into a situation head-on and asking for help when necessary.

Ryan Brunner

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

Before your interviewer, put some serious thought into which situations you would feel comfortable in learning with a hands-on approach and which situations you would feel uncomfortable with. Come to your interview prepared to discuss this comfort level.

Ryan Brunner

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

"My first concern would be the safety of the patient in a situation like this. When confronted with a new situation during a routine cleaning, I wouldn't hesitate to jump in while leaning on a faculty member or senior student for feedback. That said, I would never jump into something that could potentially harm a patient if I were to make a mistake. In a situation like this, I would seek out a faculty member or precepting dentist to help me work through the situation so I could learn from them."

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30Situational Dental School Interview Questions & Answers

Situational Dental School

1.When you start treating patients directly, how will you handle a new situation that you are unfamiliar with?

Situational Dental School

2.If you encountered a patient that had an allergy to lidocaine or other local anesthesia, what alternative methods of sedation would you suggest?

Situational Dental School

3.What would you do if you suspected a colleague was abusing drugs?

Situational Dental School

4.As a trainee in our dental school, how will you handle critical feedback on your work by our faculty?

Situational Dental School

5.If you had a personal conflict with a fellow student during your time in our dental school, how would you effectively work through that situation?

Situational Dental School

6.When faced with days, weeks, or even months with a large workload in dental school, how will you stay motivated to learn and succeed?

Situational Dental School

7.During your dental school training, how will you handle a mistake you made in your coursework?

Situational Dental School

8.If you had difficulty with your hand skills during preclinical lab work in our program, how would you proceed to improve your skills?

Situational Dental School

9.How would you handle a patient that refused an x-ray because they thought they were harmful to their health?

Situational Dental School

10.When you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed during dental school, what will you do to ensure that your mental and physical health is in the right place?

Situational Dental School

11.What will you do if you don't get accepted into any dental programs during your first attempt? Do you have plans for the interim year?

Situational Dental School

12.A recent patient survey comes back, and you find out that you did not meet a patient's expectations for their care. What are the next steps you would take to improve?

Situational Dental School

13.If you had a busy day of clinic in your final year of dental school, and a key piece of equipment failed, how would you handle the workload, patients, and stress until a fix was found?

Situational Dental School

14.As a dental student, how would you handle a situation in which a member of your team clearly wasn't pulling their weight?

Situational Dental School

15.As dental student in our program, let's say you are caring for a patient who is being sent home with PTFE floss. Upon asking the patient if they know how to use it, they reluctantly say, "Yes, I do." Tell me how you proceed.

Situational Dental School

16.You just finished a routine cleaning with a patient and are heading in to see your next patient. As you enter the patient's room with the medication, describe the first thing you do to prevent patient infection.

Situational Dental School

17.Imagine the clinic is extremely busy, and you requested that a hygienist walk a patient through at home care instructions. Ten minutes later, the patient has yet to be seen, and they are upset about it. Tell me how you proceed.

Situational Dental School

18.What tools or techniques will you use to remember difficult information or instructions given verbally to you by our faculty when you are directly caring for patients?

Situational Dental School

19.As a dental student in our program, how would you explain a complex task to someone using verbal instructions?

Situational Dental School

20.How would you handle being asked to do a dental procedure or task that you were unfamiliar with and uncomfortable handling?

Situational Dental School

21.How would you change your communication style if a patient or their family was having trouble understanding what you were trying to tell them?

Situational Dental School

22.How would you handle someone asking you for dental care advice or diagnosis validation outside the workplace?

Situational Dental School

23.As a dental student responsible for the direct care and treatment plan for your patients, how would you handle a patient that does not do what is necessary for their treatment?

Situational Dental School

24.Describe a situation in which it may be appropriate to use humor in the classroom or workplace.

Situational Dental School

25.Give an example of how you may connect and find common ground with a patient to gain understanding.

Situational Dental School

26.How would you handle a situation during dental school in which a faculty member rejected an idea you pitched?

Situational Dental School

27.What kinds of review questions would you ask yourself after dealing with a difficult or challenging patient situation?

Situational Dental School

28.A dental student colleague left their computer open with sensitive information on the screen. You are the only one in the shared office. How would you address this with them?

Situational Dental School

29.You are consulting with a patient that has a tooth knocked out from a fall. Her male companion answers questions for her, and she barely makes eye contact. How do you get the patient to answer independently?

Situational Dental School

Situational Dental School Mock Interview

When you start treating patients directly, how will you handle a new situation that you are unfamiliar with?

30Situational Dental School Interview Questions & Answers

1.When you start treating patients directly, how will you handle a new situation that you are unfamiliar with?

2.If you encountered a patient that had an allergy to lidocaine or other local anesthesia, what alternative methods of sedation would you suggest?

3.What would you do if you suspected a colleague was abusing drugs?

4.As a trainee in our dental school, how will you handle critical feedback on your work by our faculty?

5.If you had a personal conflict with a fellow student during your time in our dental school, how would you effectively work through that situation?

6.When faced with days, weeks, or even months with a large workload in dental school, how will you stay motivated to learn and succeed?

7.During your dental school training, how will you handle a mistake you made in your coursework?

8.If you had difficulty with your hand skills during preclinical lab work in our program, how would you proceed to improve your skills?

9.How would you handle a patient that refused an x-ray because they thought they were harmful to their health?

10.When you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed during dental school, what will you do to ensure that your mental and physical health is in the right place?

11.What will you do if you don't get accepted into any dental programs during your first attempt? Do you have plans for the interim year?

12.A recent patient survey comes back, and you find out that you did not meet a patient's expectations for their care. What are the next steps you would take to improve?

13.If you had a busy day of clinic in your final year of dental school, and a key piece of equipment failed, how would you handle the workload, patients, and stress until a fix was found?

14.As a dental student, how would you handle a situation in which a member of your team clearly wasn't pulling their weight?

15.As dental student in our program, let's say you are caring for a patient who is being sent home with PTFE floss. Upon asking the patient if they know how to use it, they reluctantly say, "Yes, I do." Tell me how you proceed.

16.You just finished a routine cleaning with a patient and are heading in to see your next patient. As you enter the patient's room with the medication, describe the first thing you do to prevent patient infection.

17.Imagine the clinic is extremely busy, and you requested that a hygienist walk a patient through at home care instructions. Ten minutes later, the patient has yet to be seen, and they are upset about it. Tell me how you proceed.

18.What tools or techniques will you use to remember difficult information or instructions given verbally to you by our faculty when you are directly caring for patients?

19.As a dental student in our program, how would you explain a complex task to someone using verbal instructions?

20.How would you handle being asked to do a dental procedure or task that you were unfamiliar with and uncomfortable handling?

21.How would you change your communication style if a patient or their family was having trouble understanding what you were trying to tell them?

22.How would you handle someone asking you for dental care advice or diagnosis validation outside the workplace?

23.As a dental student responsible for the direct care and treatment plan for your patients, how would you handle a patient that does not do what is necessary for their treatment?

24.Describe a situation in which it may be appropriate to use humor in the classroom or workplace.

25.Give an example of how you may connect and find common ground with a patient to gain understanding.

26.How would you handle a situation during dental school in which a faculty member rejected an idea you pitched?

27.What kinds of review questions would you ask yourself after dealing with a difficult or challenging patient situation?

28.A dental student colleague left their computer open with sensitive information on the screen. You are the only one in the shared office. How would you address this with them?

29.You are consulting with a patient that has a tooth knocked out from a fall. Her male companion answers questions for her, and she barely makes eye contact. How do you get the patient to answer independently?

30.If you had too many things on your to-do list, how would you decide which to do first and which to postpone?