Do I really need shadowing hours? (Dental assistant)

[petite_predent]

Hi y'all,

Ive been a dental assistant for almost 4 years and I have my x-ray license. I hope to apply to dental school next cycle. I've noticed almost all schools require about 100 shadowing hours. Since I've been working for some time now, I think I have a pretty decent amount of experience/exposure to dentistry. I probably have a total of 15 hours of shadowing tbh. I learned so much more being a dental assistant than peeking behind a dentist during procedures lol. I also switch off being a receptionist so I know/understand the business aspect too.

Do you think I still need to shadow? I don't want to apply and get rejected because I have such minimal shadowing hours compared to someone who has 500+ hrs. If so, what do you guys suggest? Shadow another office/dentist? Specialists?

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[Jlm50]

you could reach out to the schools you're interested in and ask if they consider your employment history as an assistant counts towards the shadowing hours because they may.

 

[B4SS]

To be safe, I would say yes. No escaping pre-reqs. Contact each school individually for exceptions if you want to pursue that. Just my 2 cents.

 

[doc toothache]

If after 4 years of working as a da one does not know as much about dentistry as one who has “shadowed” the minimum requirement/recommendation, we are in a very sad state of affairs. Think of a da as “shadowing” with fringe benefits. Of course, stranger things have been known to happen.