How is technology changing dentistry? Where does AI fit in?

Forward-thinking and comfort with change over a forty-year career.

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

The trap

Vague futurism. 'Technology is advancing rapidly and dentists must adapt' says nothing. Naming three actual technologies puts you above most of the applicant pool.

How to structure your answer

Name specific technologies → what they actually change → the limits and risks → your posture toward learning them.

Be specific: intraoral scanners, chairside CAD/CAM, cone beam CT, 3D printing, AI caries and bone-loss detection on radiographs, teledentistry
Explain what changes for the patient, not just the dentist
Name real limits: AI as a second reader rather than a decider, liability, access gaps
Show enthusiasm for continuous learning

A weak answer

What most people say

Technology is changing dentistry incredibly fast, and I think the dentists who thrive will be the ones who stay adaptable. AI especially is going to change how we diagnose things over the next decade. I've always picked up new tools quickly, so I'm excited to keep learning and to stay current with the field as it evolves.

Pure futurism. No technology is actually named, so nothing is demonstrated.

A stronger answer

What lands

Three I've actually watched. Intraoral scanners, which mostly matter because the patient isn't gagging on a tray of impression material. Chairside milling, so a crown is one visit instead of two with a temporary that pops off midweek. And AI reading radiographs for caries and bone loss — I was an X-ray tech at an urgent care for four years, so I watched the medical version show up first. Those models flag, they don't decide. It's a second reader that never gets tired at 4:50, and it will produce false positives somebody has to overrule. The failure mode isn't the machine. It's the person who stops looking.

Three named technologies, the patient-side change in each, and a limit he can explain.

The second answer says what the patient notices. Enthusiasm about change in the abstract is not knowledge of the field.

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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