Questions Regarding Shadowing

[Leo Messi]

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Hey guys, I'm a pre-dent student from Canada, and I've been looking to get some shadowing hours in before applying to dental schools. I'm going to be applying to both Canadian and American schools and I noticed that unlike American schools, the Canadian ones don't require as much (if any) shadowing experience. Since Canadian schools aren't focusing on shadowing as much, a lot of the dentists I've spoken too in the area are not very familiar with the concept of shadowing.

I have a few questions for you guys who have shadowed before:

1) What kinds of things are you looking for when you are shadowing? Are you asking things like how they run their offices, how they communicate with patients? Or maybe how they got started?

2) What are you looking to get out of the experience?

3) How do you watch over the dentist during appointments? Do you have to get permission from each patient? Do you stand in the back watching from afar?

4) Are the shifts usually a couple hours long or do they last the whole day? I guess this is dependent on the dentist and their schedule as well. On that note, how much total time would you spend at a certain clinic?

5) This may be really dependent on individual dentists, but what is the dress code for shadowing? Is it really formal? Or is it more semi-formal?

I look forward to hearing some responses and hopefully the answers can help other people with similar questions!

Thanks

 

[StrafingFire]

The suits you wore to the Ballon d'or will be adequate.

 

[beingaunicorn]

1) You can literally ask whatever question you want to know about what they do, the office, their patient interactions/patient pool, etc. But don't ask about certain things like how much they make, how often they work, etc.

2) Whatever you can get from the experience!

3) You just observe. I guess it depends on the dentist, but you can sit in a chair nearby or hover over the patient, etc. Try to watch as closely as you can, but that can be hard to do, and might intimidate a patient, so just check for cues and feel free to ask the patient or dentist. The patient doesn't necessarily have to be asked permission explicitly. The dentist has always been like, "This is [so-and-so] and he/she's interested in going to dental school and is here today to look at how things work in the office." And the patient is usually fine with a student being there.

4) I've done both whole day and shifts, so yeah, it depends on the schedule/dentist/you. I spent the majority of my shadowing time at one office, and that was never a problem for me throughout my admissions period.

5) I wouldn't dress formally, but dress nicely. If you have scrubs, wear a pair of those. I think you can find scrubs at Walmart for like $20. I didn't wear scrubs, but I mean, I would if I had thought about it.

But in the end, don't worry too much about the shadowing experience. Just try to absorb as much info as possible and show your interest, ask questions, talk to the patient (don't just sit there if neither the assistant or dentist are out of the room and you're there with the patient), and don't wander off to the side and check your phone or whatever if you can't see what's going on.

 

[Leo Messi]

Ahhh I see, thank you so much for your replies! Also what is the usual total number of hours schools are looking for? Do they vary by the school? Or is there some standard (like 60-80 hours?) Thanks!

 

[I want to go to there]

Ahhh I see, thank you so much for your replies! Also what is the usual total number of hours schools are looking for? Do they vary by the school? Or is there some standard (like 60-80 hours?) Thanks!

100+ hrs.