what dental experiences for admission?

[artsydentsy]

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In terms of dental-related experience, what things have most people done and have gotten admitted to dental school based on it? I'm talking about things like dentist shadowing, dental volunteering, working in dental office, dental lab tech, dental lab research, etc. I am concerned about my lack of variety in dental experiences because right now I have mostly just shadowing and was wondering how much is sufficient for admission given that you have a good GPA and DAT score already. Note that I would love to get more involved in other dental activities, its just that my location does not offer those opportunities.

 

[DQLEUCD]

You are going to need a lot of hours in shadowing to be competitive. Don't ever do the minimum and always do the most you can. If you have been shadowing, what kind of things are you doing with the dentist? Just observing and cleaning instruments? If that is the case then your not doing much. Try and see if you can do some assisting or work in the front office. Also there are a lot of programs from dental schools that are offered throughout the year like UCLA pre-denture course and UOP pre-dental simulation courses that would be great on your application. I'm not sure where you are from but in California almost all the dental schools have some sort of courses for pre-dents. Also be well rounded in other areas like leadership abilities, research and community services. I have over 1500 hours of dental experience and I am pretty sure others have even more so do the best you can to put in the work that's needed to do well.

 

[slm266]

I'd say a few hours spent working to impress your LOR writers will help more than spending a few more hours shadowing. I doubt they really care much about the difference between 100 and 1000 hours.
If you spend 1000 hours assisting just to look competitive, I don't think you'll see much ROI of your time there. Spend 15 more hours tutoring students of your science professor so he really gets to know you. Or with the community service supervisor, and so on.
Make sure that you have all of the qualities that your top schools want, and that you are their ideal candidate. Spend some extra hours checking over your application and making your personal statement is memorable.