Shadowing (GP vs specialties)

[zellyen]

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I know that shadowing GP is a must as that is what we will be taught in dental school. I also know that shadowing dentists that specialize in a certain field is beneficial. With all that said, however, I have only shadowed my primary dentist (GP). I have roughly 250+ hours and thought that was plenty. BUT... now my friend brought up something, saying that during his interview last year, they asked him more about specialties than GP (he shadowed both)... this worries me, should I apply and shadow a specialty during downtime? or should I just chill :X

 

[Dugu1]

Man, the more you know about dentistry and what you can do with it the better off you are. Why would you not want to shadow a specialty person? You are going to have to learn something about the specialties anyways because the sum of the basics of all of the specialties is, you guessed it, Dental School. You have to do omfs, do perio, do endo, do ortho, etc throughout dental school. Even if you don't like them (since you haven't shadowed any of them you have no idea) you can at least pick up a few pointers/ techniques that might/most likely will give you an advantage during dental school. I say if you have the time and are simply wasting it right now in front of the tube, go learn something! Maybe you'll fall in love with a specialty :O haha.

 

[Dugu1]

Oh and if he spent more time shadowing a specialty than gp that's why they talked to him more about those experiences. They don't mind people coming in knowing what they like but they want to make sure that those people realize that the specialty they really like isn't the only thing they have to do in dental school. If you only like endo but hate everything else dental school will be miserable, they probably just wanted to make sure he knew that.

 

[zellyen]

thing is on top of taking some summer courses, I am churning out my app. I don't know if I'll have enough time to regularly visit a dentist. But i guess I can go once or twice, since I am not putting it on the app anyways

 

[Dugu1]

The app is a standardizer, there is no way you can place everything you've done on it. Shadowing outside gp is just one of those aces in the back pocket you can pull out during an interview and say, "hey I've looked into that." Definitely focus on your course work, that is key. And make sure you do a stellar job on the app, esp the personal statement (this section shows much more than just what you want them to know, admission boards take into account the quality of your writing; get some masters level and above reviewers for this, they'll tear it apart and help make it awesome). But like I said if you can get in there and learn something, do it!

 

[DQLEUCD]

It is fine to just shadow GD's, they only bring up the specialist to see where you want to go in the field of dentistry, and if your friend has had experience in a specialty field, just another point of conversation for him. A lot of advisers have said that the main thing to have if experience from a GD. They do make up the bulk of the dentists in the field so unless you plan on specializing, I see no need to get experience from a specialty field.