Observation hours?

[firstimpression4]

I was curious what a rough estimate would be for hours shadowing in a dental office. I know that you want to shadow multiple dental offices, but there is only so much you can see while you stand and watch (people have small mouths, and half the time you cannot see what is even going on when the dentist has their hands in the patient's mouth). I know people who have gotten into dental school primarily because they had so many observation hours. Just wondering what a competitive number may be?
Side note- I currently have 80 hours.

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[hellofuturedentists]

I have like 70 hours. 5 interviews. A few schools may require more (I'm thinking that's what kept me out of VCU haha), but I would just check the requirements some schools have on their websites or in the guidebook to see. And like namasteinbed said, observe as much as you can that's not just inside someone's mouth! I was fortunate to shadow at a dental school clinic and the dental assistant told me all the mistakes students would often make lol. Anyway, 80 is plenty. Do more if you can/want to/need to for a specific school. Hopefully you have other strong parts of your application that will help you stand out.

 

[firstimpression4]

Okay thank you! That really helps. I never really thought about asking the office staff about how everything else operates, and obviously that is a very important part to any dental clinic! But namasteinbed I am not applying until the next application cycle; I just was unsure of what I should be doing in my free time (volunteer hours vs shadowing experience).

 

[hellofuturedentists]

Okay thank you! That really helps. I never really thought about asking the office staff about how everything else operates, and obviously that is a very important part to any dental clinic! But namasteinbed I am not applying until the next application cycle; I just was unsure of what I should be doing in my free time (volunteer hours vs shadowing experience).

If it's between those two, I'd say volunteering with maybe a liiiitle more shadowing sprinkled in there. Find some volunteer opportunities that you enjoy and stick with it for a while

 

[aznriptide859]

Okay thank you! That really helps. I never really thought about asking the office staff about how everything else operates, and obviously that is a very important part to any dental clinic! But namasteinbed I am not applying until the next application cycle; I just was unsure of what I should be doing in my free time (volunteer hours vs shadowing experience).

Do both, but make sure you do them on a regular basis (e.g. every Saturday or every Friday, depending on the activity). Don't see the hours requirements as a "bare maximum" to complete, see them as a "bare minimum" you need. There's no such thing as too many shadowing/volunteer hours - the more you have, the more it shows that you're committed to this career path.

 

[centron]

Ya, it doesn't take that long to accumulate hours. Ive been shadowing for just a year and I have over 110 hours now

 

[tyunup]

The more hours you put in, the more you'll start to understand. Little bits of dental knowledge accumulate here and there. Its also really important to expose yourself to the field, to see if you really want to do this for the rest of your life