Pre-Dental Job Recommendations

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Coski00

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Hi, I am currently a Senior in Highschool and am interested in the field of Dentistry. I realize that Dental school is far away for me but I like to plan ahead.

I understand that shadowing dentists and volunteer hours have a strong affect on an application to dental school. However, does having a certain job mean anything on an application for dental school? I have worked for Aurora Health Care (A large health care provider in Wisconsin) as a food service assistant for a year and a half. Is this a good job for Pre-Dental? I have a TON of patient contact delivering to their rooms and helping them with their food.

Am I better off looking for a job as a Dental Assistant somewhere? Or is working in a hospital good for Pre-Dental?

Also, the head pharmacist at an Aurora hospital my mom works at offered me a job as a pharm-tech. How would this be for Pre-Dental? Thanks!

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It doesn't really matter much. I've worked in restaurants for the last 6 years (a server for 4 of those years), and my interviewers said that they liked that I had a lot of experience working with people. Each job helps you build a skill set(s) and rounds you as a person. A job that's dental related shows dedication to the field and that you know what it means to be a dentist. Do what you enjoy/can help you build your resume for the future if dentistry isn't the path you end up taking. Once you do more shadowing and know for sure dental school is where you want to be, then look for jobs in the field if you'd like. You're just finishing up high school, spend this time exploring a little :).
 
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I recommend working as a dental assistant for a bit just to see what everyday dentistry can be like. You may love it or you might not enjoy it so much.
 
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Maybe when your getting closer to applying to Dental school, you can become a dental lab technician, which will really help with that Manual Dexterity component. What would be even better would be working at a dental office that has their own lab, where you can switch around being a Dental assistant and Technician. That would not only prepare your manual dexterity, but what ThirdMolarz said as well.
 
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This is going to be a little lengthy, but here's my advice for how you should proceed in undergrad...

So first off, congrats on being interested in dental early. Many people, unless they have a family member in the industry, decide on dentistry late (myself included lol). I would use the early time to focus more on having a stellar GPA and cementing science and math basics so you can be one of those people that crushes the DAT and somehow gets 8000 interviews.

If you're going to decide to work, my suggestion is to work at a place that gives you something to talk about in your interviews that you're passionate about. This could be in dental or completely somewhere else. I work at one of the best athletic performance/nutrition counseling facilities in the midwest. While I've been here, I've ran marathons and competed in powerlifting, and strengthened my business, leadership, and communication skills away from academia and dentistry. These things aren't related to dentistry, but they make me more human. Now, obviously I'm not on an ADCOM or anything, but I would imagine your ability to communicate with patients on things other than dentistry rather than turning yourself into a dental robot in college doing every dental thing in the world is probably more beneficial to you as a human being (especially if you decide AGAINST dentistry).

So what I'm saying is basically
- kick ass in school & the DAT
- get a job you enjoy and enhances your interview answers (whether that's in or out of dental)
- develop dental mentors through shadowing that will bend over backwards for you to get into school (or at least write good LOR's)
- put yourself in as many positions to lead and volunteer your time to people
- educate yourself on the financial implications of attending dental school. Loans aren't a financial death sentence, but not nearly enough people do this before signing away hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you do all this stuff, SOMEONE (if not multiple someones) is going to accept you 4-5 years from now. Good luck!
 
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I would personally recommend trying to find a job in a dental lab. A lot of labs will train people to be a scanner in the CAD/CAM department as it is a pretty easy thing to learn. This would be a great place to start. You will learn your tooth numbers, occlusion and articulation, different implant platforms, different restoration types, and how much room is needed to make a nice restoration. The biggest benefit to working in a lab is that most older lab techs really enjoy passing on their knowledge to new techs. It is fairly easy to advance past a scanning position after a few months to a year, and the pay can end up being more than enough to cover your living expenses through undergrad. I have worked as a lab tech for almost five years now and currently work full time as an implant tech making 40k+ with benefits. I also feel like I am leaps and bounds ahead of other predents (and some dental assistants) who I have talked to when it comes to dental knowledge and manual dexterity (I use tools like a hand piece every day).
 
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shadow first, then try to find an assistant job. an assistant job is a lot of work, while the dentist hangs around. you want to be comfortable enough to talk about basic dentistry when you get interviewed for an assistant position. shadowing can also help you get the assistant position to the dentist you shadowed. also, you want to make sure you like dentistry by shadowing first before just deciding to assist, because if you decide you hate it 3 days in, you're in an icky spot.
 
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Focus on doing very well in college. You might have priorities mixed up because shadowing is not nearly as important as your GPA and DAT. Literally anybody can shadow a dentist. Not everyone has learned how to be a great student. I would recommend holding off on keeping a job during college until you get into the groove of things. But once you're doing well with classes, a job in dentistry is obviously better on paper than a job in pharmacy. Don't focus too much on shadowing. 100 hours is plenty. Just focus on your grades for now.

Honestly, have fun in college. Grow as a person. Become an interesting person. Learn to work with others. Develop hobbies. When it comes to residency and job interviews, finding someone who's cool and easy to work with becomes far more important to your employer and employees than whatever grades you had in dental school so long as you're competent. College is the best time to do these things because time is limited in dental school. I never took the advice of having fun in college because I was so gungho about doing well in school but looking back, I should've learned how to balance both school and fun.
 
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Working in a dental lab where you do a lot of waxing will help you so much in school. We have a couple of ex lab techs who finish practicals under 30 minutes. Many students take the entire 3 hours. Plus, it helps you with dental anatomy.

I was an assistant and it helped me as well in lab and in dental classes.

But for most schools, it’s a numbers game. It’s more important to have good stats and no dental work experience than vice versa. So focus on your grades and DAT.
 
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