The candidate card
Setting
Dental clinic
Candidate
You are a dentist. You have just examined an 83-year-old man with moderate dementia who has lived in a care home for eight months. He has several root cavities and has lost his upper partial denture. His daughter, Mrs Lindiwe Haugen, came with him and is angry with the care home. She wants all his treatment done in one visit. You plan to prescribe high-fluoride toothpaste and set up a shared daily mouth-care plan with the care home staff and the family.
Task (interlocutor: relative)
- Find out about Mrs Haugen's concerns and her father's current daily mouth care (who helps him, how he copes with brushing, what he eats and drinks)
- Explain why his treatment needs to be planned over several shorter visits (dementia, tolerance of treatment, steps involved in making a new denture)
- Explain the daily mouth-care routine he needs (high-fluoride toothpaste, supervised brushing by staff, what to do if he refuses, reducing sugary snacks and drinks)
- Respond to her anger and encourage her to take part in a shared care plan
- Agree the next steps (written plan for the care home, follow-up appointment)
In the test you get 3 minutes to read the card and plan, then about 5 minutes to talk. This card is original, written for this site; the interlocutor's card is not shown.
How to approach this card
- Begin with her anger, not the checklist. Invite her to say what has upset her and acknowledge it before giving facts. Find out what is behind her anger and her wish for one visit, without guessing.
- Then ask about daily mouth care: who helps, how he copes with brushing, what he eats and drinks. Ask neutrally, not like an audit of the home. Blame will make her defensive, and the care home is a partner in the plan.
- Present staged visits as being in his interest: shorter sessions suit how he tolerates treatment with dementia, and a new denture takes several steps. Give her a clear picture of how the visits will be sequenced.
- Keep the routine to the card's elements and make each concrete. Agree with staff a specific answer for when he refuses brushing, rather than leaving it vague. Make clear the advice on sugary snacks and drinks applies to family visits too.
- Close by offering her a defined role in the shared plan. Promise the written plan for the care home and fix the follow-up date. The typical error is defending or criticising the home. If time is short, cover anger, staging and the written plan.
Phrases to adapt
Use your own words; these show the register, not lines to memorise.
- I can see how upsetting this is, and wanting it sorted quickly makes sense.
- Tell me what has worried you most about his care so far.
- What you know about your father would really help the care home staff.
- I'll put the plan in writing for the home, and we'll book the next visit now.
Medical words in plain English
| Term | How you might say it to the patient |
|---|---|
| root cavities | Decay on the root surface of a tooth, near the gum line. |
| high-fluoride toothpaste | A stronger, prescribed toothpaste that helps protect teeth from further decay. |
| partial denture | A removable plate that replaces some missing teeth, in his case the upper ones. |
How this card is marked
Two assessors mark the recording on nine criteria: intelligibility, fluency, appropriateness of language and resources of grammar and expression (each 0–6), then relationship building, understanding and incorporating the patient's perspective, providing structure, information gathering and information giving (each 0–3). Grade B usually means 5 on each language criterion and 2 on each clinical one. See the AI Speaking practice guide for what each criterion looks for.
More Dentistry role-play cards
- Dentist: root canal treatment or extraction for an anxious patient Dental clinic
- Bleeding gums in pregnancy Dental clinic
- Painful wisdom tooth before an overseas flight Dental clinic
All sets: nurses, doctors, other professions. Your profession's guide: OET Dentistry.
Questions about this role-play
What if she insists everything is done in one visit?
Acknowledge why she wants it, then hold your position calmly. Explain that shorter visits suit his tolerance of treatment and that a denture needs several steps. Showing what each visit will achieve helps her see the delay is planned, not neglect.
How can I involve her without blaming the care home?
Frame it as a team: staff supervise the daily brushing, and the family supplies knowledge of her father and consistency. Use we rather than they. Avoid any wording suggesting the home has failed, even if she is voicing that herself.
Should I comment on the lost denture?
State it factually and move on, without asking who lost it. Focus on making a new one and explain that this takes several steps, which is one reason treatment is spread over several visits.
Sources
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