Your guy's opinion on amount dental experience

[alexamasan]

I just had a mock-interview today and after looking at my dental experience, they recommended that I should go shadow some other dentists. My dental experience is about 100 hours of volunteering at a free dental clinic where I do assist the dentist occasionally. I always thought what I was doing at the dental clinic would be enough, but I wonder what you guys think? I don't want to reject their advice, and I understand what they are saying. Shadowing several dentists could only help my competitiveness. But do you guys think that would be necessary?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mte123]

Man, I was suprised by how many hours people put it. I was pretty confident with my 45 hours which is twice the amount the schools i applied to required. They wanted more than 100?
However, I did spread my time out at a gp, orthodontist, endodontist, periodontist, and oral surgeon. But I spent maybe 5 or 6 hours at the specialists and my interviewer kinda just brushed it off as a waste of time. That suprised me.

 

[alexamasan]

Wow, that's very interesting to hear. But I don't really think it's the amount of hours I've volunteered for that they said needed improvement, but simply having the diversity of working with different dentists.

 

[kitejunky27]

I only did 25 hours of shadowing and i have been accepted. You dont need more shadowing as a method to increase your competitiveness. You should only shadow more if you think you personally have something to learn from seeing some other practices.

PS I feel like my hours were really quality and that i got to see a good amount of different procedures so I am happy with 25.

 

[Simple Jack]

honestly, sometimes when I think about the ~100-150 hours that some schools require I think it's a way to prevent a last minute scramble of med-school rejects from applying.

 

[Mte123]

You mean Obama's-health-care realists.

 

[SeattleRDH]

Quality over quantity.

If you write down 100 hours of volunteer/shadowing but don't have that much to say about your experience then the interviewers are going to wonder what you did for those 100 hours.

 

[doc toothache]

There may be a significant difference between shadowing and "dental experience".

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527523

 

[TarheelDDS]

I think the guy talking about the last minute applicants is right. That and they want a low drop out rate!


I have seen people with ridiculous amounts of hours. So I am going to try and get 1,000 hours of various shadowing and service related to dentistry (setting my goals very high! ). I am still finishing out my senior year in HS and have already started so I don't think it will be too hard!

 

[Mte123]

I think the guy talking about the last minute applicants is right. That and they want a low drop out rate!


I have seen people with ridiculous amounts of hours. So I am going to try and get 1,000 hours of various shadowing and service related to dentistry (setting my goals very high! ). I am still finishing out my senior year in HS and have already started so I don't think it will be too hard!

Wow. You must really want to be a dentist little man!