“Why Dentistry?” – How to Respond to This Common Dental School Interview Question

“So, why do you want to be a dentist?”

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This is one the most common dental school interview questions, and is definitely one that you should be prepared to answer!

It can sometimes be overwhelming to think through how you want to respond to this, so let’s go through some elements to consider for your response.

Ultimately, there is going to be a lot of commonalities between students in these responses and that’s OK! Don’t force trying to come up with something 100% unique, it’s unnecessary. Rather, develop a response that is true to you.

Why dentistry, why not medicine?

So the first thing that I’ll say about why dentistry and why not medicine is that I think it’s important to realize that you shouldn’t be choosing a career in dentistry if you haven’t seriously considered a career in medicine. And that’s because the careers have so much overlap. In a lot of ways, being a dentist is just a specific type of medicine – you are literally a doctor focused on the mouth. Dentists don’t just do fillings, crowns, root canals, and extractions, they diagnose oral pathologies that medical doctors do not.

So part of making an informed decision to become a dentist is having seriously thought about and considered medicine and then made an active decision not to pursue medicine but instead pursue dentistry

So first, let’s talk about some ways that these careers are similar.

1. We’re going to need to be medical experts that have a wealth of information to do these jobs well, and that means we’re going to be working hard in school for an extended time.

2. As we accumulate that knowledge, in both fields we’re going to be working with patients – both fields are primarily patient facing.

You are going to be interacting and helping patients everyday, which means:

• Listening to their needs a, their issues and unique circumstances, issues
• Thinking about their medical history, what medications they take, and any other factors that could influence treatment
• Doing diagnostic tests and evaluations, making an accurate diagnosis, and then helping facilitate treatment

3. You’re going to be communicating with them, your staff, and other professionals. You’re going to be collaborating with others.

4. And in both you’re going to have a phenomenal career that is interesting, varied, and super rewarding most days.

Example talking point:

It’s a great question, and I definitely spent a lot of time thinking about medicine as well before I ultimately settled on dentistry. There’s just so much overlap between the two fields. My father is actually a physician, and it was him that got me initially interested in pursuing a career in healthcare, gradually narrowing down to medicine or dentistry. And as I explored both the fields, I saw how much similarity there was – the education, the scientific approach to patient care, having to have knowledge of the how the body works, medical conditions, and medications, and how you work out a diagnosis and initiate treatment. So I’d say they are more similar than different. But there were specific parts of dentistry that really appealed to me.

OK, so there’s a lot of overlap between the two. Then what makes dentistry unique? I’m going to discuss a handful of talking points to give you ideas for what you can bring up in your interview – but as always, this isn’t an exhaustive list – so bring in your own experiences and observations when thinking about why dentistry specifically.

“How do I say something unique?”

The first thing that I’ll say about all the reasons people respond with to why dentistry – truth be told, there’s nothing super unique or specific that people mention that is 100% just related to dentistry. Most things you say could say probably are found in medicine too (eg. you can work with your hands in general surgery just like you do in dentistry.

But that being said, some things you find in dentistry more commonly than in medicine – general dentists work with their hands everyday but most physicians do not – so I don’t want you to get so caught up in worrying that a point needs to be 100% unique to dentistry to be worthwhile to mention – because there is going to be a lot of overlap between the professions. So if something is more common in dentistry compared to medicine, that is a perfectly fine way to differentiate them.

Also, the answers you give may be cliche, that many students bring up these points, and that’s OK. You’re not likely going to have some 100% unique take – because there are commonalities to what draws people to the field. But we just want to show that we’re not being superficial in mentioning these ideas, we want to showcase a deeper understanding. So with that, let’s get into some talking points that might contribute to you picking dentistry over medicine.

Operative, working with your hands, aesthetics

Dentistry is largely an operative field. And that means that as a general dentist, with most patients, you’re going to be doing some operative procedure, whether that be a filling, crown, a dental extraction, a root canal. And the frequency of which that you’re doing this is much greater than you’d find even in operative fields in medicine, which have a lot more administrative work, which includes doing rounds on patients prepping for surgery, doing a follow up on surgery, etc. A dentist can make a diagnosis and start working on a patient within five minute, whereas the same can’t really be said within medicine.

Working with your hands is an extension of this. So again, while there are fields within medicine where you are working with your hands like orthopaedic surgery and otolaryngology – in dentistry you’re creating things with your hands on a hourly basis. It is an incredibly precise field. We’re talking on the order of a half millimeter sometimes, with very specific angles. In fact, it is so precise that some general dentists and most root canal specialists use microscopes while they’re working, So if you’re someone that likes being incredibly precise and working on a very small scale, then dentistry might be something specifically that’s a good field for you.

Example talking point:

I just love what dentists do every single day. You get to see a problem, and try to come up with a solution with the patient. And then you get to carry it out with your own two hands. I actually got the opportunity to do some test drilling on an extracted tooth in some of my dental shadowing, and it was incredibly difficult to make anything that resembled what the dentist was showing me. But I just love how you are getting to do something with your hands that is directly benefiting patients. And unlike medicine, where I found there was lots of non-operative time dentistry, it seemed like every day you get to spend the majority of your time working on patient. I’m not trying to minimize the fact that dentists also have to write charts, do their recall exams, follow-ups, and consultations. But the majority of the day you’re working with your hands, and honestly it just looks fun.

And there’s also a very rewarding aesthetic and artistic aspect to the work that a dentist does. If you’re restoring a tooth with a filling, you can do your best to replicate the shape and contours of the cusps, and how the opposing arch bites into your filling. If you’re planning a case to improve someone smile, you can use veneers, cosmetic bonding, and orthodontics to, in a relatively short timeframe, allow someone to feel more confident and happy with their appearance. And confidence in your smile makes a huge difference in people’s lives!

Example talking point:

I really enjoyed in dentistry how the clinician can really choose how artistic they’d like to get with their restorative procedures. I shadowed one dentist that used a small paintbrush as part of her adjustment of the composite, she really tried to rebuild the natural shape of the teeth, and even added artificial staining within the grooves. Other dentists took more of a strictly functional approach and we’re mainly just concerned about getting a tight contact between the teeth and avoiding any voids in their fillings And this isn’t to put down or prop up either approach, but I think it’s a very enjoyable idea that you can choose to be as artistic as you’d like to be in this field.

Impact

Dentistry really does afford you the ability to relatively quickly have an impact on the wellbeing of your patients. So whether that be a patient in severe pain with a dental infection, which you can relieve. Or maybe a patient has a fractured tooth, and because of the proximity of the fracture to the tooth’s nerve, the tooth is quite sensitive. Or maybe the sharp part is rubbing on their tongue, and restoring that tooth with a filling allows the patient to often have very quick relief from the discomfort. Or a patient comes in with a fractured front tooth affecting their smile, and you can recreate what they had, and allow them to walk out of your office with a smile again.

And partly because of the immediate impact nature of dentistry, it can be a very rewarding career for the clinician. A patient’s mouth is a very intimate part of their body. when something hurts or is off, it can really affect an individual. And because of the quick impact that dentists can make, patients can literally get out of your chair and have their issue dealt with. Having made a patient happy is truly gratifying and that is a huge reward of the career.

Example talking point:

So, with what you’re doing, you are having this outcome for a patient who is coming in with a very specific need, and you get to help them with that need. Whether they’re in pain, or they have something that is bothering with their smile – I got to see how rewarding that can be. They come in with a problem and as they left, their issue for the most part had been dealt with. And that type of interaction with the patients who get to leave almost back to normal seemed very gratifying to me. The fact that you get to help multiple patients every day who either have some issue, or you do a procedure to prevent a future issue, is really energizing to me.

I’m connecting this to my shadowing experience and my observations in the dental field, and showcasing the insights I took away about the rewards of the career to the interviewers.

Relationships

General dentists are lucky to often keep patients over a long period of time, sometimes a lifetime. Seeing the same patients come in, and developing a relationship with them and their families really is rewarding. Although some physicians get this as well, it is commonplace for a general dentist. You can even see patients from different generations within a family as a dentist. And with this, you get to know each other, develop trust and understanding. And seeing a long-term patient becomes part social as you catchup with what’s new.

Example talking point:

While not unique just to dentistry – something that really stuck out to me with family dentistry is the special relationships that the dentist forms with their patients over a long period of time. There were numerous times I sat with a patient while the dentist had stepped out of the room and the patient started raving about how great this doctor is, and how long they’ve been coming there. And I saw that great dentists retain their patients over a long period of time, sometimes, over a lifetime. And those types of interactions where the dentist has a long term relationship with the patient seemed very fulfilling to me. There was a ton of trust that had been earned. And one of the things that really fills my cup is connection with others, so these types of patient doctor relationships is definitely an appealing aspect of dentistry to me.

Balance between work and life

Dentistry is a field that allows you to decide when you want to work, and how much you want to work. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying that, so you don’t need to think that this is a bad thing to mention in the interview. Anyone at your interview is somehow associated with dentistry. And they know that’s a very real reason why people go into the field and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging that as having a healthy work life balance and integration of those two parts of your lives is a part of enjoying a well rounded being. Having the ability to do other things besides the career, which can give you more energy when you are on the job.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an associate dentist or a practice owner. Even as an associate, you can look for a job that you only have to work a couple of days a week, if that’s what you’d like. You can choose to only accept a job that doesn’t require you to work evenings or weekends. You can choose to only look for a job in a specific area. Whereas in medicine, often the hospital will dictate what hours you do need to work.

Example talking point:

I incredibly excited for my future career as a dentist. But I also have a lot of plans for my life like raising a family getting an opportunity to travel, playing tennis, spending weekends in the country, and dentistry is appealing as a career that allows you to have a healthy balance between work and the other aspects of your life. And when I was considering what career I wanted to pursue, being able to be in control of my own destiny was important to me. And while I know that dentistry will have it’s challenges and commitments, and it’s not all just going to be roses – there will be times when appointments run behind and I have to stay late, or coming in on an evening or weekend for an emergency appointment for a patient in pain. But overall I know that I have a much more regular schedule as a dentist, which means that I can both enjoy my career, and the pursuit of other parts of my life at the same time.

Wide and deep

Being a general dentist gives you a huge amount of opportunity for variety in your day. With every procedure we do, that specific procedure is going to take on its own unique way of being approached. Each filling is unique based on the tooth decay, the fracture, or how we need to build it up. Each extraction requires planning out how you’re going to approach it, and then adapting as the tooth crumbles, or fractures. With root canals, each tooth has a different canal system anatomy. So, even within each procedure that we do, there is a ton of variety.

And then there are so many procedures dentists can learn. With general dentists the phrase “jack of all trades master of none” is sometimes used – and it may or may not be true. Because you actually do have the ability to get quite good at many new procedures by pursuing continuing dental education. And some dentists become very passionate about certain types of dentistry – whether that’s mastering occlusion (how the teeth bite together), getting really into aesthetics, learning to do more complex endodontics (root canals), or learning dental implants. There really is a lot of opportunity for professional development and continuing to grow and evolve throughout your career.

Example talking point:

I really am someone who loves to learn, and try new things. And it’s very encouraging for me that in dentistry, you can continue to evolve and grow as a dentist. What I’ve seen in a lot of my shadowing is that newer dentists are working hard on the fundamentals like getting better at fillings and improving their speed but as you progress through your career you can choose to take on more challenging cases, and learn new procedures. Like for example at one of the offices I was in, there was a general dentist who, after 30 years has decided to only place dental implants. And he goes to different offices in the city one day a month and just places implants, and he learned how to do implants and bone grafting just through continuing education in a multi weekend residency. So a very appealing aspect of dentistry to me is that you can find what you’re good at and what you can enjoy and learn to do more of it.

Opportunities to specialize

Again, not just unique to dentistry – but a great thing about dentistry is that there’s the opportunity to specialize. So if you develop a passion about something, either in dental school or when you begin your career as a general dentist, you can go back and do a residency and specialize, and instead of casting a very wide net with what you do as a general dentist, you go very narrow and deep and become world class at doing a very specific thing,

To make sure you’re familiar with the dental specialties, let’s quickly go over them:

1. Paediatrics – treating children’s dental needs
2. Periodontics – dealing with the bone and gums surrounding teeth as well as placing implants
3. Prosthodontics – making dental prostheses or providing replacements for teeth like dentures, implants, implant supported prosthetics, and complex crown work
4. Oral and maxillofacial surgery – extractions, dental implants, and advanced surgical procedures in the mouth and the facial region
5. Oral pathology – looking at pathological conditions within the oral cavity
6. Endodontics – root canal treatment
7. Oral radiology using advanced techniques to radiographically, analyze the teeth and the jaw
8. Dental public health – looking at dental disease within populations
9. Dental anesthesiology – providing sedation for patients undergoing dental procedures

Personal experience

Finally, you might have a very specific personal experience that you’ve had, which is a main driver for why you want to do dentistry. Maybe an interaction that you had with a dentist, or something that you witnessed in shadowing that you think is unique to the field or really left a mark on you. This would be a great time to bring it up!

What about if you applied to both dentistry and medicine?

If you applied to both dental school and medical school, this isn’t something you need to volunteer up and mention unprompted. In your dental school interview, I would just focus on what motivates you to want to pursue a career in dentistry.

However, f they explicitly ask you did you also apply to medical school, because many pre-dents do, I’d answer honestly and reply yes. I would just focus on why you feel there is so much overlap between the two fields, what elements of both would be rewarding to you. And I would try and reframe the conversation to what you like about so much in both of those careers, rather than let the conversation focus on the fact that you perhaps aren’t fully committed to just the one. If the question does come up, don’t let it phase you. It’s pretty common for a predental student to be interested in medicine, and many apply to both.