Examining dental students' profiles and perspectives contributes to discussions concerning dental education and practice. This study aimed, first, to investigate Brazilian dental students' reasons for pursuing dentistry as an occupation and, secondly, to consider the professional expectations of freshman students at a Brazilian public university over a fifteen-year period. A cross-sectional study was performed using data from a self-administered questionnaire to all first-year students enrolled in the 1993-95 and 2006-08 periods at the Federal University of Goias, Brazil (n=376). A total of 296 students responded (response rate=78.7 percent). Frequency analysis and chi-square tests were used to compare frequencies between the two time periods. Job conception was cited as the primary reason for pursuing dentistry, and the students considered oral health promotion and oral disease prevention as the primary purposes of dentistry. Most students intended to serve both high and low socioeconomic populations and both private and public practices after graduation. The majority cited an interest in specializing in clinical fields, orthodontics being the most frequent option. Significant trends included a greater interest in health promotion and public services and specializing in aesthetic dentistry and implantology in the 2006-08 period. This study revealed significant differences in the freshman students' motivations and professional perspectives over time. Personal views and concepts about profession are major influencing factors for choosing dentistry as a career.