Council on Early Career Dentist

Engage with early career dentists by encouraging membership and involvement in the Association and/or local districts.
Offer resources and develop support systems for early career dentists and the issues they face
Engage with members from the undergraduate and graduate dental programs in the state.
The Council may have up to 14 members, including student members from the Nebraska dental schools.

Annual Session 2025

Dr. Chris Salierno

Supercharging your Dental Career: From early stage to high growth... and beyond

Your dental career is filled with many important decisions. Should you own a practice or just earn a strong income as an associate? If you want to be the boss, should you buy or start from scratch? Would you like to own multiple practices? Do you dream of being a speaker, mastering an aspect of dentistry, and educating your colleagues? If you own a practice, how do you give it a boost when it stalls?

Dentists are quite fortunate to be able to take their careers down multiple potential paths, but that means we are faced with the tough question: when is the right time for the next step?

Objectives:
(1) Interpret data on the dental profession's current economic landscape, and what it means for you.
(2) Use a framework for building your unique business model, however you choose to practice.
(3) Understand the pros and cons of associateship versus ownership, start-up versus purchase, and small versus group practice.
(4) Navigate associateships and exploring alternative career pathways.

Click on the image below for an introduction from Dr. Salierno.

"Ask Me Anything"

On Thursday, September 14th, the Council on Early Career Dentists held an "Ask Me Anything" reception at Leighton's Pub for D3 and D4 UNMC students. Drs. Anna Schoettger, Carly Aitken, Corinne Van Osdel and Jennifer Marshall comprised a panel of early career dentists and opened the floor for questions regarding all things dentisty. Seventeen students asked a wide array of questions such as how do you find a mentor, what do you wish you had done during dental school, how did you prepare yourself to enter into negotiations for your first job. Great questions, great answers. In the end, the importance of organized dentisty came through in all of the responses. The event was sponsored by a grant submitted by the NDA to the ADA.