Shadowing

[irishmom]

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I am currently a dental hygienist, I'm just curious, do I still need to do shadowing if I have worked full time for the last 10 years?

 

[Double Bonded]

I am currently a dental hygienist, I'm just curious, do I still need to do shadowing if I have worked full time for the last 10 years?

Probably not but it wouldn't hurt to shadow some specialists so that you can put it on your application.


Why the switch from DH to Dental school?

 

[wizi]

I am currently a dental hygienist, I'm just curious, do I still need to do shadowing if I have worked full time for the last 10 years?

Just be aware that if you are out of school for 10 years, dental schools might require you to retake some classes.

 

[doc toothache]

Whether or not ds accept 10 year old school credentials and shadowing is the least of your worries; it is unlikely that you will have the required coursework. Besides, you do want to check out some coursework and see if all the synapses are still in operational order.

 

[irishmom]

I guess I should have clarified a bit more. I graduated from Dental Hygiene School 10 years ago. Last fall I started working part time and went back to school part time. This fall I transistioned to full time student. I will have all of my prereqs done by the end of next year and if I want could stay another year to get my BS in Bio. so I understand that I need more schooling. As for specialized shadowing I worked for 4 years in a perio office and 6 years in General but the General did implants, all endo and all exts so I feel I have a wide range of knowledge, I also have my anesthetic license, and did flap scales and assisted with grafting, implant placement, extractions, rootcanals, etc whenever I had openings in my schedule to help free up the assistant to do other things.

To answer the other question, I had always wanted to be a dentist and got "side tracked" with hygiene. Also, I have reached the top of my profession, and sometimes I got bored with prophys and loved it when the dds wanted me to help him. Also I feel that the dds had a more diverse schedule, whereas I saw 10 prophys/pm/srp a day he saw ext, fill, rtc, pvc, etc so it was always something different not the same old same old.

 

[dmdluffy]

I guess I should have clarified a bit more. I graduated from Dental Hygiene School 10 years ago. Last fall I started working part time and went back to school part time. This fall I transistioned to full time student. I will have all of my prereqs done by the end of next year and if I want could stay another year to get my BS in Bio. so I understand that I need more schooling. As for specialized shadowing I worked for 4 years in a perio office and 6 years in General but the General did implants, all endo and all exts so I feel I have a wide range of knowledge, I also have my anesthetic license, and did flap scales and assisted with grafting, implant placement, extractions, rootcanals, etc whenever I had openings in my schedule to help free up the assistant to do other things.

To answer the other question, I had always wanted to be a dentist and got "side tracked" with hygiene. Also, I have reached the top of my profession, and sometimes I got bored with prophys and loved it when the dds wanted me to help him. Also I feel that the dds had a more diverse schedule, whereas I saw 10 prophys/pm/srp a day he saw ext, fill, rtc, pvc, etc so it was always something different not the same old same old.

I'd call an admissions office (maybe your state school if you have one) and see what their input is. I don't really see the benefit of them having someone as experienced as you shadow but you never know.

 

[katwoman1688]

I agree with the statement above. Best way to find out is to call, can never be too sure what a school wants. Some schools don't require it, but I'd think since you've assisted on top of being a hygienist they might not ask you to. If you had simply said that you had spent time solely as a hygienist than I'd say they might want you to ....cause in my dental office the hygienist work separately and only really interact w the Dr. when he comes in to do the Dr. exam which has no actual assisting or watching the dentist work in cases. But since that's not the case, I think your very prepared and that that might seem almost counterproductive

 

[SeattleRDH]

When you fill out your AADSAS app you will have the opportunity to list what you did at work. My boss does implants, exts, some perio surgeries, and endo and I help out or sometimes go in on my day off to observe interesting cases. So under dental experience I listed that job as "paid" and "job shadowing". I really wouldn't worry about that part of your app. The adcoms will be confident that you know what you're getting into.

How's your GPA? Because, even with years of experience as an RDH, if you don't have the grades they will pass over your app.

 

[irishmom]

Right now I have a 3.0, working on improving it. I had a bad grade in gen chem 3 and plan on retaking it (The school I go to finally started grade replacement, so my old grade will be totally replaced). That one grade dropped my gpa from a 3.4 to a 2.8, but with the classes I took over the summer (2 A's) it is now back to a 3.04. My advisor told me not to worry though, because the bad grade will not reflect on my GPA come Dental School Admission time.

 

[JBHawaii]

Right now I have a 3.0, working on improving it. I had a bad grade in gen chem 3 and plan on retaking it (The school I go to finally started grade replacement, so my old grade will be totally replaced). That one grade dropped my gpa from a 3.4 to a 2.8, but with the classes I took over the summer (2 A's) it is now back to a 3.04. My advisor told me not to worry though, because the bad grade will not reflect on my GPA come Dental School Admission time.

Im sorry to say this but your advisor may be telling you porky pies. My first time around in college I failed out pretty badly with a GPA of 1.3 (I think). When i finally went back to college I retook those classes and LUCKILY found out most of my grades were reported as NC and not as F's because I had stopped going to class before a critical time thereby making it as if I never even went. This doesn't seem to be your case. In every case regardless of the school you attend (nowadays) if you take a class again you will still have to report your previous attempt and the grade you got. So, lets say you got a C first time around and then get an A the second time you will have to report both and AADSAS WILL average it to a B.... no exceptions. This sucks I know, because, like me, you think the new grade will stand because you school honors the new grade, unfortunately AADSAS does not 🙁. Unfortunately school records are static documents. Once a grade is established NO ONE can change it unless your original professor chooses to. In my case I was lucky with the NC's. The other crappy thing is that academic advisors, for the most part, have no idea how GPA's are calculated by AADSAS and they just assume, incorrectly, that if the school honors a grade so too does AADSAS. Just to show you how dire it is, I hads a friend with a 4.0 in his major but because of bad grades from 7 years prior when he applied his GPA was recalculated to a 3.4 and he barely scraped an acceptance....... Sorry to give you this info but it really is the truth, if you don't believe me call AADSAS (number is on website) and ask them, then tell your advisor what they say so he/she stops giving bad advice. If you want you can email me to chat about it more cuz there may be some things you can do and I don't wanna write a crazy long essay on this site,

JB

 

[SeattleRDH]

Right now I have a 3.0, working on improving it. I had a bad grade in gen chem 3 and plan on retaking it (The school I go to finally started grade replacement, so my old grade will be totally replaced). That one grade dropped my gpa from a 3.4 to a 2.8, but with the classes I took over the summer (2 A's) it is now back to a 3.04. My advisor told me not to worry though, because the bad grade will not reflect on my GPA come Dental School Admission time.

As JBHawaii said, that bad grade will definitely be reported to AADSAS.

3.04 is pretty low. My stats are 3.26 BCP, 3.27 sGPA, 3.31 oGPA, 20 AA, 21 TS, 23 PAT, and I have been working as a restorative RDH since 2007. I submitted my app early having completed all of my coursework in the spring and I have ZERO interview invites at this point. A pre-December interview is probably not going to happen for me because of my GPAs. That doesn't mean I won't get in this cycle but it means that despite my well-above-average professional experience I am not a first choice pick for dental school.

So my point is that grades make a HUGE difference and with a GPA under 3.5 there are no guarantees. If there is only one school that you want (like your local state school) start networking now. Volunteer at the school if possible. It's all about who you know. If you are open to moving anywhere in the country look at applying to schools with lower GPA acceptances. You can find that info in the ADEA book or on predents.com.

 

[dmdluffy]

Right now I have a 3.0, working on improving it. I had a bad grade in gen chem 3 and plan on retaking it (The school I go to finally started grade replacement, so my old grade will be totally replaced). That one grade dropped my gpa from a 3.4 to a 2.8, but with the classes I took over the summer (2 A's) it is now back to a 3.04. My advisor told me not to worry though, because the bad grade will not reflect on my GPA come Dental School Admission time.

As everyone has said, AADSAS calculates GPAs in their own way because schools vary. That said, what seems to be in your favor is a low amount of credits on your transcript which means your GPA can be influenced heavily by a year of coursework than say someone with 200+ credits. And yeah... your advisor seems to be telling porky pies...