No shadowing experience

[drat]

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drat

 

[Mithridates]

You know, I think a lot of schools specifically say that you must have a minimum number of hours of experience. Schools that stick out in my mind are Tufts and Detroit Mercy - they actually require letters. If I were you, I would take a day off work (i.e. call in sick) and shadow a dentist for one day and get it over with. If you don't have the experience, schools will ask you "how do you know you want to be a dentist if you've never seen one in action." And that is a legitimate question I think. Observing a dentist and having dental work done are very different things.

 

[sidewalkman]

I agree with Mith, though I don't think one day is enough. How much is enough? Depends on how satisfied you become with the experience.

Not every dentist works 9-5, M-F, though. I've noticed some chain stores or stores in strip malls are open from 9-9 on weekdays, and Saturdays from 9-5. Shadowing experience is worth its weight in gold come interview time.

Also explore free/emergency clinics, where dentists volunteer or are on-call. These places can have non-traditional hours as well.

 

[rcmonkeypie]

Hi, drat:

congrad on a such good stats. good job. However, I do think that shadowing experience is a must. I work full time also. When I went on UCSF and Case's interviews, everyone asked me about my shadowing expereince or dental exposure. I know that some schools do take shadowing experience into consideration. good luck.

 

[drat]

Great thanks, guys, for your responses. Some good suggestions in there. I did call my dentist and left a message (He must be on vacation, getting an early start on the Fourth of July weekend 😀 ) about shadowing him in July. Last visit, he was really excited that I was applying to dental school, so I think he'd be willing to show me the ropes and whatnot.

My fear, however, is that I will be "in the way." I know if someone followed me around the chemistry lab, and I had to explain what I was doing and why I was doing it, I would be far less productive than I am now. Did you ever feel like you were in the way during your shadowing experiences?

drat

 

[RaiderNation]

Great thanks, guys, for your responses. Some good suggestions in there. I did call my dentist and left a message (He must be on vacation, getting an early start on the Fourth of July weekend 😀 ) about shadowing him in July. Last visit, he was really excited that I was applying to dental school, so I think he'd be willing to show me the ropes and whatnot.

My fear, however, is that I will be "in the way." I know if someone followed me around the chemistry lab, and I had to explain what I was doing and why I was doing it, I would be far less productive than I am now. Did you ever feel like you were in the way during your shadowing experiences?

drat

I've only shadowed for about 7-8 hours and my experience has been that the dentist was always very cordial, but the assistants were the tough ones. One even asked me to sit down. I thought to myself, "is she serious?" Maybe she acted that way so that she could prove to me that she knows more about dentistry than me...maybe an inferiority complex. Who knows?

 

[DrTacoElf]

I work 40 a week as well but i worked with my boss and i shadow here

http://www.oldmiltondental.com/

on fridays from 7am-noon or so (30 hrs so far of general) want to shadow endo/ortho next 🙂

 

[JavadiCavity]

I agree with the above poster. I think you should take a couple of vacation days and spend it shawdowing a dentist. Your stats are great, but I've already been asked 2 or 3 times on secondaries to explain what I've done to explore dentistry (i.e. shawdowing, working for a dentist, etc.).

 

[DrTacoElf]

Also don't shadow because everyone else does shadow becuase you want to. This is a very good indicator if dentistry is right for you. When i volunteered in the ER i totally hated it i just did it to put on my resume really, it was a learning experience. Shadowing the dentist is toally different i can see myself in his shoes in 5-10 years 🙂

 

[drat]

Yeah, this is really sound advice. I definitely want to shadow because I am really excited about the profession, and shadowing will just solidify my belief that dentistry is right for me, I think. I will have to sacrifice the vacation days that I reserved for traveling for interviews in order to shadow...I think if I don't shadow, I won't have any interviews to travel to!

So, I'm definitely going to shadow. Do you think it'll be okay to write on my application that I have shadowned X # of hours and to plan to shadow y # of hours more? I would like to submit my application in the next week, and obviously I won't have a whole lot of shadowing under my belt.

Gosh, guys, thanks again for all your help. If I ever win some big dental award, I'll sure sure to thank TacoElf, JavadiCavity, RaiderNation, etc for walking me through the dental application process. 👍 I'm probably worse than some of your parents! (That thread is hilarious...Fortunately I have a twin sister in medical school so the doctor-in-the-family box has already been check.) 😀

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

yeah u've definitely got to shadow..i just started today as a matter of fact it was such a great experience..my dentist has like the best sense of humor and everyone on his staff is really nice..it was such a different perspective watching him work then being worked on

besides ur stats r so great it would be a shame not to get accepted cuz u didn't do any shadowing, that should be like the easiest part of the whole thing!