Shadowing vs dental assistant job?

[hmart4383]

Ideally I would like to get both done however with is whole Covid situation going on it probably wont be possible. Im going to be a junior this upcoming fall and my plan was to shadow a dentist during my sophomore summer break and look for a dental assistant job my junior summer break. How things stand now I don’t really see things getting much better in the near future to the point where it would be possible to shadow this summer. How bad would it be to apply without shadwo hours bit with actual experience from a dental assistant job?

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[NJ_Doc]

you still have a lot of time to shadow. Probably not this summer unless you know a dentist personally since they are panicking about their offices and patients and unfortunately someone shadowing is not on most dentist's mind right now. And imo, zero shadowing experience on an application and a dental assistant job just seems weird and might raise some questions but I don't think it would be a deal breaker if you are a competitive applicant. I would definitely get shadowing hours before a job though. Some schools have soft requirements for shadowing hours so just know that you might not meet some requirements.

 

[saydental]

Dental assisting would look very nice but most schools require shadowing hours. Also, getting shadowing hours is much easier than getting an assisting job. I know the situation is not the best right now but try to see if you can shadow your dentist if they are open even one day a week.