What organizations should a new dentist join?

Those four years of dental school were certainly tough, but now you have to apply everything you learned in a real-world setting. Just by slipping into your white coat and heading to work, you will be helping others to stay healthy and improve their lives. But you can be doing more to maximize your own well-being by joining dental organizations and societies designed by dentists, for dentists.

The American Dental Association is perhaps the most widely known organization for dentists, and it provides its members with so many benefits. As a new dentist, you can use all of the publicity for your practice as you can get. The ADA has an online search engine that connects potential patients to all of its members. Someone searching for a dentist in your local area could find you that way rather than through a web search, which might not put your practice at the top of the list.

On top of that, the ADA provides its members with discounts on education and training, which you’ll need to continue throughout your career. They have programs both online and in-person, depending on your educational needs and your time constraints. Because you will spend most of your career working at your own practice or at a practice with other dentists, it’s likely that you won’t have a human resources professional to explain what you need to do for insurance, retirement planning, investments, etc. That’s why the ADA provides insurance and retirement plans to its members, too.

Once you’ve joined the ADA, there are several other dental organizations to consider, though they’re more specific than the overarching American Dental Association. For example, the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons brings experts together so that they can improve surgical techniques while improving camaraderie between professionals in the field. You can join orthodontic, pediatric dentistry and dental research organizations, too. You can even find dental associations specific to your city, if it’s large enough to have that many dentists. Chicago and Philadelphia are two examples of metropolitan areas with dental societies.

The truth is, there’s no right answer of which organization to join when you’re starting off, as you can’t go wrong: they provide support, training and other benefits that will help you, no matter what stage of your career you’re in.