Welcome to our collection of Dentistry Personal Statement Examples! We’ve searched far and wide to find personal statements from successful applicants all around the UK and asked them to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of their work for your own inspiration. Today’s subject is from Malikha, who studies Dentistry at Barts.
Malikha applied to study Dentistry back in 2019 at four amazing UK Dental Schools, including Manchester and King’s College London. She received offers from 2 out of her four choices – having withdrawn two applications after receiving her offers – of which she chose to study at Barts.
| University | Barts | King’s College London | University of Manchester | University of Bristol |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offer? | Yes | Yes | Withdrawn | Withdrawn |
Let’s read the personal statement that got her a place at Barts, or skip straight to her feedback to learn what made her personal statement a success!
Please be aware that these examples are meant purely for the sake of inspiration, and should absolutely NOT be used as a model around which to base your own personal statement. UCAS have a rather strict system that detects plagiarism.
Barts Dentistry Personal Statement Example
WHOLE PERSONAL STATEMENT
The value of completely transforming a patient’s life by creating a healthy smile, piece by piece, treatment after treatment, offers a degree of fulfilment that can’t be tangibly expressed. Towards building patient relationships, using creativity in a scientific manner and providing care for others. The joy of bettering an individual’s life, restoring their dentition, relieving pain and making dental developments is a rare privilege, one that I want to have in my own right, and I’ve thought long and hard about how I want to bring this all about.
Dentistry holds value above any other science course; to merge science and the human body, with our instinctive caring nature into a career is nothing short of remarkable. It combines analytical and innovative skills to create endless avenues of work, transcending beyond opportunities to specialise, and delving into developing both personal and technical expertise. Work experience for 2 weeks in a dental practice has given me insight into performing treatments, as well as the importance of social interaction. After observing a number of procedures such as teeth whitening, crowns, implants, bridges and fillings, I’ve found that maintaining a good patient relationship is vital, as is the need to enhance a patient’s overall experience.
From watching a practitioner deal with health issues, such as dry sockets, root canals and decay, to more psychological concerns, such as the aesthetic of lost teeth and dentures, I’ve learnt that adaptability and empathy are as vital as manual dexterity and scientific knowledge. The complexity of treatments clearly deserves appreciation, but the communication skills and confidence of the dentist showed me what truly ties the treatments together. Shadowing a range of staff has truly highlighted the value of public image and teamwork, everything from the receptionist showing me how to use the online system and document treatments, to the dentist leading surgery and welcoming patients in. The integral role of everyone in the
practice shows the need for teamwork.
Outside of academia, being part of the student leadership, sports team, and community service in my local area, has enabled me to become more confident in offering support, leading, following and praising others, and making decisions. I’ve honed in on social skills within my position as a discharge support volunteer. Working with those facing the stark realities of physical ageing and senility requires a degree of maturity, trust and patience as well as cultural and social awareness that comes with working with the vulnerable, which I have developed during my year in the role. Undertaking work experience in a hospital has clearly shown me the importance of caring for the emotional and physical needs of patients, as well as the fact that dentists have to be both the diagnostician and surgeon. A trip to the space industry in America has shown me how other STEM technological developments and dentistry are intertwined, and the importance the former has. All these experiences are more than just events I’ve taken part in; they’re commitments I’ve made which have helped me grow as a person, develop professional skills and observe
patients in medical environment first hand.
To build on my knowledge of the subject directly, I’ve taken the time to speak to current dental students, take a dentistry course on FutureLearn and attend student shadowing schemes, following an undergraduate’s daily routine. Being part of the Sutton Trust programme has taught me to make use of all the resources available to me, and I’ve used this skill to advance my knowledge of the healthcare profession. Building on both the technical and personal skills involved in this area of expertise, I am more than certain this is the field I want to dedicate my work to. After taking time to delve deeper into a speciality, I hope to get the opportunity to build on my passion further and make a career out of what I enjoy.
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Barts Dentistry Personal Statement Example Analysis
Now, let’s go section by section and see what Malikha has to say about what she wrote:
INTRODUCTION
The value of completely transforming a patient’s life by creating a healthy smile, piece by piece, treatment after treatment, offers a degree of fulfilment that can’t be tangibly expressed. Towards building patient relationships, using creativity in a scientific manner and providing care for others. The joy of bettering an individual’s life, restoring their dentition, relieving pain and making dental developments is a rare privilege, one that I want to have in my own right, and I’ve thought long and hard about how I want to bring this all about.
- THE GOOD
Introduction
I mention in the beginning of my personal statement that I have thought hard about Dentistry and list a range of key aspects of the field, showing I have a realistic view of what being a dentist is like. I am able to clearly convey as to why I am applying to study Dentistry, and what value I would gain from doing so.
- THE BAD
Introduction
My introduction is a little impersonal and speaks in the third person for a quite a lot of it. I would change it to discuss more me and my interest in dentistry rather than what draws people in general to it. As well, it is possibly a bit too long for an introduction meaning I could have allocated my word count better than I have. I also, feel that the introduction is just filled with clichés, and over the top language which is not needed.
MAIN BODY
Paragraph 1
Dentistry holds value above any other science course; to merge science and the human body, with our instinctive caring nature into a career is nothing short of remarkable. It combines analytical and innovative skills to create endless avenues of work, transcending beyond opportunities to specialise, and delving into developing both personal and technical expertise. Work experience for 2 weeks in a dental practice has given me insight into performing treatments, as well as the importance of social interaction. After observing a number of procedures such as teeth whitening, crowns, implants, bridges and fillings, I’ve found that maintaining a good patient relationship is vital, as is the need to enhance a patient’s overall experience.
- THE GOOD
Paragraph 1
I mention my work experience and the different treatments I saw, this works well as it gives me an opening to discuss this in more detail in the next paragraph alongside linking the key skills required in Dentistry with what I saw in my dentist. Having done work experience was an opportunity for me to show to the admissions teams at the Dental Schools that I was passionate about Denistry and have actively shown that.
- THE BAD
Paragraph 1
Again, this section feels a little impersonal as I talk a lot in third party about dentistry such as the innovation involved. If I was to change it, I would talk more about my experience with dentistry as a patient too and the things I had seen on the other side of it. Rather than discuss the value I gained from my experience, I was too concerned with cramming it all in to prove I had done work experience which definitely wasn’t the right way to go about it.
MAIN BODY
Paragraph 2
From watching a practitioner deal with health issues, such as dry sockets, root canals and decay, to more psychological concerns, such as the aesthetic of lost teeth and dentures, I’ve learnt that adaptability and empathy are as vital as manual dexterity and scientific knowledge. The complexity of treatments clearly deserves appreciation, but the communication skills and confidence of the dentist showed me what truly ties the treatments together. Shadowing a range of staff has truly highlighted the value of public image and teamwork, everything from the receptionist showing me how to use the online system and document treatments, to the dentist leading surgery and welcoming patients in. The integral role of everyone in the practice shows the need for teamwork.
- THE GOOD
Paragraph 2
I mention both the things I saw my dentist do such as treatments as well as the role of the rest of the dental team as this is asked about at interview. It is important to note a dentist is also the head of the team and responsible for task delegation.
- THE BAD
Paragraph 2
Again, I spent too much time going over what I saw rather the value I gained from it. I could’ve included a specific patient I saw that I found interesting or discussed a certain treatment in greater detail – although not including anything that would breach confidentiality.
MAIN BODY
Paragraph 3
Outside of academia, being part of the student leadership, sports team, and community service in my local area, has enabled me to become more confident in offering support, leading, following and praising others, and making decisions. I’ve honed in on social skills within my position as a discharge support volunteer. Working with those facing the stark realities of physical ageing and senility requires a degree of maturity, trust and patience as well as cultural and social awareness that comes with working with the vulnerable, which I have developed during my year in the role. Undertaking work experience in a hospital has clearly shown me the importance of caring for the emotional and physical needs of patients, as well as the fact that dentists have to be both the diagnostician and surgeon. A trip to the space industry in America has shown me how other STEM technological developments and dentistry are intertwined, and the importance the former has. All these experiences are more than just events I’ve taken part in; they’re commitments I’ve made which have helped me grow as a person, develop professional skills and observe
patients in medical environment first hand.
- THE GOOD
Paragraph 3
I link the importance of interpersonal skills to things I have completed outside of a clinical setting, even those unrelated to dentistry, such as the space industry. It shows that I am taking active interests outside of Dentistry, and skills I have adopted and nurtured in my sports team will play a valuable role in my life as a practising dentist.
- THE BAD
Paragraph 3
I discuss a lot about how an experience has ‘shown me’ a skill, I would go into more detail about how I came to this realisation e.g. what part of my work as a discharge support volunteer showed me the value of empathy. I should have talked more about the trip I took to America, rather than dedicating just a sentence to it, as I feel I have really downplayed what an incredible experience it was and what I learnt from it.
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CONCLUSION
To build on my knowledge of the subject directly, I’ve taken the time to speak to current dental students, take a dentistry course on FutureLearn and attend student shadowing schemes, following an undergraduate’s daily routine. Being part of the Sutton Trust programme has taught me to make use of all the resources available to me, and I’ve used this skill to advance my knowledge of the healthcare profession. Building on both the technical and personal skills involved in this area of expertise, I am more than certain this is the field I want to dedicate my work to. After taking time to delve deeper into a speciality, I hope to get the opportunity to build on my passion further and make a career out of what I enjoy.
- THE GOOD
Conclusion
In this section I discuss the more healthcare related parts of my extra-circulars in detail. I link them well to the key skills I saw in my dentist and go on to mention how they will be useful for me in the future. It is also important to mention the importance of further research and how you are sure dentistry is the field for you, which I have done.
- THE BAD
Conclusion
Looking back, I would regroup my extra-circulars into personal skills activities and technical skills activities to make the structure flow a little better rather than having them spread out across two paragraphs. As well, I probably should have linked my conclusion back to the introduction to make it a more rounded and cohesive ending.
Final Thoughts
- THE GOOD
Overall
I had completed a lot of work experience and extra-circulars that I was able to explain and link to dentistry quite easily. I also showcased two sides of being a healthcare professional – being both competent and knowledgeable as well as kind and empathetic.
- THE BAD
Overall
I used a lot of third person descriptors and wrote from a third person perspective. I would keep the content of my personal statement the same but change my phrasing to make it stand out more as my experiences rather than as an objective overview. I really should have expanded more on the value of my experiences, whether that be my work experience or the trip to America, as acknowledging and showing-off that I done them isn’t really that beneficial.
So there you have it! This personal statement helped Malikha get 2/4 offers in her application.
Everyone has different experiences and abilities, so you may not be able to relate to everything that was said in this personal statement. However, the information and advice provided by Malikha is universal and will help any applicant write a better personal statement!
Be sure to check out more Medicine Personal Statement Analyses to see advice from all different kinds of applicants, including Ali Abdaal himself! Or if you want to get started on your own statement, check out 6med’s Medicine Mastery Bundle for all the support and resources you’ll ever need!
More Medicine Personal Statement Examples & Inspiration
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