Shadowing Hours..How many???

I had only about 20 hours when I applied, however, in my interviews I let them know that I would have about 50 by the end of the summer. The only school that I applied to that had an actual requirement was the University of Minnesota which required 30 hours of shadowing in a general dentist's office.

 

Tufts wants at least 30 hrs. I had around 100.

 

Hello -

I know that UT Memphis likes to see 30 hours or more of shadowing experience.


James

 

For those schools that require a certain amount of hours, Ohio state for example, are these hrs required at the time of application? Also, does it matter if you stick with one dentist or bounce around?

I worry b/c I apply this summer and have very few hrs of shadowing completed. But I will have done more by the end of this summer.

 

Yes, OSU wants you to have their required hours finished in order for your application to be considered complete.

I had about 20 hours done when I applied and about 50 by the time I interviewed at schools. I would recomend no less than 50 to be on the safe side.

 

To answer your question about "bouncing around". When I interviewed at Baylor they asked how many dental offices I had seen. A lot of the reason for this was that my mom is an associate at a practice and they wanted to make sure that I had seen other facilities. The follow up to that question was, "What did you like or dislike about each different practice?" I would also recommend observing in a variety of specialties, as well. As far as the 20 hrs, 30 hrs, 50hrs, etc. it's all crap if you don't have the grades and DATs. And the way they "check" your hours is they will ask you in your interview what procedures you have observed. If you go to a variety of specialties but it only adds up to 15-20 hours, you'll come off better in your interview than going to a GP for 50 and seeing a lot of the same stuff over and over. You'll have way more to talk about. Hope this helps, good luck!

 

Hey everyone.....just wondering - my mother was a hygeniest (sp?) when we were growing up and worked at a local practice about 0.25 miles from our house in a rural New England town....so I grew up very close to this practice and got to observe a lot of procedures as I would go there after school until my Mom got off work. The Dr. was a close friend of the family too, so that helped, and eventually in my junior high/HS years I would work after school with various activities (bookkeeping, cleaning, assisting in some procedures, etc. etc.)

My question is, I can "go through the motions" and shadow, but I'm wondering if this experience in my first 18 years counts or can be turned into a positive? How do you recommend I relate this into my personal statement as it helped shape my interest in a career in dentistry?

 

I would be careful about going to just a bunch of specialties and not spending much time with general dentists. Your going to dental school to be trained as a general dentist, not as a specialist. I would only go see specialties after your comfortable with the observing general dentists. Nearly anybody that interviews you will be fine if you have no clue if you want to specialize and no knowledge about details of different specialties. I was never asked a question about anything other than general.

 

What do you people do during your shadowing? I'm curious...