Shadowing a dentist in 3 weeks

[Balleryo]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question I cannot find an answer to anywhere.

Would it look bad on my dental school application if I shadowed/volunteered at a dentist office or clinic everyday for three weeks? (I'm looking to shadow 8 hours everyday and get in a total of 120 hours over the 3 weeks)

These 3 weeks would be the 3 weeks before I submit my application. I decided this dental school path late, hence why I will be getting my hours in late.

Thank you in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Gold_Toof]

I was in a similar situation and did the majority of my shadowing right before I applied. I would recommend doing as much as you can, and to continue all the way until interviews/matriculation. Honestly only one school grilled me about it during my interview, but others never mentioned it and I received multiple acceptances. Fortunately, other aspects of my application were strong so I was able to make up for it.

However, you will get asked at every interview why you chose dentistry, so use that time in the office to really find what connects you to the profession and why it's the right choice for you. Ask the dentists lots of questions and look for cases in which dentistry has had a profound impact on a patient's life. You will be able to update schools throughout the entire process so be proactive between now and the interviews and maximize your exposure to the field.

 

[Balleryo]

I was in a similar situation and did the majority of my shadowing right before I applied. I would recommend doing as much as you can, and to continue all the way until interviews/matriculation. Honestly only one school grilled me about it during my interview, but others never mentioned it and I received multiple acceptances. Fortunately, other aspects of my application were strong so I was able to make up for it.

However, you will get asked at every interview why you chose dentistry, so use that time in the office to really find what connects you to the profession and why it's the right choice for you. Ask the dentists lots of questions and look for cases in which dentistry has had a profound impact on a patient's life. You will be able to update schools throughout the entire process so be proactive between now and the interviews and maximize your exposure to the field.

Shadowing even after submitting my apps is a great idea. And will do! Thank you so much for your input

 

[SolidGoat]

Shadowing even after submitting my apps is a great idea. And will do! Thank you so much for your input

This is what I did, too. I did most of my shadowing 6-7 hours/day right before submitting my app, and continued to shadow up through interviews and eventually tapered off around when I got accepted.

 

[Medin2017]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question I cannot find an answer to anywhere.

Would it look bad on my dental school application if I shadowed/volunteered at a dentist office or clinic everyday for three weeks? (I'm looking to shadow 8 hours everyday and get in a total of 120 hours over the 3 weeks)

These 3 weeks would be the 3 weeks before I submit my application. I decided this dental school path late, hence why I will be getting my hours in late.

Thank you in advance!

Even if it looks bad, you have no other choice since you're submitting an app. better than nothing for sure

 

[cacajuate]

Just do the minimum hours. Having excessive hours isn't going to help your application any thing significant.

 

[WheatLom]

You'll get a better idea of day to day dental doing 8 hours a day for 3 weeks. You'll see the place open to close, see how patient flow is, how the dentist reacts to the daily load, and get comfy in the office enough to see if it something you would do. Short shadowing stints in my mind are too novel, and may not give a comprehensive exposure to the field.

 

[Medin2017]

You'll get a better idea of day to day dental doing 8 hours a day for 3 weeks. You'll see the place open to close, see how patient flow is, how the dentist reacts to the daily load, and get comfy in the office enough to see if it something you would do. Short shadowing stints in my mind are too novel, and may not give a comprehensive exposure to the field.

I will say shadowing daily for 3 weeks will be a tiring ordeal. And before anyone says "that means you aren't interested in dentistry", standing and looking at procedures that from the noneducated eye look the same (many invisalign cases or fillings) is probably different from actually treating people. There are days where my general dentist was doing more interesting procedures like a sinus lift or something like that, but on days where it was hours of invisalign or fillings not so much.