Letter of recommendation for dental school

[brightdream]

Hi everyone,
I have been trying to find a dentist near my area and shadow him for a while so I can get some hours and letter of recommendation from him or her. I have been calling many offices some allow and some don't. Some of them allowed me for the 1st time and told me to not come back again.

As most of you know that most dental school in the USA require LOR from a dentist. I don't know anybody who is a dentist and writes me a LOR.

I talked to a School of Dentistry Clinic Administration in Oregon State about shadowing and volunteering. She said you can volunteer with a 3rd or 4th year dental student. Also, she said she's able to write a LOR.

Does anyone know if that's something dental school will accept even though the LOR is not directly from a dentist? Should I move forward and volunteer there at the OHSU dental clinic instead of going with general practitioner. One clinic told me that they have to pay liability insurance for me to stay in their clinic and observe. Anyone has been through this scenario especially those of you who have applied and accepted.

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[Hannah Banana]

Hi brightdream!
I thought I was the only with that same problem. Glad I came across your post! Almost all private practitioners don't really want people to shadow them (including my dentist). He gave me permission to shadow. I was so happy so I contacted him to set up date and time but always reached the front desk people. After contacting and waiting for two months, I disappointedly gave up because I hate feeling like a beggar . I had some experiences shadowing/volunteering at a public clinic back in 2012 (80 hrs) but want to shadow at a different clinic. They ignored me after a few contacts and I don't want to bother them anymore.

P.S. I was very nice and polite to them & did not blow up their phones or email inboxes.

 

[2THDDS]

If I were the dentist, having a student shadower could be an annoyance, but then again, they should remember where they came from and at once point in time, they had to shadow as well.
The dentist I shadow was very very nice and even the dental assistant was super nice about me dropping by whenever I want. My dentist also let me suction when the assistant is busy with another patient. Not all dentists are the same, keep trying until you find one who's willing to let you do it.

 

[IwillCombust]

Liability. Personal Information. Privacy. ETC. All of these are a problem.

Make your rounds like all other SDN-ers here. I had to call 50+ dental practitioners. Out of all 50, only 2 responded.
Goodluck!

 

[Dental2000]

Damn..I did not know it was hard to shadow a dentist. I walked in to one of the clinics next to my home and the dentist was pretty cool about it. He even sat and spoke to me about how it took him 3 tries to get into D-school.