Shadowing Questions?

[modernfam]

So I'm going to shadow a general dentist tomorrow and I need help coming up with questions I could ask her because I don't want to come off as being uninterested in Dentistry if I don't ask enough questions. I shadowed this dentist once over Spring break and I felt like I asked her a lot of questions about why she went into Dentistry, how she got into it/feel about it. Should I ask more about the procedures and the technology she uses? Last time I felt like I was distracting her during her procedures so I didn't know if I was okay to continue asking questions. What do you guys suggest? What did you guys ask during shadowing and what were your expectations?

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[NJ_Doc]

just feel the room. One dentist I shadowed didn't really care for questions when they were with a patient. Another allowed me to look into patients mouths and see the work she did and ask a bunch of questions about tools/procedures in the moment. If you already asked the dentist about their individual experience, I would just stick with asking about each procedure you see.

 

[TanMan]

So I'm going to shadow a general dentist tomorrow and I need help coming up with questions I could ask her because I don't want to come off as being uninterested in Dentistry if I don't ask enough questions. I shadowed this dentist once over Spring break and I felt like I asked her a lot of questions about why she went into Dentistry, how she got into it/feel about it. Should I ask more about the procedures and the technology she uses? Last time I felt like I was distracting her during her procedures so I didn't know if I was okay to continue asking questions. What do you guys suggest? What did you guys ask during shadowing and what were your expectations?

Figure out the personality of the dentist. Asking questions for the sake of asking or irrelevant questions can be very annoying (to me). I think asking questions while you are with a patient is inappropriate. That's connection time between the dentist and patient and being a third wheel could derail sales. Maybe it's just me, but get a feel for the dentist's personality and if you think you're being awkward, you probably are. Shadowing is more important to getting a good letter of recommendation, rather than knowing the ins and outs of dentistry. You don't know dentistry until you are in the hot seat.

What's worse than a predent who's uninterested is someone who gets in the way. Questions you should ask don't matter as much for content, but for sincerity. You can ask a question a million different ways but there's a right and wrong way to ask.

Big question for you would then be: Are you asking for the sake of asking? Are you asking due to interest in the profession? Or are you asking to try and develop a connection with the dentist? These questions should guide you on whether you should be asking questions, what kind of questions you should ask, and how you should ask the questions.