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How much dental experience?
- Thread starter Fakesmile
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Depends. How many hours will you spend shadowing during that month? You might shoot for at least 50, but 100 is probably best. As far as volunteering, anything that shows a commitment to serving others will work, so working at a hospital is fine. However, you might try later to find a dental-related volunteer position, since that is optimal.
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I guess I'll only do shadowing to fulfill my dental-related experience. I won't do any hospital volunteering because I think I already have enough nondental-related extracurriculars.
As I said, I'll be applying in the 2011 cycle, but I'm thinking of shadowing in May and June of 2011. But would it work against me to do the shadowing just a few months before applying? I think adcoms would like to see that you shadowed at least a year before applying because that might show that you've really took the time to consider the career. I don't know if this makes sense.
It sounds like you're going for the minimum shadowing requirement. It might be enough if you are VERY strong in your academics: like 3.8+ GPA and 22+ DAT across the board.
If you find that 1 month of shadowing was not sufficient then you know what to do in that year before you re-apply.
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I'll rather do 2 or 3 months to be safe but will this still be not enough? If not, how many hours is considered enough?
It depends on the school. You should call them to find out their minimums. Just keep in mind that they are minimums. Some schools take minimum GPAs of 2.8 but it's not like you are a strong candidate with that stat.
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- Pre-Dental
I spoke with a few dental students about this. Their perspective (from their school's admin) is shadowing is more of a yes or no question. Schools want you to have enough to know if you can do this career for a the long term. A student with 500 hours shadowing is no different than one with 50-100. Check out a general dentist and perhaps a specialty or two. Schools just want to know if you've looked inside the box enough to commit and don't want to waste a seat and have you after two years realize that "I don't want to do this for the rest of life" These predents who report 1000's of hours of shadowing are ridiculous.
GPA is not a good comparison....a 2.8 student is way different than a 3.8 student.
GPA is not a good comparison....a 2.8 student is way different than a 3.8 student.
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- Pre-Dental
Still I am studying so I am looking for my practice with really good Dentist or Dental Hospital.. my BDS is going at Karnavati School of Dentistry Ahmedabad then I am looking for really good Hospital for getting good experience.
It really depends on the school. I talked to an admissions committee member a couple weeks ago at UW. She said that 75 hours (volunteering plus shadowing) is the minimum, but that one has to have a very high GPA/DAT to get in with just the minimum. She also said that those with GPAs around 3.0-3.3 got in because they had high DAT scores and years of experience in dentistry and/or research.
So, if you are strong in all other areas the minimum is fine, but if you're just average in your other stats then it would be better to invest more time in volunteering.
N
NAVY DDS 2010
Depends on what the hospital volunteering was for. You can spend time at hospitals shadowing oral surgeons. Local trauma centers are ideal for this since there are plenty of cases that oral surgeons are involved in.
As for the number of hours of dental exposure, that really depends also on you and how dedicated you want to show the adcoms you are towards being a dentist. I didn't have any hours of shadowing experience, but I did volunteer as a dental assistant for over a year full time. But, coming from a non-trad, i needed to prove to the adcoms this is something I wanted. So, i was willing to work as an assistant that long. Worked for me.
When I was a student, no shadowing was required, but it seems things have changed. With that in mind, it would seem to me that an ideal place to get exposure to dentistry would be a hospital residency program. Here are some reasons why:
1. Most hospitals already have a volunteer office, so they are set up to take you on board legally
2. Many hospital programs see a large variety of patients and do many varied procedures, a chance to see a lot of different things.
3. Residency programs are staffed by new grads, you will meet people who have just gone through the 4 years from a variety of schools, many questions can be answered.
4. Attending staff may have private offices, an opportunity to see a side other than public health dentistry.
5. Many attendings are on faculty at dental schools, chance for a letter
6. Hospitals with more than one residency program will perform a large variety of specialized procedures.
7. Hospital residency programs by definition are teaching facilities, the staff will be likely to take and interest in teaching you something.
I think this works best over a summer, which has just gone by, because most hospital clinics run m-f 9-5, which may interfere with college. Obviously private offices open on the weekend might be more user friendly, but the above is a thought for next summer.
1. Most hospitals already have a volunteer office, so they are set up to take you on board legally
2. Many hospital programs see a large variety of patients and do many varied procedures, a chance to see a lot of different things.
3. Residency programs are staffed by new grads, you will meet people who have just gone through the 4 years from a variety of schools, many questions can be answered.
4. Attending staff may have private offices, an opportunity to see a side other than public health dentistry.
5. Many attendings are on faculty at dental schools, chance for a letter
6. Hospitals with more than one residency program will perform a large variety of specialized procedures.
7. Hospital residency programs by definition are teaching facilities, the staff will be likely to take and interest in teaching you something.
I think this works best over a summer, which has just gone by, because most hospital clinics run m-f 9-5, which may interfere with college. Obviously private offices open on the weekend might be more user friendly, but the above is a thought for next summer.
