A patient with restorable teeth demands you extract everything and give them dentures. What do you do?

The classic dental ethics scenario. It sits exactly on the line between autonomy and non-maleficence.

Written by Victoria Young, DDS · NYU College of Dentistry '24 · Penn Dental Medicine

The trap

Picking a side immediately. 'It's their body, I'd do it' and 'I'd refuse, that's malpractice' both score poorly. The point of the station is the reasoning between those poles.

How to structure your answer

Explore why they want it → educate on consequences → offer alternatives → weigh autonomy against harm → know where your own line is → refer if you can't proceed.

Ask what's driving it: cost, fatigue with dental work, fear, a family member's experience
Be concrete about consequences — bone loss, function, irreversibility
Offer alternatives including phased treatment
Acknowledge autonomy has limits when harm is severe and irreversible
You may decline and refer; that's a legitimate ethical position

A weak answer

What most people say

At the end of the day that's the patient's decision. I'd tell him honestly that I don't think it's the right choice and explain what he'd be giving up, but if he's an adult who has heard the risks and still wants it, it's his mouth and his body. I'd rather he have it done by someone who treats him respectfully than go somewhere worse.

Picks autonomy immediately and skips the reasoning the station is actually grading.

A stronger answer

What lands

I'd want to know what's underneath it, because "take them all out" is usually an answer to something else. My uncle asked for exactly this at forty-two, and his real reason was six root canals that failed and being done with disappointment. So I'd ask, then get specific: bone that goes away and doesn't come back, lowers that don't stay put, no undo. Offer a staged plan, treat what hurts first. And if he's fully informed and still wants it, I might not be the one to do it. I'd refer rather than pretend I'm neutral.

Finds the reason, names irreversibility concretely, and knows where his own line sits.

The station isn't asking which pole you land on. It's asking what you do in the ninety seconds before you land.

These are illustrations, not scripts. An answer you memorize sounds memorized — the point is the shape and the specificity, in your own words and about your own life.

Reading it isn't the same as saying it.

Most people can explain a good answer and still fall apart saying one out loud. Admitted asks you all 100 questions in a faculty voice, records you, and scores your pace and filler words.

Try one interview free Get the guide