My Story Since Graduating Dental School

Variety is the spice of life, and I’d say my first two years in practice have been well-seasoned.

As the end of dental school drew near, I debated about applying for residency. Like many, I was eager to begin practicing. Having been a student for the last seven years, I feared I was running low on the focus I would need to succeed as a resident. On the other hand, a residency program was the ideal environment for developing my skills and gaining some “polish” before entering a dental office. In the end, I chose a program that offered all of these advantages while looking and feeling completely different than dental school.

My residency experience can be summed up

in one word: wild. I spent a year after dental school serving the Navajo Nation, operating three dental clinics in northern Arizona. I was drawn to the program for its uniqueness. Within the four walls of glorified trailers, our clinics offered incredible resources from orthodontics to CAD-CAM dentistry. I worked one-on-one each month with a variety of specialists. My residency challenged me to constantly leave my comfort zone with numerous opportunities for problem solving and practice learning every day.

My best recommendation when picking a residency is to decide in advance what skills you want to attain and pick programs based on alignment with these goals. There are many excellent programs, but likely just a few that can deliver the specific skill set you are looking for. Consider taking this time in your life to do something unconventional before your regular professional life begins.

With the residency program under my belt, I entered private practice with confidence and skill. The rigors of residency made the first few months of practice seem tame, but that didn’t last long. Private practice was a whole different challenge with a different set of rules. One skill to be mastered is the art of communication. There is a lot of great advice from gurus out there, but I have found it critical to find my own voice when talking with patients. I most admire dentists who can effectively listen, read the patient and ask the right questions. Along with communication, private practice has challenged me to advance my clinical skills to places I never knew existed. Dentistry is lucky to have so many highquality courses and resources at our fingertips for motivated dentists who never stop improving. Some of my favorites include Spear Education, CEREC Doctors and Dental XP.

the decades, it’s difficult to know how to plan for the future. Is it wise for emerging dentists to buy what retiring dentists are selling? What effect do these uncertainties have on the choices new dentists make, and what is the impact on our patients and our profession?

Secondly, how can dentists share so much in common, and yet be so different? When looking for information on a clinical technique or a business task, I am perplexed by how many “right answers” I can find to my seemingly simple questions. Our practices do not look the same or function the same, and yet, it all seems to work. Our differences allow us to be responsive to the diverse needs of patients. Our differences fuel clinical advancements. Our differences give us the ability to fulfill our vision for successful business and optimum dental care.

As I move forward into the next phase of my career, I see dentistry’s ultimate goal as choosing to agree and converge on our very best systems for operation so we can be creative and diverge in how we deliver care. New grads, you are entering the profession at an exciting time! All the variety dentistry has to offer will surely keep things interesting! ■

One skill to be mastered is the art of

communication.

In the course of two years, I have worked in four very different environments: a start-up clinic for military personnel, a suburban private office, a multi-location corporate practice and a faculty position in dental school. While I would not recommend this many part-time positions as anyone’s first choice, the variety has been invaluable. Each has shaped my perspective on dentistry, helping me define the kind of professional I want to be. I have also learned to quickly identify the kind of people I would want on my team.

As I think about the future in dentistry, I find myself asking two main questions. First, what will the dental field will look like at the end of my career? With the ongoing changes to health care in our country and the shifts in medicine over

Your career, our mission.

At Aspen Dental, you don’t have to go it alone. You can join a team that

has your best interests at heart and your patients’ best care in mind. You

can learn, grow and succeed alongside the best in the business. You can

make a patient smile, and go home and see your family do the same. At

the end of the day, it’s more than your career. It’s your life. Take the next

Dr. Paul Pimentel and Dr. Jere Gillan Dr. Melissa Thompson

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