Shadowing vs Dental related working experience

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MulberryDMD

Drill.Fill.Bill.CHILL....
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I have been talking with many pre-dents recently and the issue of importance of shadowing vs hands-on experience comes up often. Here are my two cents:

Shadowing: shadowing is a great way to introduce a person to dentistry as well as provide a gateway into a mentor-type relationship with the practioner that could potentially lead to a letter of recommendation. Use shadowing as an oppurtunity to pick the practioner's brain on the profession of dentistry and use it as a baseline to see if the profession still interests you. If you are lucky, you will see them do a really cool procedure along the way.

Hands-on experience: once you have decided that dentistry still interests you, hands on experience provides you with the day-in and day-out repition dentistry offers. Bar none, my hands on experience took my spark for dentistry and turned it into an all out wild-fire (cheesy? you bet). If you are still interested in dentistry after the hands on experience, it is right for you.

Bascially if you were applying to be a cook, do you think you would be more competitive by saying "I watch the Food Network" or "I have hands-on experience in a professional kitchen"? If you want to be a dentist, SHOW them. Dentistry is unique in that every aspect of it (except oral radiology and pathology maybe) requires health knowledge and hand skills.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

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This question may have an obvious answer, but...what would encompass hands-on experience? Would it have to be as much as functioning as a dental assistant, or could it simply be volunteering on the office side of things?
 
I would say get as close to physical dentistry as you can. If you are unable to work in a private practitioners office, try contacting local dental organizations and societies to see if there are any local community health clinics that accept volunteers. There might be some around you and you might be able to volunteer as an assistant. I was able to get into a CHC and it was amazing. Hopefully other people will weigh in on this subject and will have more creative ideas to get hands on experience.
 
What would be a good way to go about asking to volunteer? Would you suggest doing so after job shadowing, or being up front and bring up volunteering right away? I'm still working on getting job shadows, so I'm wondering if I should include a request to volunteer as well...
 
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