clinical observation

[syjun]

hi... i was wondering if anyone knew how important clinical observation was to the application process. about how many hours are they looking for?

thanks

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[Yah-E]

Very important! As many hours as you can have!

 

[chipmunk]

As much as you can get as possible is great, it would definitely boost your application. It will also give you the opportunity to see that you like it.

Speaking for myself, however, during the time that I applied, I only had about 24 hours total of clinical observation time. This translates to about a few hours a few weekends every now and then. This is not much! and I felt very deficient in that area --I have known that I wanted to be a dentist ever since I was in high school though and it was a majority through visits to my dentist that have reinforced my future goals to be a dentist. This did not affect my applications, though. I applied to 10 schools, was invited to interview at 8, went to 5 interviews and got accepted to 4 of them. It is not until just recently that I am doing 5 hours a week of clinical observation which I totally love!! I do wish that I had done more earlier though!!

 

[DMD DOC]

Clinical observation was where I decided I wanted to do dentistry. It never really crossed my mind during my Freshman or Sophmore year in college, I was pre-med all the way, until I saw the dentistry field up-close in clinical observation during my Jr year in undergrad. No one really notices what it takes to become a dentist until they watch. There are no shows such as "ER" or "The Practice" that cover/glamorize the intricies of becoming a dentist and what goes into it, therefore during interviews it is impressive to say that you have done clinical observations and be able to talk about some the procedure you have observed. It also gives you a firsthand experience of what you will possibly be doing in the field.

Hope this helps
-Vikas

 

[Freddy King]

X hours of observation are required only at certain programs. Apart from these, I believe any applicant with appropriate gpa and test scores will be admitted. If you do not have observation time, offer another means of establishing your commitment to this career.

 

[quantumhead]

Clinical observation is not required at most schools, however, it is important that you, and the admissions committee, know that you want to be a Dentist.

Something I heard recently; The president of our AED chapter at my school a couple years back was a great friend of mine, he was a 4.0 pre-Dental student who went to college 3 years in order to get his pre-req's for Dental school done. He applied and was accepted, halfway through his first year he quit, wasn?t for him. It also happened to another 4.0 kid from my school, same thing.

The point in my story is not only to go and smell the office and look at the Dentists car, get you hands dirty. If you spend allot of time in a Dentists office and they trust you they will let you get your hands in someone's mouth, that is when you find out if you want to be a Dentists.