Dentistry at University of King's Dental School (A205 BDS) 2026

Minimum age requirements

King’s is only able to accept applicants who will be 18 years of age on 1st January on the first year of the Dentistry programmes. This is due to a minimum age requirement for placements.

King's College London Dentistry Interview Questions & Topics for 2026 entry

Several topics are more likely to come up at the University of King's College London Dental School Panel Interview, which can be derived from past King's College London stations and information on their website.

What do King's College London look for at their dentistry A200 BDS interview?

The evaluation criteria for admission to King's BDS course includes various factors such as:

• The candidate's proficiency in communication
• Their awareness of social and ethical issues prevalent in Dentistry
• Their suitability for the course
• Their potential contribution to the university, and the skills that make a good dentist
• Additionally, the candidate's practical skills and manual dexterity will also be taken into consideration during the selection process.

King's College London Panel Interview Questions Scoring 2026 entry

• Applicants will be advised of the outcome of their King's College London application by 31 March.

King's College London Interview 2026 entry

These are suggested practice questions based on publicly available information and past trends. They are not official questions from the University and may not appear in your interview. Use them as part of a broader preparation strategy. Remember Kings has changed from MMI to Panel interview in 2026 entry, so use these with caution

Motivation to study Dentistry

1. Why Dentistry?
2. Why King's College London?
3. What did you learn from your dental work experience about how a practice runs day to day?
4. During your dental work experience, was there a moment that changed how you understood the relationship between a dentist and their patients? Tell me about it.
5. What is the role of prevention in dentistry?
6. What do you know about the King's College London Dentistry course? How is it taught?
7. Why do you think you will be well suited to this course?
8. Why Dentistry and not medicine or nursing?
9. What are your hobbies?
10. Are there any societies you would like to join in King's College London?

Personal Insight/Qualities

1. Why should patients trust you?
2. Are you good at simplifying ideas?
3. How would your friends describe you?
4. What are your best qualities?
5. How do you manage stress?
6. How can you illustrate to us that you are a good leader?
7. Tell us about a long-term commitment you stuck with despite repeated setbacks. What kept you going?
8. Describe a project where your group had to coordinate under a tight deadline. What was your part?
9. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
10. How would your friends describe you?
11. If a patient told you they were unhappy with how you explained their treatment, how would you respond?
12. Tell us about a moment you had to push through difficulty without giving up. Why does this matter for a career in dentistry?
13. If you build models, play a stringed instrument or do detailed crafts, how has that sharpened your fine motor control?
14. Tell us about a recent news story on health or science that made you think differently.

Dental Situations

1. A patient with no current dental problems asks why you keep emphasising prevention and regular check-ups. How would you reason through the long-term value of preventive dentistry for them?
2. If untreated gum disease is left to progress over many years, what wider effects on a patient's general health might result?
3. If a patient collapses in the waiting room, how would you assess them?

NHS & Local Area

1. What does the Care Quality Commission do, and how does its inspection of a dental practice protect patients?
2. Why do certain dental treatments need extra infection-control precautions, and what does that mean in practice?
3. What is the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence?
4. What does the General Dental Council do, and why does it matter to patients?
5. What do you know about how the NHS charges for appointments?
6. What are the NHS values, and why are they important?
7. What is it like to be a dentist?
8. How do you deal with overpopulation?
9. What do you know about the local area here in King's College London?
10. What are the main challenges facing the future of dentistry in the UK?
11. What are the greatest challenges facing healthcare as a whole, and dentistry in particular?
12. How has COVID changed the way that dental practices operate?
13. How does oral health differ here compared to other areas in the UK?

Ethical Scenarios

1. Understanding of the four ethical principles
2. When a dentist explains a treatment plan to a nervous patient, what communication qualities do you think matter most for that patient to feel confident in the proposed care?
3. If you noticed a senior colleague repeatedly cutting corners on sterilisation, what would you do?
4. Who can you escalate concerns to within a practice?

Other Stations including Manual Dexterity

1. How much does a dentist really need to understand about how the body responds to treatment, rather than just following a procedure?
2. Talk us through this short piece of writing - who do you think wrote it, and what point are they trying to make?
3. Photo: an x-ray showing a problem tooth - talk us through what stands out to you here
4. What hobby of yours would best convince a tutor that you can work precisely with your hands?
5. What interests do you have that has allowed you to develop your manual dexterity?
6. Describe the most technically delicate thing you can do with your hands and how you learned it.
7. Role play: you are waiting with a patient before their appointment while the dentist is delayed - keep them comfortable with general conversation
8. Example role play station (from the King's College London Dental website): You have recently started University and have been working hard on your first assignment which is due for submission shortly. You mention to a classmate that you are nervous about the assignment. Your classmate replies that they are not nervous as they have found a website where you can pay someone to write an essay for you, which is guaranteed to pass. How do you respond to this? An actor will play the part of your classmate.
9. Example role play station (from the King's College London Dental website): A 15-year-old girl attends your practice with her Mother and is complaining of a toothache. After your initial examination, you decide to take an x-ray of the tooth. As part of the routine procedure, you ask the patient if there is any chance she could be pregnant. She originally says no, but once her Mother has left the room informs you that she has recently discovered that she is pregnant and is scared that the treatment may harm her baby. How might you handle a scenario like this?

👉🏼 Read more: 230+ Dentistry Interview Questions

How to prepare for your King's College London (KCL) dentistry interview (2026 entry)

1. KCL runs a panel interview that candidates describe as feeling like a hybrid MMI: expect roughly four questions with about five minutes allowed for each, in front of an interviewer panel. Practise pacing a full five-minute answer aloud so you neither run dry nor ramble, and use our free mock interview generator to rehearse that timing.
2. Because each question is timed at around five minutes, KCL interviewers often bundle several sub-questions into one prompt (for example three questions about dentistry as a career given in one go). Listen for the multiple parts, jot them down mentally, and structure your answer to cover each, drawing on our ultimate MMI preparation guide for how to attack layered prompts.
3. Candidates consistently report that KCL leans heavily on dentistry as a career rather than on rehearsing your hobbies or extracurriculars. Be ready to discuss the genuine pros and cons of being a dentist, where the profession is heading, and the realities of NHS versus private practice using our a career in dentistry guide.
4. "The future of dentistry" has come up as a direct KCL question, so prepare an informed view on issues like the NHS dental contract and access problems, an ageing population, digital dentistry and AI, and prevention-focused care. Having two or three concrete trends ready lets you fill the five minutes with substance.
5. Ethical scenarios are central at KCL: candidates have faced two ethical stations in a single interview, including ones on cheating and on a colleague being asked to act inappropriately. Build a reliable framework around the four pillars (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice) so you can structure these answers, and drill our answering ethics interview questions guide.
6. KCL ethics prompts give you a full five minutes and reward breadth, so explicitly walk through every ethical consideration you can identify rather than jumping straight to a verdict. One reported scenario involved a pregnant nurse refusing to assist a patient with HIV, where naming the ethical pillars plus relevant safety and infection-control guidance scored well.
7. A known trap is finishing an ethics answer too early: when one candidate did not fill the five minutes, the interviewer asked "what would you do in this scenario?" as a follow-up. Treat "what would you actually do" as a built-in closing step so you reach a clear decision without simply repeating yourself, and rehearse this with practice dentistry interview questions.
8. KCL scenarios are written so there are lots of opportunities to mention GDC principles, so know the General Dental Council's Standards (put patients' interests first, communicate effectively, obtain valid consent, maintain confidentiality, raise concerns) and weave them in by name. Our 200+ dentistry interview Q&A guide shows how to apply GDC standards across common scenario types.
9. One reported KCL ethical scenario had a dentist asking a dental nurse to take time off so his teenage son could shadow as a nurse for work experience, a probity and patient-safety dilemma. Practise spotting when a request crosses professional lines and how you would raise concerns appropriately rather than just refusing.
10. Expect at least one question asking you to name the qualities of a good dentist and then evidence where you have demonstrated them. Prepare two or three crisp examples (resilience, communication, manual dexterity, teamwork) drawn from your wider experiences, and review our dentistry work experience guide so your reflections are structured rather than narrated.
11. Resilience specifically has been probed at KCL ("why is resilience important in dentistry?"), reflecting the demands of clinical training and patient care. Have a thoughtful answer linking resilience to managing difficult patients, treatment that doesn't go to plan, and the long path through dental school, supported by our how to become a dentist and entry requirements guide.
12. While KCL is panel-format, role-play has appeared (for example managing a patient with dental anxiety), so although it is less central than at full MMI schools, do not neglect it. Practise calm, empathetic explanation and checking understanding, and book 1-1 dentistry interview coaching if you want live feedback on your communication under pressure.
13. Be ready for an organisational or teamwork prompt such as "describe a time you led a group towards a shared goal," which KCL has used as one of its four questions. Have a STAR-structured story prepared that shows planning, delegation and reflection, since this is where the panel checks the personal qualities the career questions don't cover.
14. Show clear differentiation for why KCL specifically: it is one of Europe's largest dental schools with high clinical volume across Guy's, King's and other London sites, strong research, and a diverse central-London patient base. Tie this to your motivations in your interview just as you should in your dentistry personal statement, and expect follow-up on anything you wrote.
15. For a structured run-up to the day, our full dentistry application packages bundle mock panels, ethics drills and feedback, and it helps to benchmark KCL against other London options using the compare UK dental schools hub so your "why this school" answer is genuinely comparative rather than generic.