Should I include shadowing 2 dentists at the same practice on applications?

[deleted925864]

I currently volunteer intern about ~20 hrs a week at a dental practice as an assistant. The owner/head dentist works 3 days a week, and he has a associate (who is still a very established dentist) that works one half day a week. I assist the main dentist/assistants, but mostly just shadow the associate dentist. Should I include shadowing him as a separate experience on my application, or should I just include that in the description of "Assist at X Dental Practice"?

Also, I noticed that when describing experiences, there's no distinction between dental experiences (shadowing vs assisting). Although I haven't done a lot of "just" shadowing, I've done a lot of paid and unpaid assisting that also included shadowing. For example, of the ~900+ hours of assisting I've done, I'd say probably around 250 of them were strictly shadowing. If I list in the description that I was an assistant that did x, y, and z tasks, and also spent XX hours shadowing, will that be sufficient to cover my shadowing requirement?

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[DentTreadOnMe]

1. I’d label your experiences as one per practice and just mention in the description that you shadowed multiple doctors.

2. With the assisting, id imagine that will more than cover the requirements at all schools. Dental assisting IS basically shadowing if you’re chair side, because you’re watching the dentist perform the work too.

Most of my experience was front desk/admin work + about 90 or so hours of chair side shadowing/assisting at the time of application and I had no problems.

 

[PreDenting]

Regarding your first question, one experience for both dentists will suffice because they're at the same practice. In the description, you can mention your role with the two dentists.

As long as you have 100+ shadowing hours, you meet the minimum criteria for most schools.

Assisting is a more advanced-level of shadowing. It requires hands-on participation and dilligent observing since you'll be in the patient's mouth, actively moving the suction as the procedure is being done. Assisting also shows that a dentist trusts you inside their patient's mouth, which is a big deal. That being said, assisting can be viewed as "shadowing" hours.