I need to shadow. But when I call I will get a secretary. So how do you go about asking to shadow in the dental office?
how to ask to shadow?
- Thread starter BaylorDDS
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Do what Mazz says lol 🙂
Make a huge list of every dentist within a 10 mile radius (use google).
Go down the list and call every dentist, talk to the receptionist first.
Usually at least 2 or 3 of those (20-30) dentists will give you a call back.
I thought it wouldn't happen too, but it actually does. If you want to shadow, you will!!
Also, if you notice, not that many of the dentists say yes. So the few that do are normally the best and nicest ones. 🙂
If all of that doesn't work, which it should...then plan B would be:
Make a resume: Your name, college, activities, objective..
Take it to the nearby dentists and talk to the receptionists.
Someone is bound to say yes!
Make a huge list of every dentist within a 10 mile radius (use google).
Go down the list and call every dentist, talk to the receptionist first.
Usually at least 2 or 3 of those (20-30) dentists will give you a call back.
I thought it wouldn't happen too, but it actually does. If you want to shadow, you will!!
Also, if you notice, not that many of the dentists say yes. So the few that do are normally the best and nicest ones. 🙂
If all of that doesn't work, which it should...then plan B would be:
Make a resume: Your name, college, activities, objective..
Take it to the nearby dentists and talk to the receptionists.
Someone is bound to say yes!
I just have a problem in that I work M-F 7:30 - 3:30. So I could get to the office by like 4, but by then most dentist are done for the day. SO I am freaking out cuz I have everything I need to apply except some extra shadowing hours and a letter of rec from a dentist (baylor requires it...hooray texas 🙁).
Any suggestions?? Anybody know of any way to get dentist shadowing hours in my predicament??
Any suggestions?? Anybody know of any way to get dentist shadowing hours in my predicament??
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well if you are in the predental society at your school then they should be able to furnish you with a list of dentists that will accomodate you for shadowing, so it might be easier that way. You could also try to find some dentists that are open on saturdays so u can do it then.
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try to find a free/public clinic in the area. many of them are open at least 6 days a week. i know from my exp most of them are more than willing to have a set of extra hands around, exp on the weekends. (might even get a little more than just shadowing in too 😎)
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Does your undergrad have an alum network? I used mine to find a dentist in the area who went to the same undergrad as me and who was really eager to share his passion for dentistry. It was a great experience.
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Surprisingly, some dentists work on Saturdays.
You should check your state's dental society.
MA's dental society has a feature that lets people find a dentist. You can specify certain preferences too, like which specialty, what days/times they're open, etc. Maybe your state's dental society has something similar.
W
whateveryoulike
el dirty is right, do one hour a day. you may not have enough time to compile the hours you need doing it this way though. you may have to speak with your employer. just remember, your employment is temporary, your desire to become a dentist (hopefully) is not. If your employment will keep you from making it to dental school then you need to consider turning in a 2 weeks notice or asking for a 2 week vacation to handle the hours in one quick shot before returning to work.
As far as how to ask, you might want to try the following:
1)compile list of local dentists within a certain radius (i did this using yahoo's yellow pages and then sorting dental offices by distance)
2)call each one and tell the receptionist that you are a local predental student (name your university) and tell them you will be applying to dental schools in a few months and need to complete a certain number of shadowing hours. ask the receptionist if she can check with the dentist(s) in the office about you shadowing them for 1 hour at the end of a day. this will largely rely on you getting them to call you back. if you can get them to give you a date they will call you back by, it gives you an excuse to check back with them if they dont.
3)once youve gotten a couple dentists that have agreed, speak with the receptionists to try and pick the most convenient day for the dentist (often times theyll have a day that has an above average number of afternoon appointments, perfect for your situation). do this as orderly as possible so you can fit all the dentists into your schedule so that on one day you may shadow one dentist, and the next day or later in the week you shadow another one.
4)during this shadowing time, record the procedures you watch and have the office manager or dentist sign off on it (youll need Word to make a form for this) so you have documentation for your hours at all the different dentists. you can probably get a reasonable number of hours out of the way doing this and it has the added benefit of exposing you to different dentists and their opinions/practices.
5)you should have minor conversation time here and there during your sessions. dentists seem to like to ask you questions about your application process, etc. during this time, casually restate that you are shadowing different dentists THEN mention that after the next 2 weeks you are going to try and pick one of them to be your mentor to finish your hours with and write a ONE PAGE letter of evaluation (no one likes writing assignments so its best to mention that its only one page). take a mental note of the dentists facial expressions when you mention this since it should give you an idea of their willingness to be this person.
6)after youve done the above, pick the one you like the most (based on experience as well as their response to number 5) and then ask them if they would be your mentor.
this is what I did and it has worked perfectly so far. I'm at step 6 and have already identified my number one choice and he is an amazingly cool guy so I dont think Ill have any issues. I have the added relief that he openly said "Im fine with you coming by whenever you want and a letter is no problem" right after I told him step 5 and I never actually needed to tell him he was my choice. 😛
