Dentist Letter of Recommendation for Dental School
For dentists writing an ADEA AADSAS evaluation: what the form holds, the TMDSAS dentist-letter rule, the Feb 10, 2027 cutoff and a constructed sample.
Dentist Letter of Recommendation for Dental School
A dentist's letter for dental school goes in through ADEA AADSAS as one of at most four evaluations, and Texas dental applicants on TMDSAS need one letter from a dentist. For the 2026–2027 AADSAS cycle, evaluators can submit until February 10, 2027 at 11:59 PM ET.
Our view: you are the one writer in the file who watched the applicant in a dental office, so spend the letter there. Describe one chairside or front-office moment in detail and keep any ratings you give consistent with it. A paragraph of character praise from a dentist repeats what the professors already said and wastes the one view only you have.
Every ADEA, AADSAS and TMDSAS page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. The applicant's side (who to ask, the committee option) is in the dental school letters of recommendation guide. This page is for the dentist writing.
AADSAS rules for evaluators
| Rule | What the source says |
|---|---|
| How many | "You can enter information for a maximum of 4 evaluations." Up to 4 individual evaluations, or 1 committee letter or packet and up to 3 individual ones (AADSAS evaluations help page) |
| Who submits | Evaluations "are submitted by the evaluators themselves; they cannot be completed or submitted by the applicant or another party on behalf of the evaluator." |
| What you may be asked | "Evaluators may complete assessments such as writing essays, completing Likert scales, and/or uploading letters." |
| Request email | From support@adeaaadsas.myliaison.com, with a link to Liaison Letters |
| Cutoff | "The last date your evaluators can submit their evaluations": February 10, 2027 at 11:59 PM ET (AADSAS cycle dates) |
| Program deadlines | "the individual program's deadline may differ from the application's cycle dates" |
| Extra letters | "Individual dental schools also sometimes ask for additional letters of evaluation separate from the ADEA AADSAS application" (ADEA GoDental) |
Texas. On TMDSAS, dental applicants send three individual letters or evaluation forms, or one committee letter or packet, and in both cases "one evaluation letter must come from a dentist" (TMDSAS letters of evaluation). TMDSAS also rejects letters that miss its format list (letterhead, contact, applicant's name, date, English, signature). If your applicant is applying in Texas, read the TMDSAS evaluator rules before you upload, because TMDSAS "does not release evaluations to other application services" (TMDSAS evaluator page).
The ratings form and the letter together
The AADSAS help page says a committee chair "must then complete the ratings section", and that individual evaluators may complete Likert scales. It does not list the attributes or the scale. You see them when you open the request in Liaison Letters, where "Click the information icon under each rating to view more details about it" (Liaison Letters guide). No attribute list is quoted here, because no AADSAS or ADEA page we checked today publishes one.
What Liaison does publish is the shape of the form: relationship questions, essay boxes, slider ratings with optional comments, a "Recommendation Concerning Admission" drop-down, and one uploaded document. Two rules follow for a dentist:
- Rate what you saw in the office. You can speak to how the applicant behaved with patients, staff and instruments in your practice. Unless you also taught them, you cannot speak to their coursework. Where a criterion asks for something you never observed, do not guess.
- Make the letter carry your highest rating. If you rate a quality at the top, the letter should contain the moment that shows it. The constructed sample below does this for professionalism with patients.
The countercase: a dentist who hosted 10 hours of shadowing and spoke with the student twice has little to describe. Write a short, honest letter that says exactly that, or tell the applicant a supervisor with more contact will serve them better. The guide to declining a recommendation has wording if you choose not to write.
Constructed sample: general dentist after a year of shadowing and assisting
Constructed example, written by us, not a real dentist's letter. The practice, people and details are invented. The letter, header to signature, is 283 words.
Dr. L. Okafor, DDS · Riverbend Family Dentistry · l.okafor@riverbend.example.com · (555) 010-0177
November 7, 2026
To the Admissions Committee:
I am a general dentist and the owner of a four-chair practice. Paloma Natarajan shadowed me for 120 hours from June 2025 to May 2026 and worked as a part-time sterilization and front-desk assistant for the last six of those months. I supervised her directly on every shift.
In March, an anxious patient in her seventies stood up from the chair before a crown preparation and said she wanted to leave. Paloma had seated her and had noticed that the patient kept touching her hearing aid. She told me quietly that the patient might not have heard my explanation over the handpiece noise. She sat at eye level, turned off the suction, and asked the patient to tell her what she thought would happen. The patient had understood that the tooth would be pulled. I explained the procedure again, the patient stayed, and Paloma added a note to the chart about speaking without background noise. We now do this for every patient with a hearing aid.
I have hosted 14 pre-dental students in 12 years. Paloma is one of two I would hire as a dental assistant without further training in patient communication. I have not observed her academic work and cannot comment on it.
Her one area for growth is speed. In her first months she reprocessed instrument trays more slowly than my assistants because she checked every indicator twice. By her last month she worked at their pace and still checked.
I recommend Paloma to your program with enthusiasm and without reservation for the work I saw.
Sincerely, L. Okafor, DDS
What the sample does, line by line:
- Relationship first, with numbers: 120 hours, two roles, dates, direct supervision. The reader knows what your judgment rests on.
- One incident with the applicant's own action: she noticed, she spoke up, she changed the chart. The dentist's action is kept out of the spotlight.
- A comparison with a counted group: "one of two" of 14 students. A reader can weigh it.
- A stated limit: "I have not observed her academic work." This keeps the clinical claims credible.
- A real growth area, already improving. It reads as an assessment, not a sales letter.
Variant: the dental-office employer
If the applicant worked for you as a dental assistant, write as their manager, not as a mentor: what job, how long, what they were responsible for, and one moment where their judgment mattered.
Constructed example, written by us, not a real employer's letter. One paragraph, 94 words.
Jody Ellis has worked as a chairside dental assistant in my practice for 22 months, about 30 hours a week. Last October, while setting up for a pediatric extraction, Jody saw that the consent form listed the upper left molar and the radiograph we had pulled showed the lower left. Jody stopped the setup and brought both to me before the patient was seated. The form was wrong; we corrected it with the parent. Of the nine assistants I have employed, Jody is the one I ask to train new hires on room setup.
Keep the employment facts exact. The applicant's activity entries describe the same job, so use the same job title, dates and weekly hours they list.
Before you submit
- Confirm whether the applicant is on AADSAS, TMDSAS or both. Each needs its own submission.
- Put your letter on letterhead with your contact details, the date and the applicant's name. TMDSAS requires these, and they cost nothing to include on an AADSAS letter.
- Save it as PDF or Word with a file name under 95 characters.
- Answer every rating and relationship question the form shows you, and keep them consistent with the letter.
- Address the letter "To the Admissions Committee", not to one school.
- Submit well before February 10, 2027, and tell the applicant when you have; AADSAS says "We will not notify applicants about missing evaluations."
General letter structure for any student (length, opening, closing) is in the guide to writing a letter of recommendation for a student. If the applicant later applies to a dental residency, the form changes; see the ADEA PASS Professional Evaluation Form guide. For the rules on adding a late letter of evaluation after you submit, see our December guide.
Get a free review of the letter
Get a free Quick Review of your recommendation letter against GradPilot's health professions evaluation letter rubric, which is written for ADEA AADSAS, CASPA, VMCAS and PharmCAS letters. It reads whether your relationship to the applicant is clear, whether each quality you claim rests on an incident you saw, whether the letter supports readiness for dental school, and whether your recommendation follows from what you wrote. Writing for a medical school applicant instead? Use the medical school letter of evaluation rubric. The recommendation letter review page covers the other letter types.
More dental and health-professions guides are in the medical school essays hub.
Sources
Retrieved November 7, 2026.
- ADEA AADSAS Applicant Help Center, Evaluations (no cycle stated): maximum of four, committee option, evaluator-only submission, assessment types, request email, no applicant notification of missing evaluations.
- ADEA AADSAS Applicant Help Center, Application Cycle Dates (cycle opened May 12, 2026): February 10, 2027 evaluator cutoff; program deadlines may differ.
- ADEA GoDental, Letters of evaluation (no year stated): schools may ask for letters outside AADSAS.
- TMDSAS, Letters of Evaluation (no entry year stated): dental letter options and the dentist-letter rule; format requirements.
- TMDSAS, Evaluator Support (no cycle stated): "will be rejected" format list; no release to other application services.
- Liaison Letters Help Center, Complete a Recommendation: form parts, information icon, recommendation drop-down, one upload, file-name limit.
Review the Letter Before It Is Submitted
See how the letter reads against the rubric for its destination.