omghelp i have no dental experience!

[Yeyyy]

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i have zero dental experience.
what should i do?
i want to apply early june, like june 7th or something... so would it be okay to try and shadow 3 different dentists for like 7 hours each (for that one first week of vaca) and put down ~20 hours?

 

[tinman831]

If you don't even know what dentists do or what the field is like, how do you know you want to be a dentist? Shadowing is the first thing you should have done before committing the time and energy it takes to study for the DAT and apply to dental schools. That said, you might want to check the requirements of the schools you are applying to. Some schools require that you observe for a minimum number of hours. 🙂

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

yeah, but it doesn't show you are dedicated to the field.

Most people do their shadowing 2 years before application. Even one year before is ok. But weeks before, that might be an issue.

Maybe you will get lucky, applications are such a crap shoot sometimes.

I just mention this because my brother-n-law had killer stats: 3.6 20/20 DAT, but he shadowed like 3 weeks before his application. he ended up not getting in first time (6 schools applied) and got in round two.

Here is what they said at one of his interviews: How do you know you want to be a dentist when you just shadowed a few weeks ago for 30 hours?

What ever you do, good luck.

 

[whiskeysour]

call up your dentist now and ask to shadow. it's that easy. make a goal to shadow like 4-5 hrs a week for the rest of the summer. this should build you >50 hrs of shadowing time, which in my opinion is plenty. on AADSAS it asked you to list the start date which you will mark as may 2006....and the end date leave blank. maybe halfway through the summer approach the dentist and ask for a letter. Simple.

 

[Galen1]

i have zero dental experience.
what should i do?
i want to apply early june, like june 7th or something... so would it be okay to try and shadow 3 different dentists for like 7 hours each (for that one first week of vaca) and put down ~20 hours?

20 hours is fine, it'll get you interviews, as long as your GPA and DAT are solid enough. I don't know why some people on this forum think that you have to do more than 100 hours of shadowing. If I were the "host" dentist I'd flip out if I had a pre-dent following me around in my office for that long...

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

20 hours is fine, it'll get you interviews, as long as your GPA and DAT are solid enough. I don't know why some people on this forum think that you have to do more than 100 hours of shadowing. If I were the "host" dentist I'd flip out if I had a pre-dent following me around in my office for that long...

30 hours is usually the min. I think thats what many schools ask if they do.

But my point is the timing, this person is at a disadvantage doing shadowing now vs. last year

 

[golfmontpoker]

30 hours is usually the min. I think thats what many schools ask if they do.

But my point is the timing, this person is at a disadvantage doing shadowing now vs. last year

Good point, but if thats the case, then im F*cked... I only started shadowing seriously in April.... I shadowed like 4 hours a year ago, and thats all i needed to see... But now i know i have to get more shadowing experiance... So im simply going to put i started shadowing in like August of 05 with a long break tell april 06 to "blank" I personally dont think its a big deal.

 

[mlle]

what did you guys put down as a shadowing description on aadsas?

 

[shinji]

I started shadowing in late Sep and I submitted my application in Oct last year. Since the shadowing is an on-going thing, you'll probably have over 30 hours by the time you have interviews.

 

[bionerd]

Hello! Yeyyy wants to apply in early June. That's only 2.5 weeks from now! There's no way in hell the adcoms will believe she's dedicated to dentistry by shadowing for 2.5 weeks. They'll see through your plan to just "get it over with". And while I was researching dental schools to apply to, I noticed that a lot state a RECOMMENDED 40 hours. This means they'll probably want like 50/60 hours. Sorry Yeyyy but you're facing tough odds here. The only way for your application to look better and for you to look more dedicated would be to apply a little later...like in july, assuming that that you shadow 7hr/week from now on. But lemme tell you, shadowing for 4hr/week is already hell...it's sooooo freakin boring...good luck with 7 hours! Shinji's advice doesn't make that much sense: by the time you interview, yes you'll have lots of hours, but when you submit aadsas, you can't lie and inflate your numbers and claim that "that's my expected number of hours".

 

[Adam_W]

I originally sent Yeyyy a PM, but I figured more people could use some good information. DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO SAYS THIS CANNOT BE DONE! The adcoms just want to make sure you know what you're getting into, and shadowing is the best (though certainly not the only) way to gain this understanding.

By all means, shadow as much as possible (this is still the best and safest way), but don't bag your dreams - or even postpone them for a year - because of the comments of a few naysayers on SDN.

 

[Uracil]

I shadowed my aunt, who's a dentist, does that counts too? could I put those hours down or just the ones I did from a nonrelative dentist ?

 

[mlle]

I shadowed my aunt, who's a dentist, does that counts too? could I put those hours down or just the ones I did from a nonrelative dentist ?

i would say they count. just don't use a LOR from her.

 

[divertete]

I shadowed my aunt, who's a dentist, does that counts too? could I put those hours down or just the ones I did from a nonrelative dentist ?

Yup, put it all down. I had worked/shadowed hundreds of hours in my dad's office, plus a few days shadowing a pedodontist. Some adcoms might care, but my school didn't... they realized that I REALLY knew what I was getting myself into because of my family connections. I didn't need to shadow in 5 more offices just to prove that. My "dentist" LOR was just from a family friend who knew me very well.

 

[whiskeysour]

shadowing for 100 hours is NOT a requirement!! shadowing years in advance is not a requirement!! shadowing is boring, we know that, adcoms know that. just find a dentist with a decent personality. devote 5 hrs a week for the next 10 weeks or so and you will be FINE.

 

[Uracil]

Yup, put it all down. I had worked/shadowed hundreds of hours in my dad's office, plus a few days shadowing a pedodontist. Some adcoms might care, but my school didn't... they realized that I REALLY knew what I was getting myself into because of my family connections. I didn't need to shadow in 5 more offices just to prove that. My "dentist" LOR was just from a family friend who knew me very well.

Perfect..thank you. That's cool your dad is a dentist! and yeah my "dentist LOR" will be from a family friend who also knows me really well too 👍

 

[Notoriousjae]

I did about 22 hours of shadowing and i think thats descent. Usually around 30 is a good number to have under your belt. Why some people think doing 100 hours or more would be better kinda boggles my mind because in the first place you're not getting any hands on experience; you are basically observing which can get to be quite a routine after the first 20 hours and second of as someone posted earlier it would probably drive the host dentist crazy to have someone follow him around for 100 hours of shadowing? i cant even imagine that. But i guess to each its own
as for ur case dont stress out too much about; as long as ur academic credentials are strong you're good to go

 

[Yeyyy]

ahhhh, this sucks. maybe i'll go 5-10 hours/week and apply early august instead. would that be a better idea? i'll still get about 30hours, but spread out ovre the summer

 

[BallDontLie]

ahhhh, this sucks. maybe i'll go 5-10 hours/week and apply early august instead. would that be a better idea? i'll still get about 30hours, but spread out ovre the summer

I say apply ASAP. Its already bad enough that youre doing your shadowing so late, but its even worse that youre delaying your application. If you apply early and get some pre-December interviews, you at least have a chance to explain yourself and prove you know what youre getting yourself into. But if you delay submitting AADSAS till August, your interviews wont come until relatively late in the cycle and as classes fill up you might not get the chance to prove yourself at an interview. You're already behind the 8-ball, dont make it worse by applying late.

 

[Notoriousjae]

i agree with the earlier post from balldontlie and would probably suggest the same thing. The whole objective behind shadowing is to experience what it might be like working as a dentist and then maybe decide if this career path is for you? besides having something to put on your resume. Personally even considering doing shadowing this late sounds questionable. applying early would probably be a better option.

 

[starbright]

most schools have a minimum requirement for shadowing hours.

 

[Yeyyy]

I do plan on continuing to shadow dentists after the summer is over, so it will probably go for ~5 hours/week from beginning of june basically until my interview, so maybe I can explain that in that 6month stretch or so, i still feel up for becoming a dentist.

thanks guys, esp. the last three posts

 

[L8DYV]

i have zero dental experience.
what should i do?
i want to apply early june, like june 7th or something... so would it be okay to try and shadow 3 different dentists for like 7 hours each (for that one first week of vaca) and put down ~20 hours?

get off your tooshie and get out there and start gettin' some! hehe

 

[howui3]

Hello! Yeyyy wants to apply in early June. That's only 2.5 weeks from now! There's no way in hell the adcoms will believe she's dedicated to dentistry by shadowing for 2.5 weeks. They'll see through your plan to just "get it over with". And while I was researching dental schools to apply to, I noticed that a lot state a RECOMMENDED 40 hours. This means they'll probably want like 50/60 hours. Sorry Yeyyy but you're facing tough odds here. The only way for your application to look better and for you to look more dedicated would be to apply a little later...like in july, assuming that that you shadow 7hr/week from now on. But lemme tell you, shadowing for 4hr/week is already hell...it's sooooo freakin boring...good luck with 7 hours! Shinji's advice doesn't make that much sense: by the time you interview, yes you'll have lots of hours, but when you submit aadsas, you can't lie and inflate your numbers and claim that "that's my expected number of hours".

Only 2.5 weeks.... not necessarily true. AADSAS takes about 2 months to verify gpa and to mail in the application, even if Yeyyy submits the application tomorrow, there is still so much time to shadow.

by the time the application gets reviewed, Yeyyy can send an update letter talking about the millions of hours of shadowing...

op: don't stress, find a dentist and start observing

good luck

 

[Yeyyy]

Only 2.5 weeks.... not necessarily true. AADSAS takes about 2 months to verify gpa and to mail in the application, even if Yeyyy submits the application tomorrow, there is still so much time to shadow.

by the time the application gets reviewed, Yeyyy can send an update letter talking about the millions of hours of shadowing...

op: don't stress, find a dentist and start observing

good luck

thanks for the advice howui, those first few posts freaked the hell out of me

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

thanks for the advice howui, those first few posts freaked the hell out of me

Well they should. I wouldn't take comfort in anything he said. What does processing time have to do with the fact you waited until 2 weeks before the application.

good luck though. as you will find out, this will probably be the least of your worries during the whole process.