shadowing

[Egeria]

I asked my dentist if I could shadow him and he said "Sure!"
AWESOME!

Now I have to set up when that's going to happen....
but...

How much do I have to shadow him? Once a week for a few months? Less? Please let me know what you all did!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ChrisM07]

When I shadowed I went to the dentist with the times that I was available (in my case, the month of July last summer). He looked through his July schedule and just jotted down the dates that I could be there (he could tell whether or not based on the names of the people if they would mind having someone watch). If something "real cool" came up, like a whole mouth make over, then he asked me if I wanted to see that too. Otherwise, I witnessed mostly crowns, veneers, fillings, whitenings, and implant work. If he is flexible just start naming off dates and see what he thinks of them.

All in all I wanted to see as much as I could so in the end I got in 70+ hours. I think it is really about your schedules.

 

[ummjoey]

i say you probably only need like 50 hours of shadowing. but, try to get as much dental experience as you can. i didnt really shadow. i just did a bunch of assisting.

i am very lucky to have a father whos a dentist. i am also very thankful that my dads a dentist. every saturday i would go help at my dads office. i would mostly assist chairside. sometimes i would help out in the front office if there isnt too many patients.

 

[dr bojangles]

not very many schools state specific hours you need, i think tufts wants at least 30 or something. i'd say 50 is all you'll really need to get a feel of the work/office, depending on your dentist and the cases you see. some people have 10 hours, some people have 1000 hours. it all depends on how you feel about getting what you need from your time there.