Who has most influenced your decision to pursue dentistry?
Your capacity for mentorship, gratitude, and learning from other people.
The trap
Naming a family member and stopping there. 'My uncle is a dentist' explains exposure, not motivation. The influence has to be something they did that changed how you think.
How to structure your answer
Who they are and your relationship → the specific thing they did or said → what you took from it.
- One person, not a list
- One concrete moment rather than general admiration
- Name what you're carrying forward from them
A weak answer
My grandfather was a dentist, so I grew up around it. I'd go to his office after school and he'd let me look at the models and hold the mirror while he explained things. He loved his job and his patients clearly loved him. Seeing that up close for years is a big part of why I want the same kind of career.
Explains how she was exposed to dentistry, not what changed her mind.
A stronger answer
My grandmother's dentist. When she stopped being able to leave the house, he started coming to her every few months with a case and a folding stool. What I keep from him is that he'd sit down first and ask about her tomatoes for five minutes before he ever asked her to open. He told me once that if she's braced, you're working on a moving target anyway. I've since watched people skip that part and get worse information out of the same patient.
One person, one habit, and a reason she can explain herself.
The first answer explains proximity. The second names one specific thing a person did that she has decided to copy.
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 freeGet the guideMore motivation questions
- Why do you want to be a dentist?Motivation
- Why dentistry and not medicine?Motivation
- When did you first become interested in dentistry, and what confirmed it for you?Motivation
- What experiences have most prepared you for dental school?Motivation
- Tell me about your shadowing. What surprised you?Motivation
- What's the most rewarding thing you've watched a dentist do?Motivation