Orthodontics postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

My interest in orthodontics began in the mixed dentition clinics of my final undergraduate year, where I noticed how often a straightforward decision, such as whether to extract a heavily restored first permanent molar, depended on growth, timing and space analysis rather than on the operative skill I had spent most of my degree developing. Two years of practice have confirmed that impression. I can restore a tooth competently; I am much less confident predicting what an occlusion will become, and that gap is what I want to close through formal training.

My BDS gave me the foundations. My elective project was small and inexpensive by necessity: I designed a short questionnaire and used it with thirty children aged nine to thirteen who had been given removable appliances in the hospital orthodontic department, asking them to explain in their own words how long they should wear the appliance and what to do if it hurt. Roughly a third could not distinguish between full-time wear and wear at night, and several believed that soreness meant they should stop. I fed the results back to the department, and the supervising clinician adjusted the wording of the standard instruction sheet. The project taught me how much of orthodontic success rests on communication with a child and their family, and it also taught me the limitations of a convenience sample and a non-validated questionnaire, which I would address differently now.

In my current post with the community dental service I see a high proportion of children, including those with additional needs, cleft-affected patients returning for routine care, and teenagers who have moved between several practices. I have become careful about baseline records: photographs, an accurate assessment of overjet and overbite, and notes on habits and airway. I refer regularly and I read the replies closely, comparing the treatment plan I had privately formed with the specialist's reasoning. Cases where I was wrong have been the most instructive, particularly a patient whose crowding I assumed would need extractions and who was treated instead with expansion and alignment. Where I can, I observe: our visiting orthodontist allows me to sit in for an afternoon each month, and I have watched enough bond-ups and reviews to appreciate how much of the work is small adjustments rather than dramatic intervention.

Alongside clinical work I have kept up structured reading, working through a standard undergraduate orthodontic text and then following the evidence on early Class II treatment, where the balance of trials suggests limited skeletal benefit from very early functional appliance therapy compared with treatment in adolescence. Discussing this at a local study group with colleagues who trained in different decades showed me how quickly accepted practice shifts. I also completed a cephalometric tracing course and now trace radiographs for interest before referral, which has improved my understanding of what I am looking at.

Outside dentistry, coaching an under-fourteen netball team has been unexpectedly relevant: adolescents co-operate when they understand the reason for something and are given some control over it. Weekend shifts in my parents' shop have made me practical about time and organisation.

I am applying now because I want to move from recognising orthodontic problems to managing them properly, with supervision, audit and a research component. I would like eventually to work in a mixed hospital and community setting, particularly with children in areas where specialist care is hard to reach.

Review this personal statement

Latest reviews