“Why Do You Want to be a Dentist?”: How I Answered

“Why Do You Want to Be a Dentist” Sample Answer #1

Stan Brock and Remote Area Medical (RAM), the organization he founded, traveled the United States, from California to West Virginia, setting up full-service medical and dental clinics in stadiums and warehouses to give people free health care. Some people camped out for three days waiting to be seen. There was a news report about RAM and the interviewers interviewed one woman and her children who had severe dental problems.

It only took a few hours of dental work to change this entire family’s lives. Seeing how proud this mom and her kids were after seeing the dentist made me realize how important, and life-changing dentistry can be. Dentists may not always have a chance to save someone’s life, but there is no denying we change people’s lives for the better and that is something I want to do, both in my practice and hopefully, one day, with RAM.

I started researching what I needed to do to get into dental school, and I read that shadowing a dentist is a good way to see the daily ups and downs of being a dentist. I contacted my own dentist and asked whether I would be able to shadow her. Unfortunately, she declined but was kind enough to refer me to another dentist, Dr. Stephanie James, who was willing to let me shadow her.

Before my first day, Dr. James told me to familiarize myself with HIPPA protocols to protect patient’s privacy and confidentiality. I did, but I was still nervous on my first day. I was worried that I would interfere with Dr. James or that her patients would feel uncomfortable with me being there. Dr. James told me that she would ask every patient if they were willing to let me observe their procedures. If they agreed, I could stay; if not, then I would leave the room.

Fortunately, many of Dr. James patients were amenable to having me observe, and it was an eye-opening experience. I had been inspired by RAM and their work, but after observing Dr. James, I realized that dentistry is also dealing with smaller, more everyday problems. It’s not always changing someone’s life. It can also be demonstrating good oral hygiene or simply filling in a cavity. Shadowing Dr. James tempered my expectations about becoming a dentist and I think it made me appreciate all aspects of being a dentist.

“Why Do you Want to be a Dentist?”: More Sample Answers

Sample Answer #2

One morning, when I was still a child, I saw my father in pain when he came home after working the midnight shift. He was grimacing and holding his jaw. I asked him what was wrong and he said it was nothing. A few days passed, and when I saw him next his jaw was swollen and he had a fever. We had just resettled in Canada after leaving El Salvador, but neither I nor my parents spoke any English, at least, not well.

My mother and I asked our neighbor in broken English where we could go and she was kind enough to drive us to Dr. Martin Grove’s office. Dr. Grove came into the waiting room to see us, and began speaking perfect Spanish. As soon as my father heard Dr. Grove speaking Spanish, he broke down. I think he was relieved to hear someone speaking Spanish, for a lot of reasons. I think my father was exhausted, scared, homesick and in so much pain, that he just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

Dr. Grove removed the abscess and would not accept payment, which was fortunate because we had no money to pay him. But we bought insurance eventually, and we all came to see him. I was never really sick as a child, so I didn’t have many reasons to see my family doctor. But my sweet tooth meant I saw Dr. Grove a lot.

When I was still in high school and during one of my appointments, I asked Dr. Grove, out of curiosity, what I would have to do become a dentist. He told me that I needed to do well in science courses like biology and chemistry, do a lot of volunteer work in the community or anything involving helping and serving others.

I remembered that an assisted living center had opened up in our neighborhood, so I asked if I could start volunteering to spend time with the folks at the center. I also started taking online tutoring courses to advance my knowledge of the sciences, since I often struggled with those subjects in the past. After a few months of tutoring, I scored a 97% on a biology exam, and felt confident enough to take online, introductory courses in anatomy and pharmacology.

When I told Dr. Grove about this, he volunteered to let me shadow him for a few weeks. He let me watch when he interacted with patients and also told me his own motivations for becoming a dentist. He told me that his father had also experienced a lot of problems with his oral health. Dr. Grove grew up in a small town, and it was the fact that his father had to travel to see a dentist that inspired him to become one. He was motivated, as I am, by service and helping people address a very important, but overlooked aspect of their well-being: oral health.

Sample Answer #3

I was fourteen when my dentist told me and my parents that I would need braces and I thought my life was over. I remember feeling hot and nervous. I squirmed in my chair as the dentist spoke. A girl at my school, Tracey, had braces and my friends and I would tease her endlessly about them, even to the point of crying.

Now, as I sit before you, I consider myself a well-educated adult trying to enter a profession based on compassion, duty, and service, so when I look back on who I was as a teenager, which was not so long ago, I feel pangs of regret. I don’t console myself by saying I was young, immature and so many other things, but I’m glad I’m not that person anymore.

I resisted the braces at first. I begged my parents not to get them. I told them without shame that the kids at school would make fun of me. But there was no getting around it. One of my baby teeth had not fallen out and it was blocking my adult teeth from emerging. My dentist showed my parents and I the x-ray. That one baby tooth had caused what looked like a traffic jam of teeth in my gums.

When I told my friends that I would need to get them, they all laughed, but they didn’t care. I was more nervous about Tracey and what she would do or say. Then it dawned on me that I was finally seeing things from her perspective, something even her tears could not get me to do. I got my braces and on my first day back at school I saw Tracey. I apologized to her for everything I had said and asked for forgiveness. She walked away without saying a word and never spoke to me again. I was hurt, but later I realized I was naïve to think I was worthy of forgiveness. But her actions inspired me even more. The more I thought about it, her reaction was a kind of forgiveness.

When the shoe was on the other foot, she could’ve chosen to be as immature, and heartless as I was, but she didn’t. She stopped short of assuaging my guilt, but she showed me more compassion and consideration than I ever showed her. I want to become a dentist because I want to help people feel accepted, confident and cared for, because I witnessed first-hand how transformative and life-changing it can be when someone shows you even a little bit of compassion.

After I graduated high school, I took a gap year before entering university and traveled to Mexico to volunteer with a non-profit helping promote oral health and hygiene in rural areas that lacked these services. My Spanish was lacking, but I still helped explain proper oral hygiene with dolls and plush toys, which got the kids’ attention and let me communicate without having to speak. I stayed there for almost three months. I became close with one of the professional dentists who volunteered at the clinic. He told me that he had just finished dental school and was going back to the States to start his practice. He also mentioned that if I was serious about dental school, that I should start preparing for the DAT, which is what I did as soon as I returned. I took a DAT prep course and started studying in earnest after that. It paid off as I scored a 20 on my first-attempt. My scores gave me the confidence I needed to apply, but I never forgot that my other motivation was to always show compassion and understanding, so I also started volunteering at a dental clinic inside a minimum-security prison. I choose to volunteer there because the needs of incarcerated persons are often ignored, and it was important to me to interact with people who are not always shown compassion. 

How I Answered "Why Do You Want to Be a Doctor?"

Applying to dental school is no easy task. It starts with taking difficult pre-requisite classes, involving yourself in time consuming extracurricular activities, shadowing dentists at different offices, writing a personal statement, and then studying for the DAT exam. It is a very stressful, overwhelming process. You eventually wonder “Do I really want to do this?” I remember many times during my application process asking myself this question, and the answer always ended in, “Of course!”. So, what do you do? You push through the doubts and continue.

You submit everything, get a brief relief and sense of accomplishment, and then find yourself again with anxiety once you get scheduled interviews. Exciting, but nerve-racking. I remember during my interview, when asked “Why do you want to be a dentist?”, how I nervously blurted out about how one Christmas I had asked for the Play-Doh Drill N' Fill, demonstrating how much exposure I wanted to everything dental from a young age. We laughed and the tension in the room lifted. After that icebreaker, I was able to have a successful dental school interview. Here is how I prepared:

Preparing for the Interview

 First, I asked my mentor what type of questions I would be asked. She gave me a list of questions including:

1. “Why do you want to be a dentist?”
2. “What do you do with your hands that help dexterity?”
3. “How do you handle stress and pressure?”
4. “What qualities do you think a dentist should possess?”

Depending on different dental schools, interview questions might vary. A lot of the schools include sample questions on their websites. You can also ask students of the specific dental schools you want to apply to what their interview looked like. Remember, these questions can seem basic at first, but the committee is aiming for a much deeper response than what you think.

In my case, the question that truly made me analyze my motivation and passion for dentistry was the first one: “Why Do You Want to be a Dentist?” Preparing adequately for this question is essential to properly direct the tone of your interview. It is important to answer intelligently, honestly, and organized to reflect your true motives for pursuing dentistry to the committee. It also helps to research the dental school’s mission statements to guide you.

There are several reasons why they ask you this question. Not only do they want to visually see and hear about your passion for the profession, but they want to see how you communicate and articulate different topics. In my interviews, I spoke about the magic I felt in my orthodontist’s office which propelled me to be a dentist, comparing it to a little kid in Disney World. I am sure they could see in my eyes and voice the excitement of feeling this way.

 The committee reads your body language and will pick up on how prepared you are depending on the way you answer their questions. Some applicants are great on paper, but if they are not relatable in person, they might decide the student will not be the right fit for them.

Focus on answering the question as honestly as you can, but adding a unique, personal touch will make you stand out. For instance, I elaborated about my mother’s dental-phobia and my urge to have her calmly sit one day in my dental chair. I went on to explain how I did research on treating nervous patients and I could tell that my interviewers supported my empathy for these challenging patients.

Developing Ideas

I drafted some ideas for my answer and then started elaborating on them. My personal statement had a lot of content already but writing an essay and answering in person are two very separate things. I started off with a list of my experiences and influences towards dentistry and went from there. I pondered on my experiences in the dental offices I had shadowed and remembered the things that moved me.

These are some of the key points I included in my answer to the question “Why do you want to be dentist?”: 

Reviewing Answers and Practicing

I chose these points because I wanted them to see me as an empathic, hard-working, interested, fun and evolving dentist. With these topics, I created an ideal image of me and was able to dictate how I portrayed myself. The question is meant to open an umbrella for you to grab what works for you. Once I had them down, I created mock interviews. I sat down with different people and had them ask me “sample interview questions” such as “Why Do You Want to be a Dentist?” and then answered how I practiced. They would provide feedback as to how I was answering and my body language. I even filmed myself to be my own critic. I practiced until I felt comfortable going through all these points with confidence and clarity

Conclusion

Preparing for the dental school interview is 75% of the work. The rest will come naturally if you have the basics down. Having the points clear that you want to speak about will allow you to lead the interview in the direction you want. Then practicing the execution of the topics will lay a successful path to dental school!

Good luck!

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Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting

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