Why do you want to become a dentist rather than a doctor?
- Successful doctors are highly empathetic and highly resilient.
- Provide invaluable healing qualities to the community and are a vital backbone to healthcare.
- Dentist-patient rapport – watching transformation in areas such as orthodontics.
- Manual dexterity aspect.
- Promoting awareness in areas such as oral cancer and preventative dentistry – undervalued in society.
What areas of dentistry particularly interest you?
- Endodontics – manual dexterity element.
- Orthodontics – transformations, rewarding – personal element.
- Restorative dentistry (integrates endodontics, periodontics, and prosthodontics) – critical thinking, problem solving.
- You would like to explore general dentistry during dentistry before deciding to specialise.
What challenges did you notice during your work experience?
- NHS dental surgeries can be extremely busy, high demand, leading to shorter appointment times.
- NHS dentists can sometimes feel restricted in the care that they provide to their patients.
- Unexpected cases, talk about a complex tooth extraction that led to the tooth being fractured perhaps relate to resilience then relate yourself.
- Some scenarios it’s hard for the dentist to not treat a patient when the patient is not eligible for a particular treatment and financially perhaps situation difficult.
Tell us a bit about your understanding of the multidisciplinary team that today’s dentist work in.
- From work exp I saw dental team consists of a wide range of people.
- It involves the dental surgeon, dental nurse, hygienist, dental therapist, orthodontic therapist, and dental technician.
- Could see dentist enjoyed working in a team, they have very strong interpersonal skills and leadership skills, being able to give advice to his colleagues and manage them effectively. Make important decisions, in terms of diagnosis and treatment plans.
- Your experience working as a team (various maths competitions) and as a team leader (running school chess club).
Why do you think that so many dentists in the UK work privately rather than for the NHS? Do you think that this is an issue?
- First-hand experience as a patient – NHS dental surgeries are extremely busy, with high demand – leading to short appointment times.
- dentist has mentioned this multiple times.
- NHS dentists feel restricted in the care they can provide to patients.
- Limited timescale, limited budget.
- Private offers more flexibility and variation in the types of treatments.
- Another reason, patients increasingly willing to spend on private dentistry, as society’s awareness of dental health and aesthetics increases.
If they complete the target amount of UDAs per year, from my understanding they are not able to provide any more NHS treatment and so some dentistry do some part time and do some locum work privately because they have reached their UDA limit 8-9 months into the year.
Are you aware of the General Dental Council? What do you understand it’s role to be?
- The General Dental Council regulates and oversees all dental health care professionals in the UK.
- Ensuring that professionals are registered and competent to care for patients.
- Form a point of reference for patient concerns or complaints.
- As they aim to maintain high standards of dental care.
What have you read about dentistry in the news?
• I have been intrigued by a news article highlighting the high volume of hospital extractions in the UK. Almost all of these were caused by tooth decay, and I recall the figure to be over 100 hospital extractions a day in the UK. Following this, I did some online research and found an article in the British dental journal providing further detail. This research article highlighted that there was variation in the rates of decay in different parts of the UK, pointing to significant health inequalities. I felt that this was particularly concerning as tooth decay is a preventable disease, which can be tackled by dentists both promoting awareness on good oral health and diet. Secondly, dentists advocating for public health measures such as sugar taxation and more oral health education in school, especially in underprivileged schools.
What would you do as a dentist if a patient has a toothache, however they state that they cannot afford the required treatment proposal?
- Main issues that come is professionalism and putting patients’ wellbeing as a priority.
- As a healthcare professional, it is my responsibility to care for the patient.
- Need to consider financial implications also, however.
- perhaps offer cheaper treatment options to choose from.
- Raise issue with the practice owner and discuss a payment schedule that suits the patient’s current financial situation.
- As a last resort, I could provide immediate pain relief, and refer patient to an NHS hospital or other affordable treatment centre.
How can you explain the high suicide rate amongst dentists worldwide?
- Dentistry is a stressful career and holds great responsibility and expected to always deliver high quality of work and you are aware of this.
- Good hobbies and good support network are highly important for all dentists to destress.
- Talk about current strategies to manage stress – also maintaining close friendships help.
- Ergonomic stress often results in back or neck pain for dentists – seeking physiotherapy support or exercise to mitigate effects.
How would you tell a patient that their tooth needs to be extracted?
- Explain you realise this scenario requires great deal of empathy and good listening skills.
- Firstly, explain the current state of the tooth, and the options available for the patient.
- Talk about your observation experience on work experience – saw how the dentist laid out the choices of an extraction or a root canal to a patient.
- Make sure to explain reasoning thoroughly.
- Always check the patient understands throughout the whole discussion.
- Autonomy – if they wish to proceed with extraction.
- Be sensitive and careful to emphasise what is best for their wellbeing.
- Also take time to listen to patient’s concerns and worries, leaving enough time for questions.
- Finally, suggest patient to go home and think about it, unless emergency measures or immediate pain relief is needed.
What is your understanding of pathway to becoming an orthodontist after completing your A-levels?
- Mention you would like to explore general dentistry during dentistry before deciding to specialise.
- You are aware the path starts with the 5-year undergraduate program and foundation training.
- Following this, an aspiring orthodontist would need to complete a master’s program and obtain a speciality registrar training position in a university hospital.
- These places are limited and takes several years to complete all the above training.
- Finally mention, that you believe specialising in a field where there is dental need can be a very fulfilling career.
How can a dentist work to improve community health?
- Raising awareness amongst the general community around surgery, visit schools and leisure centres to give talks and demonstrations of toothbrushing.
- Can help bring oral health to the forefront of the minds of various members of society.
- Secondly, dentists can train and encourage their team, such as dental nurses or lab technicians, to reach out to the community as well, to increase their reach.
What core qualities do you think that a dentist should have?
- Empathy – Anxious patient needing root canal treatment due to needles, DofE.
- Resilience – Tooth extraction needed surgical intervention, treatment didn’t go as planned, with some of the teeth being fractured, didn’t throw dentist off and maintained composure, kept a level head.
- Manual dexterity – talk about root canal treatment, your own experiences of manual dexterity.
- Communication – dentists in a multidisciplinary team and communicating with patients from various backgrounds and ages. Mention non-verbal communication and verbal communication. Coaching younger children in chess, keeping them involved, use an interacted learning approach. Communication is key to a successful treatment, as it helps to maintain patient confidence and satisfaction.
- Leadership – running chess club, required delegating tasks to ensure each of your team members where available to supervise on specific days to ensure none of the children were left unsupervised and the club was running smoothly, and to ensure the players were available for matches well in advance. Leadership in the multidisciplinary team.
What do you understand by the term empathy?
- Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings of another.
- Relate to dentistry, anxious patient due to needle in a root canal treatment.
- Dentist remained calm and took time to understand where the patient was coming from.
- By the end of the conversation the patient was put to ease and was ready to proceed with treatment.
- Relate to your own experience, DofE.
Tell us about the differences between empathy and sympathy?
- Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings of another. To be in patients position and understanding it.
- Sympathy is the feeling of sorrow towards someone else’s misfortune. Sharing the patient’s emotions.
Tell us about a time when you had to communicate in a difficult situation.
- Tutoring younger children in maths, chess.
- important to keep the children involved.
- greater use of non-verbal communication.
- Verbal communication very simplistic.
Dofe where two individuals were arguing about which is the right way to go.
• Relate to dentistry, work experience, show tell do technique.
Are you a strong team player?
- Maths’s competitions.
- Ensuring each person was involved in the questions that supported their expert skill set.
- Ensure you listen well to everyone, so people feel valued, which improves the harmony of the team.
- Be flexible – even if you do not agree with the team in certain situations, you adapt for the good of the team.
- Being a point of support for your team, allowing you to solve problems before there even is a problem.
- Communication – delegate tasks and manage meetings when necessary.
- Working hard – lead by example.
- Motivator – be enthusiastic.
- Relate to dentistry, dentists work in a multidisciplinary team, the team involves the patient, the dental surgeon, the dental nurse, hygienist, dental therapist, orthodontic therapist, dental technician, and receptionist. – Communication and teamwork are vital and a key aspect in ensuring that procedures were carried out effectively.
Do you work better independently or as part of a team?
- Say how you have worked independently, studying for a levels, and managing extra curriculars etc.
- Say how you have worked as a team, rugby team, swimming relay races how it was vital, perhaps relate to dentistry also – the dentist working in a multidisciplinary team.
- Teamwork is vital in all disciplines of life whether it be working together in a maths competition, running a school chess club like I was in, or a multidisciplinary team in a dental practice consisting of the appropriate members (could mention them).
Do all teams need a leader?
- Talk about working in teams with and without leaders.
- Say how it was important having a leader in a certain scenario – perhaps maths competition.
- Talk about working in teams without leaders – if the team is small, consisting of two or three people, a leader is less important, managing school chess club, basketball practice, and a maths club on different days of the week, it was less important to have a leader, made decisions as a group, without one single leader.
What experiences have you had that illustrate your ability to lead a team?
- Running school chess club.
- Vital working in a team to ensure the club was open on specific days and to ensure someone was in the room on specific days and supervising younger children, and to ensure the room was locked on days that the club was closed.
- Making sure communication on the phone was available to ensure quick and prompt communication between different members of the team so that tasks could be delegated efficiently.
Why Sheffield?
• So, there are a multitude of reasons why I picked Sheffield as a university to study dentistry and why it was really my first pick and choice when coming to deciding which dental schools to apply to. I think first and foremost, the thing draws me most to Sheffield is its amazing emphasis on dental research. Dentistry is a lifelong learning career and the fact that the university encompasses and promotes these values to their research is something that I really appreciate as an individual. Emphasising the importance of dental research at the university really helps students like myself understand and respect the ongoing development that’s going on in society in the dentistry sector. A couple research articles to mention in particular would be studies like the one held by the university of Sheffield combined with the Sheffield teaching hospitals seeking to investigate whether CBT could help reduce the high number of children who are afraid of the dentist…, there are many other studies that really attract to me to Sheffield like the one on artificial intelligenece helping to predict the risk of developing mouth cancer.
i. Location.
ii. It would be an honour to represent your university in these sports.
iii. Course details - early clinical exposure, work beside dental professionals emulates the clinical setting.
A child attends your practice with their guardian and seems overly anxious and withdrawn. You notice during the examination that they have burn marks on their forearm. How would you manage the situation?
A clinician has the duty to raise concerns if a patient is at risk (GDC standard 8)
The dentist should make accurate and informative notes without bias.
The dentist should inform the safeguarding lead who will take the case forward if needed.
Do not question the guardian if you feel this will put the patient at further risk.
This is a safeguarding issue and the necessary lead must always be informed.
What is Osseointegration?
Dental implants aren’t a quick fix. Multiple steps are involved - including waiting up to six months for the implant to fuse with the jawbone - a process known as osseointegration.
What is the tell show do technique?
- First tell the patient what the tools are by using fun names. “We tell them what this procedure is, in a way that they understand. ie. according to their level of understanding and also by using euphemisms or word substitution.” “Suction is mr slurpy, squirt gun and toothpick”
- Second, show them what the tool does before going into orally. “We show them about the procedure. ie demonstrating the visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile aspects of fhe procedure in a non threatening manner.”
- Third is do as you use each tool that you’ve previously described, remind them if the fun name as you introduce into the mouth. “Do the procedure without deviating from what was explained to the patient, any deviation will affect the relation between the child and the dentist.”
