King’s College London Dentistry Interview Questions (2026 Entry Guide)
Introduction 🦷
King’s College London (KCL) runs one of the largest and most highly ranked dental schools in the world, graduating around 150 dentists each year and consistently placing at or near the top of UK and global rankings for Dentistry.
Competition for the Dentistry BDS (UCAS code A205) is therefore intense. Understanding how King’s selects applicants, what actually happens at interview, and how to prepare smartly is essential if you want to turn your application into an offer.
This guide focuses on standard‑entry Dentistry BDS at King’s College London for 2026 entry, but much of it will also be useful if you are considering the Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme or graduate‑entry routes.
How King’s Decides Who to Call for a Dentistry Interview 🎯
According to the official King’s College London Dentistry BDS entry requirements and selection process, the Dental School uses a staged, holistic approach.
1. Academic requirements
Before anything else, your application must meet the minimum entry requirements:
A‑levels: A*AA, including:
Grade A in Biology or Chemistry, and
Grade A in one of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics or Psychology
GCSEs (or IGCSEs): at least grade 6/B in English Language and Mathematics
Equivalent requirements exist for the IB and other qualifications.
If you do not meet these, the application will not normally proceed to full assessment.
2. UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test)
All applicants must sit the UCAT in the same year they apply. King’s:
Does not publish a fixed UCAT cut‑off.
Places more weight on the overall average score across the four cognitive subtests than on any single subtest.
Also considers the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) band when shortlisting.
The Dental Schools Council also explains that almost all UK dental degrees now use an admissions test such as UCAT as part of selection.
3. Initial ranking
King’s explicitly states that applications are ranked based on:
🔵 GCSE/IGCSE performance
🔵 UCAT score
🔵 Contextual information (e.g. school performance, postcode indicators, widening‑participation flags)
This ranking determines who is considered most competitive for interview. Contextual information is used to gain a more complete picture of each applicant, even though King’s does not make lowered‑grade contextual offers for Dentistry.
4. Holistic review
After the initial rank list, King’s reviews the rest of your UCAS application, including:
Achieved / predicted grades
Personal statement – especially evidence of commitment, realistic understanding of Dentistry, and relevant experience
Academic reference
Further contextual factors or eligible mitigating circumstances
Only after all of this are interview invitations finalised.
How Does King’s Dentistry Interview for 2026 Entry? 🖥️
On the official King’s Dentistry BDS entry requirements page, the current information (for the most recent cycle including September 2026 start) says:
“Interviews are conducted remotely with a panel of two interviewers. In previous years, interviews have taken the form of Multi Mini Interviews (MMIs) in person, with six interviewers.”
In practical terms, this means that for 2026 entry you should expect:
A remote (online) interview – usually via a secure video platform.
Panel format with two interviewers (typically academic staff and/or practising dentists).
A series of structured questions covering motivation, ethics, communication and suitability for the profession.
King’s also runs a “fit‑to‑sit” policy for interviews: if you attend, they will normally assume you were fit to be assessed, so mitigating circumstances after the event are unlikely to be considered.
Because King’s explicitly notes that in‑person MMIs were used previously, and that methods can change, always re‑check the official King’s webpages and your King’s Apply portal closer to the time for any updates to the 2026 format.
What Is the King’s Dentistry Interview Style? 🗣️
From both the King’s website and trusted interview‑preparation providers, the key points about style are:
🟣 Remote panel, structured questions
Two interviewers asking you a mixture of open and scenario‑based questions.
They are assessing you against consistent criteria, not trying to “catch you out”.
🟣 Historically MMI‑style content
Although the current format is a panel, organisations that collect student feedback (such as Medic Mind and other providers) report that the content still resembles traditional dentistry MMIs: short scenarios on ethics, communication, motivation and NHS issues, each exploring a specific attribute.
🟣 Focus areas (from King’s own description)
King’s says interviewers use the interview to assess:
Communication skills
Ability to explore general social and ethical issues, usually health‑related
Overall suitability for the programme and the dental profession
How you might contribute to the university as a whole
Interviewers are typically quite neutral in their facial expressions, especially online, so don’t be put off if they don’t smile or nod much – they are aiming to be fair and consistent.
When Are King’s Dentistry Interviews Held? 📅
King’s gives a clear window on its official entry‑requirements page:
“The interview period generally runs from December to March… invites are sent via King’s Apply with at least two weeks’ notice.”
Additional insight from long‑standing interview guides and tutoring sites suggests that interviews are often held in two main blocks, broadly aligned with UCAT score bands – an earlier block and a later block.
Recent applicants and parents posting on The Student Room have mentioned:
Interviews taking place in the second half of December
Further interviews running into February
Take‑away for 2026 entry:
🔔 Be fully prepared by early December, and keep your calendar flexible through to March.
What Topics Are Covered at a King’s Dentistry Interview? 📚
Using the King’s official description of the interview plus collated student feedback and reputable preparation sites, the main topic areas are:
1. Motivation for Dentistry & for King’s 🦷
Why you chose Dentistry (and not Medicine or another health profession).
Your understanding of the day‑to‑day reality of being a dentist.
Why you specifically want to study at King’s College London – for example, large cohort, early clinical exposure, central London location, and reputation.
2. Work Experience & Reflection
What you learned from work experience or volunteering in healthcare or customer‑facing roles.
How you observed communication, empathy, teamwork, and professionalism.
How these experiences confirmed that Dentistry is right for you.
Tip: The Dental Schools Council emphasises that it’s less about where you went and more about how you reflect on what you saw.
3. Communication Skills & Empathy 💬
Explaining complex ideas in simple language.
Showing empathy for anxious or upset patients.
Managing a misunderstanding or complaint in a calm, structured way.
4. Ethics & Social / Ethical Issues
Classic medical‑ethical themes such as autonomy, beneficence, justice and confidentiality (you will be expected to understand these in basic terms).
Scenarios involving consent, vulnerable patients, resource allocation, or raising concerns about a colleague.
Wider social determinants of oral health (e.g. deprivation, access to NHS dentistry).
5. NHS Dentistry & Hot Topics 🇬🇧
Pressures on NHS dental services (access, waiting times, funding).
The impact of events such as COVID‑19 and cost‑of‑living changes on oral health and service provision.
6. Personal Qualities & Resilience
Teamwork and leadership experiences.
Coping with stress, failure or feedback.
Time management and balancing academic work, extracurriculars and wellbeing.
7. Manual Dexterity & Hobbies 🎨
Evidence that you can develop the fine motor skills needed for dentistry (e.g. musical instruments, art, craft, model‑making, sports requiring precise control).
How these hobbies show patience, perseverance and attention to detail.
How Many Applicants Get a King’s Dentistry Interview & Offer? 📊
King’s helpfully publishes recent statistics for the standard entry Dentistry BDS:
In the most recent admissions cycle for which data are available:
Just under 1,000 applications were received
Nearly 350 applicants were interviewed
About 160 Home and 15 Overseas offers were made
From this, we can roughly estimate:
Around 35% of applicants are invited to interview
Around 175 offers from ~1,000 applications ≈ 18% overall offer rate
About half of interviewees go on to receive an offer
A Student Room post discussing previous cycles suggests a post‑interview success rate of roughly 35–40%, which is consistent with King’s figures and confirms that conversion is competitive.
👉 Key message:
If you’re invited to interview, you have a realistic but far from guaranteed chance – the interview matters a lot.
Example King’s Dentistry Interview Stations & Questions 📝
King’s does not publish their exact questions. The examples below are unofficial practice questions, based on:
King’s stated interview aims
Common themes highlighted by providers such as Medic Mind
Typical UK dentistry MMI station types
Use them to structure your preparation, not as a prediction of the exact stations you will get.
Theme 1 – Motivation for Dentistry & King’s
🟢 Possible panel questions
Why have you chosen Dentistry rather than Medicine or another healthcare profession?
What aspects of being a dentist do you think you will find most challenging, and how will you cope with them?
What attracts you specifically to studying Dentistry at King’s College London?
How do you see yourself contributing to the King’s community, inside and outside the dental school?
Theme 2 – Work Experience & Reflection
🟣 Reflective questions
Describe one patient interaction you observed during work experience or volunteering. What did the healthcare professional do well, and what would you do similarly or differently?
Tell us about a time you had to work with someone who was difficult to communicate with. What did you learn?
What have you done to explore Dentistry if traditional shadowing was limited or unavailable?
Theme 3 – Communication & Role‑Play 🗣️
🟡 Scenario prompts
A patient arrives late and is upset about waiting times. Role‑play how you would handle this situation as a dental student working at reception.
You need to explain to a nervous teenager why they need a filling. How would you do this in a reassuring, jargon‑free way?
A parent is angry that their child’s treatment has been postponed. How would you respond?
Focus on structure (acknowledge – explore – explain – agree plan), calm tone, empathy and clarity.
Theme 4 – Ethics & Professionalism ⚖️
🔴 Ethical discussion questions
A patient demands a cosmetic treatment that you feel is not in their best interests. How would you approach this?
You notice a fellow student cutting corners on infection‑control procedures. What would you do?
How should a dentist balance their duty to an individual patient with the need to use NHS resources fairly?
Aim to:
Identify the ethical conflict (e.g. autonomy vs beneficence).
Show you would gather more information.
Discuss relevant guidelines or senior support.
Reach a balanced, patient‑centred plan.
Theme 5 – NHS Dentistry & Hot Topics
🟦 Knowledge & analysis questions
What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing NHS dentistry in the UK?
How might limited access to NHS dental care affect wider health and inequalities?
How do you think dentistry is changing, and how should dental training adapt?
You don’t need specialist knowledge, but you do need to show that you read around healthcare issues and can think critically.
Theme 6 – Teamwork, Leadership & Resilience
🟢 Personal reflection questions
Tell us about a time you worked in a team towards a common goal. What was your role, and what did you learn?
Describe a setback or failure you have faced. How did you respond, and what would you do differently next time?
Dentistry can be stressful. How will you look after your own wellbeing during the course?
Theme 7 – Manual Dexterity & Hobbies 🎭
🟣 Skills questions
What activities do you do that demonstrate fine motor skills or hand–eye coordination?
Tell us about a hobby that has required long‑term practice and patience. How is that relevant to Dentistry?
If you were asked to improve your manual dexterity before starting the course, what would you do?
Theme 8 – Data Interpretation & Clinical Reasoning (Possible Panel Segment)
🟡 Analytical task
You might be shown a simple chart about oral‑health statistics (e.g. caries rates by socioeconomic group) and asked:
What trends can you see in this data?
What factors might explain these trends?
As a dentist working in the NHS, how might you try to address this?
Theme 9 – Values & Professional Behaviour
🔵 Value‑based questions
What qualities make a good dental student and a good dentist? Which of these do you already demonstrate?
Describe a situation where you put someone else’s needs before your own. Why was this important?
What does professionalism mean to you in a healthcare setting?
When Are King’s Dentistry Offers Released? 🎉
King’s explains its decision‑making timeline clearly on the BDS requirements page:
A small number of offers may be released throughout the admissions cycle.
However, the majority of interviewed applicants are placed “on hold” until all interviews are complete.
All final decisions (offers and rejections) are released by the UCAS decision deadline in May of the application year.
For 2026 entry, that means you may not hear a final outcome until around May 2026, even if you interviewed in December or February. This is normal for King’s.
Top Tips for Succeeding at the King’s Dentistry Interview ✅
Here are practical, King’s‑specific tips drawn from the official selection criteria, Dental Schools Council advice, and feedback from students and tutors.
1. Know the official criteria (and use them to guide your prep)
Read the King’s Dentistry BDS “Requirements” page carefully – this is your primary roadmap.
Make sure your answers show:
Communication and empathy
Awareness of ethical and social issues
Realistic understanding of the demands of the degree and career
Evidence that you will contribute positively to King’s
2. Treat the interview as a high‑stakes station in itself
King’s own stats show that only about one in three applicants are interviewed, and roughly half of those interviewed receive offers.
If you receive an invitation, take it as a sign that you are competitive – and that the interview now carries huge weight.
Plan at least several weeks of structured preparation with timed practice.
3. Practice online interview skills 🎥
Because interviews are currently remote with a two‑person panel:
Set up a quiet, bright space with a stable internet connection.
Do mock interviews over video with teachers, friends or tutors.
Watch your eye contact, body language and clarity when speaking to a camera.
4. Build a bank of reflective examples
Create a few “go‑to” examples from your life that show:
Teamwork
Dealing with conflict
Volunteering or caring roles
Taking responsibility
Coping with stress or failure
Then practise adapting these to different questions (e.g. motivation, professionalism, resilience).
5. Read around NHS dentistry and ethics 📰
Spend time each week before your interview:
Reading NHS dentistry news on reputable sites (NHS, BBC health section, BDA news, etc.).
Revising basic ethical principles and thinking through how they apply to dentistry.
Aim to be able to talk confidently about two or three current issues and why they matter to patients.
6. Structure your answers
Use a simple structure such as “Point – Evidence – Reflection”:
Point: directly answer the question.
Evidence: give a brief example or explanation.
Reflection: say what you learned or why it matters for your future practice.
This keeps your answers focused, even under time pressure.
7. Don’t memorise scripts
Interviewers can spot rehearsed speeches quickly. Instead:
Learn key themes and bullet points.
Practise speaking spontaneously about those themes.
Aim to sound natural, reflective and honest, rather than perfect.
8. Prepare emotionally for a long wait ⏳
Student comments on forums and YouTube often mention that:
Interviews can be early (e.g. December),
But offers sometimes don’t arrive until months later.
Go in expecting a wait; focus on your A‑levels and wellbeing while UCAS quietly does its thing.
9. Take “fit‑to‑sit” seriously
Because King’s uses a strict fit‑to‑sit policy for interviews:
Only attend if you are truly fit to perform.
If something major happens before the interview that might affect your performance, contact admissions as soon as possible for advice.
10. Look after yourself 💙
Sleep well the night before.
Eat something light but filling.
Use breathing exercises, music or a short walk to manage nerves.
Remember: the panel wants to see you at your best, not to trick you.
What Do Students Say About the King’s Dentistry Interview? 👩⚕️👨⚕️
While you should always prioritise official sources, it’s useful to hear how recent applicants describe the process:
On The Student Room, a parent of a King’s Dentistry applicant notes that King’s interviews took place in the second half of December, and advises future applicants to be prepared early, as interview invitations can arrive sooner than expected.
In a detailed post on the KCL Dentistry 2024 entry thread, a successful applicant comments that King’s places strong emphasis on UCAT and GCSEs, operates a holistic process, and that the post‑interview offer rate is roughly 35–40% – reinforcing how important interview performance is.
A recent YouTube interview with a KCL Dentistry student describes the interview as structured but fair, with questions strongly focused on motivation, ethical thinking, and reflection on work experience, and stresses the value of consistent practice and staying calm on the day.
These are anecdotal and may not reflect every applicant’s experience, but they align well with the official information from King’s.
Final Thoughts
If you are invited to a King’s College London Dentistry interview for 2026 entry, you have already cleared several major hurdles: strict academic requirements, a competitive UCAT process and holistic shortlisting.
Your task now is to show, calmly and confidently, that you:
Understand what Dentistry and King’s are really like,
Have the values, communication skills and resilience to thrive, and
Can reflect thoughtfully on your experiences and the wider world of healthcare.
Prepare with purpose, practise regularly, and remember that the panel are looking for future colleagues, not perfect robots.
Good luck – and if you’d like, you can ask me to generate mock interview questions and sample answers tailored to your own experiences next.
References & Further Reading
King’s College London – Dentistry BDS (A205) Entry Requirements & Selection Process – official undergraduate prospectus entry requirements and interview information. King's College London
King’s College London – Dentistry BDS Course Overview – overview of the course structure, key benefits and rankings. King's College London
Dental Schools Council – “Entry requirements for UK dental schools: 2025 entry” – national guide outlining admissions tests, work‑experience expectations and course types. Dental Schools Council
UCAS course listing for Dentistry BDS at King’s College London – confirms requirement for UCAT, interviews and key academic criteria. UCAS
Blue Peanut – UK Dentistry Interviews 2026 – national overview of dental interview formats, MMI vs panel styles and current trends. Blue Peanut Medical
