There has been constant interest in the background of dentistry students over the years. This paper, based on the data amassed by surveying the first-year dentistry students of 1994 and 1995, builds on previous questionnaires and publications, and shows that certain trends in student make-up, predicted earlier, have been checked. The article examines such features as the gender breakdown of first-year students, age at the end of their first year, their own and their parents' countries of origin, English and non-English language proficiency, type of school attended, parents' occupations, parents' highest level of education, motivations for choosing dentistry as a career, aptitude for a career in dentistry, acid previous studies and employment. The data are analysed with the view to determining changes over time in the social composition of dentistry students.
