Dentistry Work Experience

Hi
So I’m a year 12 student looking for dental work experience. It is so hard to find some because a lot of dentists in my local area don’t give out work experience.
So what should I do?
And what do current uni dental student’s recommend about how many days/week of work experience I should.
I’m also looking to read some books- the smile stealer is on the top of my list.

So I applied to dental school this year and they mainly cared about reflection on your work experience and the quality of it, rather than the quantity.
I would recommend signing up to medic mentor, as they do free online dentistry work experience and help support you with your application. Also try spring pod and look at specific dental schools as some have specific work experience courses (Sheffield have a good one). Volunteering is also key, especially if you can't get any in person work experience. You could also try dental labs and try getting work experience with dental hygienists and therapists.
In terms of wider reading, I didn't read many books, I mainly read articles from the BDJ and read 'When breathe becomes air'.
Hope this helps

I would say about 2 weeks is the standard. However, this also depends on the length per day. I did 6 days of 12-hour shifts at a hospital for one of my WEx and I can guarantee you that's more experience than many who did 4-5 hour sessions at a local clinic. On the whole though, two weeks on paper.

Book are sort of.. eh. I can understand why smile stealer's is the top of your list, I think that's true for most dental applicants. For me, it wasn't very interesting of a read, and sure it was fine, but it wouldn't be something that I usually invest time in. Unless you enjoy history and the gruesome )some would say interesting) aspects of dentistry, I would say you should go do some searching on google on any interesting books on dentistry. If you're interested in the online and innovative aspect of dentistry, I'd recommend a great read called - An Introduction to Mobile & Teledentistry: How Technology, Consumer Demand & Prevention Are Shaping the Future of Dentistry - it is a little bit niche but it gives a good idea on how dentistry is evolving in terms of that. I would also branch out from dentistry. There are a far wider range of books suitable for your age on the medical field, ones which you can easily find online, e.g. When breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanthi as suggested by ERCross above, This is going to Hurt (cliche but a must read), Do no harm Henry Marsh, all classics.

Articles on the BDJ are also... subjective. Reading entire issues of BDJ is something that I can guarantee you no dental applicant has done (and this is coming from someone who read a textbook on dental nursing). Read what interests you, most schools will have a digital account where you can access it. Hope this helps!