my old roommate was *convinced* that taking a flobotomy course would help him get in to medical school. too bad doctors never actually take blood, so he paid money for a skill that helped him zero, and nobody cared, and it was worse than a waste of time. i scratched my head then, and i scratch it now. Hard reality, the road to the top isn't paved with minimum wage work. lab techs don't make better doctors! And former $9/hr assistants don't make better dentists... Stop thinking "would this be useful" and start thinking "will UoP appreciate a dental assistant more than what the other applicants are doing?"
The only conceivable legitimate reason to assist is to spend time in an office, interacting with a dentist, to help you decide if dental is the career for you. But once you know it's for you, there's no point... It's a low-paying job, so don't kid yourself, don't do it for the money. and really, it's not like every moment will be mind-blowing learning opportunities-- lots of rote stuff. I agree you'll be exposed to various procedures, but honestly everything you'd gain via learning by ignorantly watching, you could conceivably learn in about 3 days of intensive study and memorization, just on Wikipedia. As for admissions, I honestly imagine they'd equate it the same as "shadowing" which means after about 3 weeks of work you've maxed out the "admissions" benefit. So, do what you want, but I'll bet the farm assisting isn't your best option in any way possible, whether $ or admissions or useful D skills. It's up to you, but if you're going to ask our opinion, I'm assuming you're open to our input, and maybe you could find another option that provides a greater benefit to you in all three areas.
For $: If you can find a day job and a night job, you'll be better off because both are putting money IN your pocket not taking it OUT. Then spend d school studying all day not working like a monkey.
For "helping you as a D/student D": If you're bad at it, mock up skills would help you as a student in D school. Work in a lab. You'll learn anatomy.
For "admissions": Try getting a job (or work for free, count it as "education") in a lab, again, if you try hard you could use it to learn anatomy, and count it as a real hand skill to help your application.
If you truly wanted to triple bang it, the ultimate road would be get a day job in the lab ($ plus actual skills), work nights in a hotel/whatever so u can study at night learning anatomy or NDBE ($ plus actual useful education). That would help your application, your d school experience, your wallet, more than assisting.
