Oregon Health and Science University School of Dentistry (DMD) Dentistry InterviewFormat, Questions & Prep Tips

As the only dental school in Oregon, OHSU Dentistry has a special obligation to the state. How do you see yourself fitting into that mission?

Show specific awareness of Oregon's dental access gaps — rural counties, tribal communities, and underserved urban Portland populations. Be concrete about where you see yourself practicing.

What drew you to OHSU specifically, and what aspects of the program align most with your career goals?

Reference OHSU's research strengths, community health rotation model, specialty programs, or OHSU health sciences campus integration. Generic answers about the Pacific Northwest are insufficient.

Oregon has significant Indigenous tribal communities with distinct oral health needs. How should dental schools prepare students to serve these populations?

Cultural humility, community-based participatory approaches, traditional healing respect, and representation in the dental workforce. OHSU Dental has tribal community partnerships and expects this awareness.

Describe a time you worked in or with a community different from your own. What did you learn about providing care in cross-cultural contexts?

Specificity matters. The lesson should be about your own growth — what changed in how you approach difference — not just a description of the experience.

How did you prepare for the DAT, and what did the process teach you about how you learn under pressure?

Show self-awareness and study strategy. Reflection on learning process and adaptability is valued at OHSU as a health sciences research university.

A patient refuses treatment for severe tooth decay because of religious beliefs. What do you do?

Patient autonomy, informed refusal, documentation, ongoing relationship maintenance, and the dentist's duty to provide information without coercion. Show respect for patient agency alongside clinical obligation.

What area of dental research interests you most, and why?

Reference OHSU's research strengths: oral biology, biomaterials, dental public health, craniofacial development, or oral microbiome. Show genuine intellectual engagement, not just a desire for research credentials.

How would you communicate the risks of not treating gum disease to a patient who believes dental care is low priority?

Motivational interviewing, plain-language oral-systemic education, prioritizing patient concerns, and sustained relationship-based follow-up. Avoid a lecturing tone.

Oregon passed significant dental therapy legislation allowing dental therapists to practice. What do you think about mid-level dental providers, and what does it mean for dentistry?

A genuine policy question with no single right answer. Show you can reason through access, quality, scope-of-practice, and workforce implications with professional maturity rather than defensiveness.

Where do you see yourself practicing ten years from now, and how does OHSU Dentistry specifically prepare you for that future?

Connect your career vision to OHSU's specific program features. Show intentional rather than generic thinking about your dental future.

OHSU station: a map shows several rural eastern Oregon counties classified as dental health professional shortage areas while the Portland metro is comparatively well served. Interpret this and explain what it means for OHSU's mission.

Read the urban-rural divide in access terms, link it to OHSU's community rotations and the state's dental-therapy approach to workforce, and avoid over-claiming. In an MMI keep it structured and concise.

OHSU station: your simulated patient declines a recommended treatment, citing strong distrust of the healthcare system after past negative experiences. You have a short station. How do you respond?

Validate the distrust, do not argue, offer transparency and genuine choice, and aim to keep the door open rather than win the appointment. Trust repair, not persuasion, is the goal.

Oregon has expanded dental therapy. Explain the oral-systemic and access rationale for mid-level providers, and one legitimate concern, as you would to a sceptical colleague.

Balance access and prevention benefits against scope-of-practice and supervision concerns, with professional maturity rather than defensiveness. OHSU expects you to reason about workforce policy, not just clinical care.

OHSU station: a classmate on a remote rotation asks you to clock them in for a clinic session they will miss to drive home early. What do you do?

Decline — this is falsifying a record and undermines patient coverage and trust. Be supportive of the person but firm on the principle, and escalate if pressed.

Describe a time you worked effectively across a difference in values or worldview with a patient, client, or colleague. What did you learn?

Specific and reflective, with the lesson centered on your own growth in cultural humility — exactly what OHSU's Intrapersonal emphasis is probing.