Why not dental therapy/dental nursing?

This question is all about the appreciation of other dental professionals whilst justifying your decision of wanting to be a dentist. You want to demonstrate your knowledge of these professions through your work experience/research and be able to compare this with the role of a dentist.

Here are some roles of a dental nurse:

• Working closely with the dental practitioner making procedures run smoothly
• Decontamination of dental surgery in between patients
• Comforting patient throughout treatment if needed
• Maintaining patient confidentiality

Nurses play a crucial role in a dental practise, so never take them for granted.

Here are some roles of a dental therapist:

• Providing treatment within scope of practise
• Scale and polish
• Maintaining patient confidentiality
• Liaising with dentists
• Drug prescribing within scope of practice

Dental therapists play an important role in the prevention aspect of dentistry, educating patients on how to look after their oral hygiene better. They are just as important as dentists.

Here are some roles of a dentist:

• Providing full range of treatment- dentists can perform some treatments that dental therapists cannot, such as root canal therapy
• Maintaining patient confidentiality
• Drug prescribing within scope of practise
• Handling complex dental cases

Dentists carry out more procedures than nurses and dental therapists and with this comes more responsibilities.

In general, you want to mention that you want to take on that leadership and responsibility to provide the best care for patients. This wouldn't be possible alone, so truly emphasise how you need all members of the dental team to work efficiently.

Suggested structure for this answer:

• Talk about the importance of all dental healthcare professionals and how they work together providing patient care
• Outline key differences between them all
• Relate the attributes of a dentist to yourself
• Acknowledge that this comes with more responsibilities and greater workload