Shadowing Hours

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RaiderNation

RaiderNation

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Just a quick question for all those accepted to d-school or currently attending. How many shadowing hours did you have at the time you applied? Do dental schools look for a minimum number of hours, or do they even ask? I have a whopping 4 hours to date and am looking to do more over summer and christmas break this year. (I posted this in the predent forum as well).
 
Originally posted by RaiderNation
Just a quick question for all those accepted to d-school or currently attending. How many shadowing hours did you have at the time you applied? Do dental schools look for a minimum number of hours, or do they even ask? I have a whopping 4 hours to date and am looking to do more over summer and christmas break this year. (I posted this in the predent forum as well).
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Probably 20 or 30. I was never asked about it.
 
I had 80 hours. I mentioned that I shadowed in most of my interviews. The number of hours never came up.

IMO, I think it's important that one comes off as knowing to some degree what one is getting himself/herself into. On that same note, a dental school candidate is not at all required to know procedures or industry lingo...but rather just have a sincere interest in the profession.
 
to OP, wish all your posts were meaningful and not causing threads or get closed.

to answer your question, i had about 400 hrs volunteer work and about 3 months of paid exp (after the 400 hrs i was hired as an assistant). i did get asked about them in 2 of my interviews.

at IU, i was even asked about couple of procedures. i think one question was what do you guys use for the root canals (electronic stuff or do it manually with RCT files) and another one i think was about our turn around time on delivering crowns or something.
 
I did about 40 hours of shadowing, but my dentist wrote in my rec letter that i did cloes to 200 hours 😉 ( we have a good relation ship) . I would have to say the more shodowing hours the better, also the more exposure to different specialities the better. In our office i observed endo, perio, pedo, and general. Shodowing hours will also allow you to get to know your dentist better and vice versa, which will allow him or her to write a awsome LOR for you. Good Luck!
 
i had about 400 hours in 3 differnt offices. (Endo, Ortho, GP)
 
I did about the same # of hrs as aphistis. Schools just want to know if you're making an informed decision on your career. It's not a contest to see who can shadow the most. If you put in more than 30 hrs, great, but admissionswise it won't make a whole lot of difference. It all comes down to DAT, GPA, and interview. I would say that after about 15-20 hrs you will have more than enough to talk about in your interview if they quiz you on procedures like they did with me. I also agree with Quick Slvr that when you shadow, check out some of the specialties if you can. This will broaden your range of knowledge, just don't have a favorite if they ask(they did with me, and I told them that it was way too early for me to be thinking about specializing and that I was just interested to see what each one does).
 
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