Do dentists have an obligation to serve underserved communities?

Your view of the profession's social contract, and whether you can hold a nuanced position.

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

The trap

Pure idealism with no acknowledgment of student debt, or pure pragmatism with no acknowledgment of duty. Hold both — that's the answer they're waiting for.

How to structure your answer

Take a clear position → acknowledge the real constraints → describe what obligation looks like in practice → connect to your own record.

Know the landscape: roughly 60 million Americans live in dental health professional shortage areas
Acknowledge debt loads that make rural and public practice financially hard
Describe realistic forms: Medicaid acceptance, volunteer days, mentoring, one day a week
Ground it in something you've actually done

A weak answer

What most people say

I do think we have an obligation. Dentistry is a privilege, and whether you can get care shouldn't depend on your zip code. I want to give back throughout my career, whether that's volunteering, mission trips, or just treating people regardless of their circumstances. If everybody in the profession did a little, the access problem in this country would look very different than it does.

Idealism with no mention of debt, and no personal record behind it.

A stronger answer

What lands

Yes, but the debt is real, and telling a new graduate to go practice in a county with no dentist and no patient volume is asking them to fail. I grew up an hour from the nearest dentist. My mom scheduled all four of us on the same day to make the drive worth it. So in practice I think it looks like taking Medicaid when the offices around you don't, and one predictable day a month, not a heroic year that ends in month five. I did Saturday intake at a free clinic for two years. That I can keep doing.

Holds duty and debt together, then points at something already on his calendar.

Anyone can say the profession owes something. The second answer says what it costs him and what he's already been doing on Saturdays.

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.

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