Category Archives: After Dental School

Build your dental career how you want and with a little help from others

One of the best things about being a dentist is that your career is what you want it to be. On the surface, I know a great deal about many subjects. Dental school prepared me with just enough knowledge to get by and sent me on my way. From there, it was up to me to seek opportunities… Read More »

A toolkit every internationally trained dentist needs to have

Being a new dentist in the current job market is not easy. Sky high tuition loans, a shortage in the labor market (that includes assistants and hygienists), being asked to perform hygiene apart from clinical dentistry, and having to pay high rents if you prefer to be in the city, are just some of the concerns we are… Read More »

What does it mean to be a dentist?

A little over a month ago I left working full time at a Federally Qualified Health Center. I have spent the last six years of my career working in public health, and the first three years were a couple of short stents working in mobile dentistry visiting nursing homes, a couple of different private practices, “Medicaid offices” and… Read More »

Dental school: If I could do it all over again

I might be branding myself as a super-nerd here, but I love school. So much so that I switched paths in dentistry to be in academia full-time, fulfilling my dream of staying in school forever. For those students currently in dental school, class and clinic probably never stopped, but for our D1s, their journey is just beginning and… Read More »

What I miss most about dental school

What do I miss the most about dental school? Lunch. As a private practice owner and a solo practitioner, it is not uncommon for me to be shoveling a snack down in between patients, trying to squeeze in an emergency patient, or taking care of admin work during my lunch hour. But it is not the food I… Read More »

What you should learn in dental school, but don’t

Something feels oddly familiar. Sitting in my neighborhood coffee shop with my laptop open, staring at a course syllabus as it ominously lays out what my life will look like for the next several months. Coffee, flash cards, and wild Friday nights are in my future. And if I’m lucky, I’ll get the pleasure of writing a research… Read More »