Shadowing

Started by chungit12
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chungit12

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Ok... I shadowed yesterday. This assistant kept on telling me if I had any questions. I guess she was enjoying that moment of superiority in knowledge about dentistry. She even told me to write down the questions on a sheet of paper when I come back next week. What did you guys do when you shadowed for a dentist? What sort of questions did you ask? I pretty much asked really dumb questions? Why do people like to use porcelein over gold? Why are you here? ... haah..
 
Do we REALLY HAVE TO sterilize the instruments? Just wash them, the patients will never know!
 
My favorite shadowing experience was when the assistant told me to step back. The dentist was cool about everything but you gotta watch out for those assistants with inferiority complexes looking to take out their anger on someone. I guess I should have asked "what should I do to avoid hiring such a crappy office staff like you did?"
 
chungit12 said:
Ok... I shadowed yesterday. This assistant kept on telling me if I had any questions. I guess she was enjoying that moment of superiority in knowledge about dentistry. She even told me to write down the questions on a sheet of paper when I come back next week. What did you guys do when you shadowed for a dentist? What sort of questions did you ask? I pretty much asked really dumb questions? Why do people like to use porcelein over gold? Why are you here? ... haah..
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how long did u shadow? do they let u go to bathroom or go lunch break? can u just leave whenever u got bored of shadowing?
 
toofache32 said:
"You ever tap that hygienist of yours?"
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"Are you SURE that's really flowable composite?"
(See link: http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-052505-dentist.2abf4d3ff.html)

"Why does your diploma from dental school have Sally Struthers' signature on it?"

"So when is your daughter legal?"

"So just how much of a kick in the balls is it to go through all that school and residency just to wind up as a hygei....uh, I mean a periodontist?"
 
ISU_Steve said:
"So when is your daughter legal?"
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I was in the elevator with my OMFS program director and few of the other guys. He was talking about his daughter and I innocently asked "How old is she?" He responded, "not old enough!" I caught hell for a while on that one.
 
I spent most of time chatting with the people who work in my dentist's front-office when I was shadowing. I think some schools want way too many hour of shadowing. If you have been going to a dentist regualarly, you know what they do. You don't need to stand over his shoulder for 20 hours to know what he is doing.
 
edkNARF said:
I spent most of time chatting with the people who work in my dentist's front-office when I was shadowing. I think some schools want way too many hour of shadowing. If you have been going to a dentist regualarly, you know what they do. You don't need to stand over his shoulder for 20 hours to know what he is doing.
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I totally agree. I think unless you are watching some massive oral surgery going on shadwoing is pretty boring. It's like watching an 8 hour movie about an average day in the dental office.
 
RaiderNation said:
I totally agree. I think unless you are watching some massive oral surgery going on shadwoing is pretty boring. It's like watching an 8 hour movie about an average day in the dental office.
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Yeah... I had an internship class in my last semester of high school last year, and I did it at my orthodontist's office. 100 hours required... 😴

Almost every time I went, I would end up reading magazines (75%) /washing impression trays(15%)/doing computer work, patient data(9%). I actually only really learned anything for one day, when he taught me a little about cephalometrics. There was just not that much for me to do there; plus my orthodontist is a little shy/quiet. Oh well, I learned some stuff and hopefully he'll still write me a LOR when I apply. 😀


Planning to shadow my general dentist closer to when I apply as well.
 
edkNARF said:
I spent most of time chatting with the people who work in my dentist's front-office when I was shadowing. I think some schools want way too many hour of shadowing. If you have been going to a dentist regualarly, you know what they do. You don't need to stand over his shoulder for 20 hours to know what he is doing.
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I have braces and I go to dentist office everymonth, but it may not called shadowing 😀
 
joonkimdds said:
I have braces and I go to dentist office everymonth, but it may not called shadowing 😀
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Why not? I would count it. It's called "up close and personal shadowing." Just ask the dentist questions as if you were standing next to him looking at another patient. It's easily justifiable.
 
RaiderNation said:
Why not? I would count it. It's called "up close and personal shadowing." Just ask the dentist questions as if you were standing next to him looking at another patient. It's easily justifiable.
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haha...so if I accumulate all of the hours I went to a dentist since I was a kid, then I would have like 30 hours already.
 
RaiderNation said:
Exactly.
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as a matter of fact, dental schools won't make u show the proof that u went shadowing. so...if u say u shadowed for 1000 hours, they will believe it...-_-;

and uh...yeah, braces hurts me bad, and i know how bad it feels, so i can tell them that I know how patients feel, and I can help them 🙂
they will think I am a dedicated person 😀
 
joonkimdds said:
as a matter of fact, dental schools won't make u show the proof that u went shadowing. so...if u say u shadowed for 1000 hours, they will believe it...-_-;
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Tufts asks for a letter written from a dentist affirming the amount of time spent shadowing.

...I actually ended up writting the letter and my dentist just signed it without reading it.
 
edkNARF said:
Tufts asks for a letter written from a dentist affirming the amount of time spent shadowing.

...I actually ended up writting the letter and my dentist just signed it without reading it.
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can u fake the dentist signature too 🙂 I don't think they will contact that dentist 😀
 
you can fake anything you want to and can pull off.

p.s. you're just leaping up the SDN jackass ladder.
 
edkNARF said:
Tufts asks for a letter written from a dentist affirming the amount of time spent shadowing.

...I actually ended up writting the letter and my dentist just signed it without reading it.
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So, if you have 30 hours of shadowing among 4 different dentists and a clinic they want letters from every single one?
 
I started shadowing last week. The staff there is very accomodating and said that I can drop in anytime to shadow. Since it was my first time,I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't ask any questions,I just watched the dentist work. He wants me to also watch the assistants. I thought it was very fun and inspiring. I'm planning on going every week for a couple of hours. I hope that will be enough.
 
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