Writing A Personal Statement For Dentistry: Five Key Tips

Brevity is important because the objective of the personal statement is essentially to provide stimuli for discussion at the time of interview and therefore, lengthy detail is not required as there will be an opportunity to elaborate at a later date. The main sections to include and divide the personal statement into are:
 
Why Dentistry?
Establish the rationale for applying to dental school early on in the personal statement (it is advisable to make this the introduction) and ensure that the statement is specifically focused on Dentistry even if placing a non dental course as a fifth choice (in many cases, institutions will understand the objective of the fifth choice as a security option).

An applicant’s commitment to studying Dentistry should be made apparent throughout the personal statement and when explaining the justification behind their choice, assessors are normally gauging if the applicant has undertaken their due diligence prior to making their application and have a pragmatic view of what this area of study entails.
 
Work Experience and Additional Research

1. Focus on dental-specific work experience (whilst it is tempting to include an array of different work experience undertaken, in order to maximise the efficacy of the limited 4000 characters available for the personal statement, it is preferable to discuss fewer placements, which are more dental targeted and diverse within the landscape of dentistry namely different dental disciplines eg general practice/primary care, specialist practice, hospital or community care, oral health education programmes)
2. Avoid listing large volumes of work experience and focus more on the reflections and insights gained from the experiences undertaken (although arranging a large amount of work experience can fare favourably for an applicant in the way of demonstrating their commitment to research into the profession and informed decision making, this is negated if the applicant is unable to analytically retrospect on their experiences and therefore, it is imperative to strike a suitable balance between the two)
3. Additional research: beyond the scope of conventional work experience, attendance at healthcare lectures, student dental conferences and reading of dental journals and publications (along with specific references for validity) can be illustrative of an applicant’s understanding of the importance of independent, initiative led extended learning within the dental profession.
4. COVID-19 Update: understandably, for the foreseeable future, it may be difficult to arrange practical work experience in a face to face manner given current circumstances and social distancing affecting standard operating procedures in all primary care dental settings. In this instance, it may be prudent for applicants to undertake auxiliary wider reading (such as the British Dental Journal-Student Edition, Dental Update etc) and presently, there are a host of online platforms hosting free e-learning health and medicine based courses (such as FutureLearn or Harvard University-Online Courses) to compensate for a lack of practical experience whilst still demonstrating overall diligence and a fervour for studying Dentistry.

 
Extra-curricular activities
This aspect of the personal statement reflects the applicant’s capacity to be a well rounded individual with a good sense of balance, time management and transferrable skills acquisition all of which are integral attributes when undertaking a dental degree. In this section, consider the activities undertaken and the skills learned from them as well as how this can lend itself towards rising to the demanding challenges that are associated with Dentistry.
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The activities discussed can also include voluntary work undertaken, non academic prizes/awards received and exercises in manual dexterity or motor skill precision so as to further elevate an applicant’s personal statement and distinguish exceptional applicants from good applicants.

Personal attributes and aptitude exploration
Applicants should include a degree of contemplation on the various challenges and demands of being a dental professional as well as how the elements outlined in the personal statement are demonstrative of an applicant’s anticipated capability to adapt and grow through said challenges based on their existing experiences.