Dentist Shadowing

[Mena3]

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Hey guys,
I'm going to be applying at the end of the summer....still got to write my DAT in July. I have a competitive GPA, but my main concern though, is how much weight do schools put on shadowing dentists and on reference letters? I don't have any experience in the "dental world", and I don't even know how to go about approaching a dental clinic for volunteering. For all of you with the dental experience did you just walk into some random office and ask if they were accepting volunteers? What's the best way to go about this?

Thanks

 

[msf41]

Hey guys,
I'm going to be applying at the end of the summer....still got to write my DAT in July. I have a competitive GPA, but my main concern though, is how much weight do schools put on shadowing dentists and on reference letters? I don't have any experience in the "dental world", and I don't even know how to go about approaching a dental clinic for volunteering. For all of you with the dental experience did you just walk into some random office and ask if they were accepting volunteers? What's the best way to go about this?

Thanks

Hey welcome to SDN!

To help you understand the importance of shadowing and LOR I'm going to pretend that I'm on the admissions comittee for a dental school. 😀 Being on the ADCOM isn't an easy job. Every day I have dozens of applications come across my desk. One day I get Mena3's application. Looking at his/her appication I can see that he has a great gpa but "no real experience in the dental world". I wonder to myself, if he has no real experience in the dental world what makes him think he will be a good dentist? What makes him think he will enjoy working with teeth all day? Why is he even choosing to go to 4 years of dental school if he has no real experience in the dental field?

I'm done pretending but you get the idea. There is no substitute for real world experience. Whatever reasons that you think you may be interested in dentistry will not outweigh the real office setting when you are staring in peoples mouths for hours at a time. I used to be a pre-med, then I got some "real world experience" working 12 hour shifts on my feet and learning that much of what an MD sees every day isn't the way it looks on television. When I got some real world dental experience I knew that was what I wanted. Some of my other friends who shadowed dentists found out they didn't care how much money dentists made, they didn't want to look at teeth. to each there own, but you will never know till you get into an office and gain some real experience.

good luck 👍

 

[jaxx]

It is really important to shadow dentists. I say this because the school will not figure that you are very interested in this career unless you investigate it as much as possible. An applicant who can say,"I know what the dental field is like and I know that is what I want." is a much stronger applicant than one who has not investigated the field. You will be required to do a lot of hard work over the 4 years of dental school and one who really wants dentistry will be able to do what is required (what ever that is!). It is also smart to know a little about the life of a dental student - You should investigate this as well! You will be making a 4 year commitment and spending a lot of tuition money - you really should be sure that is what you want.

As for contacting dentists, I imagine that you could pick out a name from the phone book, (or get recommendations) about who to contact. Most dentists that I know are delighted to show you their offices and talk to you about dentistry. Hope this helps.

 

[fruity_trident]

i just walked into about 5 dental clinics around the area i live and handed in a cover letter & resume, expressing how I wanted to pursue dentistry and that i wanted to shadow.

i think volunteering is slightly different...in that, they can get u to do photocopying...so u're not REALLY shadowing...
i got lucky...the dentist i shadow showed me everything 😀

i also suggest shadowing other professions...i mean, as posters above noted, u'll never KNOW what it's like to be a dentist until u become one, however, more exposure to the profession will give u SOME idea.
i shadowed a nurse, MD & dentist. clearly i could've (or should've) shadowed more health professionals, but dentistry seemed like a pretty good fit to my personality, etc, etc.

shadowing other professions can tell adcoms that u've done some research...and just incase u get shot with the question "why wouldn't u become a nurse/md" --> which is exactly what i got! 😎

gdluck!

 

[dentalguy]

ok so im on a few waitlists right now and am currently looking for a job for a year before I reapply.....how would one go about getting a job in a dental lab....i feel like it is hard to find one because many of them do not want to train you for a year.....thoughts on what to do or how to get your foot in the door.....

 

[1905]

Hey there and welcome!

I acutally think Shadowing/Volunteering is extremely important. The best advice I got before I applied and got really serious (about my freshman yr of college) was that I needed to start shadowing and volunteering. How can one know that this is a field that they want to go into for sure when they dont really know the different aspects? I feel that the admission committiee may also see this as well. My advice, get on it really soon.

Here's what I did: I called around to some local dental offices and explained that I was a pre-dental student etc and a few asked me back to meet them. It is pretty simple, but just a lot of calling around etc. Try calling a clinic in your area (if you have one) like the county clinic, I also shadowed there and they are really receptive to students and are really willing to help. I cant even verbalize how much I learned at the clinics. I am currently volunteering/shadowing at a dentists office in my area and I cant tell you how great the experience is, I get to do x-rays, buildups, assist the hygenist and dentist, and all sorts of practice management tasks like writing letterst o patients and more. This also was great becuase the dentist wrote me an awesome letter, look into it so you can get your dentist you work for to write you a letter of rec too! Take Care, and Best of Luck!