Dentistry: free VTNE practice questions

Try each question, then open the answer. The explanations cover why the right answer is right and why the others aren’t, and every answer shows the textbook it came from and where to find it.

Dentistry is 10 of the VTNE’s 150 scored items (7% of the exam). The skills this domain tests

Item count: AAVSB 2023 Veterinary Technician National Examination Content Outline, approved by the AAVSB Board of Directors, March 2023. Retrieved 2026-08-15.

Question 1

VT-DEN-029

A dog went home after a professional dental cleaning with home-care instructions, and the owner did not carry them out. At the recheck the teeth are covered in soft deposit that has sat undisturbed since the day of the cleaning. Compared with the deposit that first formed on those freshly cleaned crowns, how has its bacterial population changed?

AIt has not changed in character; the same organisms are simply present in much greater numbers
BIt has shifted from mostly gram-positive aerobic bacteria to mostly gram-positive anaerobic bacteria
CIt has shifted from mostly gram-positive aerobic bacteria to mostly gram-negative anaerobic bacteria
DIt has shifted from mostly gram-negative anaerobic bacteria to mostly gram-positive aerobic bacteria

Show answer

The answer is C.

Why C is right

As plaque matures, the bacteria switch from predominantly gram-positive aerobic to predominantly gram-negative anaerobic.
Gram-negative anaerobes are generally considered the more harmful to the periodontal tissues.

Why the others are wrong

A: treats maturation as accumulation only.
B: holds the staining constant; both halves of the change matter.
D: runs the whole change backward.

Full explanation

Plaque left alone does not merely get thicker - it changes species. As the plaque matures, the overall bacterial population switches from predominantly gram-positive aerobic organisms to predominantly gram-negative anaerobic ones, and those gram-negative anaerobes are generally considered the more harmful of the two groups to the periodontal tissues. So the mouth at this recheck is not simply dirtier than it was; the organisms sitting against the gingiva are a more damaging population than the ones that colonized the clean tooth.

Option A is the intuitive answer and the reason this change gets underestimated: it treats maturation as accumulation only.

Option B holds the staining constant, and option D runs the whole change backward. Both halves matter: the movement is gram-positive to gram-negative and aerobic to anaerobic, in that one direction, away from the freshly cleaned surface.

Veterinary Dentistry: A Team Approach

Lemmons, 4th edition — chapter 6, page 99

Question 2

VT-DEN-064

A technician who routinely makes full-mouth radiographic studies in dogs is asked to make a complete study on a cat. Working from the canine protocol, which part of it usually changes for the feline patient?

AThe maxillary incisors need a lateral oblique view rather than the occlusal view used in the dog
BThe maxillary fourth premolar needs only a bisecting angle, with no second oblique view of the region
CThe mandibular canines appear on the occlusal view alone, so no separate lateral oblique is made
DThe mandibular premolars usually need no bisecting angle, since a parallel view covers them with the molars

Show answer

The answer is D.

Why D is right

The canine study includes a bisecting-angle view of the mandibular premolars.
In the cat the mandibular premolars and molars can usually both be obtained with a parallel technique.
So the separate bisecting-angle view of the premolars is often unnecessary.

Why the others are wrong

A and C: each alter a view that the cat shares with the dog.
B: the zygomatic arch often obscures the roots of the feline third and fourth premolars, but that adds work rather than dropping a view.

Full explanation

A complete full-mouth study is a defined set of views rather than a fixed number of exposures, and how many images it takes depends on the size of the patient and on the imaging system being used. The canine study includes a bisecting-angle view of the mandibular premolars. The feline study is similar, with one habitual exception, which is what this question turns on: in the cat the mandibular premolars and molars can usually both be obtained with a parallel technique, so the separate bisecting-angle view of the premolars is often unnecessary. Bisecting angle is the fallback used wherever a parallel placement is not possible, and a parallel view is worth taking where one is available, since the bisecting-angle image is recorded with slight magnification.

Options A and C each alter a view that the cat shares with the dog.

Option B does point at a region that is harder in the cat - the zygomatic arch often obscures the roots of the feline third and fourth premolars, and extra techniques are used to get around it - but that adds work rather than dropping a view, and it is not the change the book names when it sets the feline study against the canine one.

Veterinary Dentistry: A Team Approach

Lemmons, 4th edition — chapter 11, page 154

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