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The young dentist: How do you know what you don't know?

BDJ Student volume 31, pages 16–17 (2024)Cite this article

Nine years ago, a question was asked of me in a university dental school interview, and it has stuck with me. That question was: ‘How do you know what you don't know?' Riddled with anxiety and apprehension, I fumbled together an answer filled with textbooks, asking questions and trying to learn everything about everything. Needless to say, I didn't study at that university!

The question has stuck with me ever since. What on earth did they want me to say to that? Throughout my university years, I always thought to myself ‘What a stupid question, obviously you don't know what you don't know, or else you would know it, right?' However, as I progressed through dental school and beyond, phrases kept jumping out at me: ‘scope of practice', ‘insight', ‘conscious incompetence', ‘working within your knowledge and skills'; and I began to realise, the interviewers were not trying to catch me out, but to teach me a valuable lesson about dentistry, life, and myself.

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References

  1. General Dental Council. Standards for the Dental Team. 2023. Available online at: https://standards.gdc-uk.org/Assets/pdf/StandardsfortheDentalTeam.pdf (accessed November 2023).

  2. Keeley C. Conscious competence model and medicine. Foot & Ankle Surgery: Techniques, Reports & Cases; 2021; 1: 100053.

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  1. Birkenhead, United Kingdom

    Laura Wade

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  1. Laura Wade
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Correspondence to Laura Wade.

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Wade, L. The young dentist: How do you know what you don't know?. BDJ Student 31, 16–17 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-024-1350-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41406-024-1350-6

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