Before my first week as an associate dentist, I began to wonder about all the mistakes that I could possibly make. Will I make the wrong diagnosis, will I say the wrong thing, will I drill the wrong tooth!? (Still hasn’t happened). I suppose I was excited about my new job or I was just anxious about all the things there are left to learn. Regardless, all of these worries culminated into me surveying the many influencer dentists of instagram. While I cannot post all of their responses here, I have gathered them on my instagram story highlights! Link to that story highlight here.
Reading through these helped me get into the right mindset before my first week. I hope it can help you as well! With that said, I have summarized the most common tips for new Associate Dentists down below!
- Take Continuing Education Courses! (CE’s)
- Just about every dentist I spoke to said this. “Dental school just barely scratches the surface and now you’re in the world of REAL dentistry.” There are many different ways to do things and it is now your job to find what works best for you! Furthermore, learn more about the things you never had a chance to work on in dental school. Whether that be implants, molar endos, or surgical extractions.
- Go at your own pace/ Don’t compare yourself to others!
- Your dental school peers will all end up in different working opportunities than you. For that reason, some may start doing implants faster than others! Don’t let this discourage you. Go at your own pace and understand that your drive to learn will always keep pushing you forward. All in all, “be patient with yourself”.
- Don’t take things too personally/ Dont be too hard on yourself
- As you start to integrate into the culture of the your new office, there will be many opportunities for constructive criticism. Additionally, your head dentist may have tips for how your restorations or patient interactions could have gone better. Dont take these sessions too personally and understand that you’re still growing! Internalize these tips on improvement, put them to practice, and keep moving forward.
- Don’t compromise your standard of care
- I’m thankful that I have not encountered any situation like this but sometimes patients will want you to do things outside the standard of care. When you encounter this, stick to your guts and save yourself the headache. You went through years of dental school for a reason.
- Invest in yourself
- You spent the last four years groveling through your studies! Start investing into making your life outside of clinic better. This means going to the gym and finding that church you’ve always promised yourself you would go to “when you became a dentist”. Take care of your mind and body so that it takes care of you when clinic gets hard.
There were many tips in that instagram story highlight about what new graduate dentists should look for in their first job opportunity.
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