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Situational Questions for a Dental School Interview

To help you prepare for your Situational Dental School interview, here are 30 interview questions and answer examples.

Situational Dental School was written by on January 22nd, 2022. Learn more here.

Question 1 of 30

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.

Dental patients are at significant risk of picking up an infection as a consequence of the care they are receiving. Although infection prevention measures have greatly improved over the years, the risk still exists, and dental professionals must be vigilant to prevent infections and sickness among staff and patients. Your interviewers want to know that you understand the importance of handwashing before coming in contact with a new patient.

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30 Situational Interview Questions for a Dental School Interview

Below is a list of our Situational Dental School interview questions. Click on any interview question to view our answer advice and answer examples. You may view six answer examples before our paywall loads. Afterwards, you'll be asked to upgrade to view the rest of our answers.

  • 1. 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.

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

  • 3. 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?

  • 4. 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?

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

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

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

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

  • 9. 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?

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

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

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

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

  • 14. 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?

  • 15. 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.

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

  • 17. 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.

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

  • 19. 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?

  • 20. 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?

  • 21. 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?

  • 22. 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?

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

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

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

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

  • 27. 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?

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

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

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