Dentaltown New Grad Edition 2020 - 2

howard speaks
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Don't Get Scared-Get Prepared!
Dentaltown founder Dr. Howard Farran explains how young dentists
like you can gain confidence and get excited about their future
As a new doctor preparing to graduate from dental
school or who has recently graduated, this is a very
exciting time! But you're also going to face some harsh
realities about the dental profession soon and make
some big decisions before you get going.
You've likely spent your postgrad career focusing
on doing dentistry to earn your degree and haven't had
the opportunity to glance at the big picture of dentistry.
The macroeconomics of dentistry is simple and once
you comprehend it, the results will pay off in a big way.
There are three variables in macroeconomics: people,
technology and capital. Let's take a look at how each
applies to you.

People
Right now, you know just enough dentistry to be
dangerous. It's your job to keep improving your skills and
acquiring new ones, as well as learning the business and
practice management aspects of dentistry. Your best bet
to becoming the greatest dentist in your town is to latch
on to mentors who've practiced dentistry for decades.
Smart dentists realize that they don't know it all and
are humble enough to seek advice from veteran dentists. I
started Dentaltown in 1999 to make it easier for dentists
to network with peers and form strong relationships.
The most successful young doctors I know leveraged
the collective wisdom of Dentaltown.com by starting
and contributing to message board threads, picking the
brains of seasoned dentists who really get into lending
a hand and giving young doctors the
advice they wish they'd gotten when
they were starting out. (Check out an
excerpt from one such recent message
board on page 5.)
You have to create meaningful
professional relationships with your
peers and mentors to become successful. Dentaltown's members want
to help you, and they thrive off your
enthusiasm-it's a win-win. Nobody

on Dentaltown gets paid to tell you their advice; every
Townie is a volunteer. People participate on Dentaltown's
message boards because they're passionate about making
the field of dentistry the best that it can be-and a big
part of that is helping you become the best you can be.

Technology
It's likely you learned next to nothing about
CAD/CAM, dental implants or sleep dentistry in
dental school. This is why jumping right into continuing education is crucial-and will continue to be so
throughout your entire career. Technology is going to
keep improving and as it does, you must expand your
knowledge of it if you want to be successful.
Where should you start? Forgive me for being biased,
but Dentaltown has more than 470 online CE courses.
I implore you to get online and start taking them-not
because you need the credits to maintain your dental
license, but because they will all improve how you
practice dentistry.

Capital
The average dental school graduate has more than
$292,000 in student loans. Forget about opening up a
practice in Manhattan that overlooks Central Park; there
are hundreds of towns in America that have fewer than
100,000 people and that's where the cost of buying a
practice is about half of that in an oversaturated big city.
Look at areas around the country that are underserved
and consider setting up shop there.
Look at areas of town that are flourishing economically, have little competition nearby and a ton of
potential customers. This is all information you can
obtain from local, state and federal government agencies.
Be smart about this!
Right now you have nothing but options. You can
be a success in dentistry, but you'll need to get out of
your routine, muster up a little courage and go for it. I
know you can do it, and so do you. I can't wait to talk
to all of you on Dentaltown.com! ■

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

NEW GRADS 2020 // dentaltown.com

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9/18/20 8:00 AM

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Dentaltown New Grad Edition 2020

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