How important is Shadowing?

[Neha4000]

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Has anyone been accepted to Dental Schools without doing any shadowing? Also, how many letters of recommendation are typically required for Dental School...Do they have to be from Dentists?

Thanks

 

[Mr.E]

Shadowing is very important. I think it give one a good sense of what dentistry is all about, not to mention it allows one to show quantitatively that you are serious about dentistry to the schools you are applying to. As far as letters of recomendation go I think it depends on the school. Best thing to do is check the websites of the schools you want to apply to and go from there.

Has anyone been accepted to Dental Schools without doing any shadowing? Also, how many letters of recommendation are typically required for Dental School...Do they have to be from Dentists?

Thanks

 

[Veneto]

Has anyone been accepted to Dental Schools without doing any shadowing? Also, how many letters of recommendation are typically required for Dental School...Do they have to be from Dentists?

Thanks

I would hope not. I think anyone that is going to invest four years of their life, plus four years of undergrad, and on top of that possibly $200,000 of school debt better have had the opportunity to go and observe a dentist. If not how can they really be sure that dentistry is something they could do? I also believe that an Admissions commitee wouldn't look to highly on someone who didnt take the time to fully investigate what dentistry is all about. Of course I am not on any adcomms that is just what I think.

 

[msf41]

Has anyone been accepted to Dental Schools without doing any shadowing? Also, how many letters of recommendation are typically required for Dental School...Do they have to be from Dentists?

Thanks

In addition to the importance of shadowing for YOUR own benefit of learning about the career you will invest 4 years of your life and >$100,000 in, many schools have pretty strict guidelines (pre-requisites) for shadowing. UMKC and Case Western come to mind. For example UMKC requires 80-100 shadowing hours in 4-5 different offices.

I'll ask a question to anyone who may know the answer...when I heard about UMKC's shadowing policy I was pretty shocked. I haven't heard of any other school requiring anywhere near 100 hours (let alone with several different dentists).

So my question is...what do you think about requiring this many hours? Is it extreme, or are there other schools that require similar hours/offices? Comments? 😍

 

[Nendo21]

i dont consider shadowing learning maybe getting a basic idea of what dentistry is about? there is so many things about dentistry you can miss by just going in there and observing...i worked as a dental assistant for 5 years and i am still learning so i dont think thats too shocking that they are asking for 100 hours of shadowing the different dentist thing might be because some people might become buddies with their dentist for the purpose of getting a letter of recommendation which is impossible if u have to shadow 5 dentists...its better to do 100 hours of shadowing than go to school for 8 years and when u finally get your degree realize that its something you dont want to do.

 

[favabean]

As mentioned, some schools require letters from dentists or a minimum # of hours. Others do not. However, shadowing may be a determining factor when choosing between 2 equally qualified applicants (ie, same GPA and DATs) - pick the one with the experience.