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What You Need to Know by Chip Webb, DMD

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You are starting a whole new chapter in your life. It’s filled with change, new experiences and new opportunities. You have worked hard to complete your boards and requirements, now it is time to put all the skills and knowledge you have learned into action. But what specific procedures can you expect to focus on right away? And more importantly, why do you need to focus on them?

Based on my own experiences as a young dentist, here are a few procedures that have played an important role in my development (and some recommendations that I hope will help):

Root canals
For many dentists, endodontics may not be the most exciting area to master. When I think about attending CE courses and building my skills, typically I want to do the cool stuff like implants and extractions. However, I believe completing root canals efficiently and effectively is the number-one skill a new dentist should work to master.

While visiting the office of Dr. Marvin Berlin, of McKinney, Texas, Dr. Berlin discussed why root canal efficiency plays a large role in doing what’s best for patients. He said if a patient comes in with a toothache and is in need of endodontic care, he or she wants it taken care of immediately, not in a few days or a week. If you do not have the knowledge or ability to help right away, he or she will find someone else who can. But if you can squeeze the patient in and accommodate his or her immediate needs, you are doing what’s best for that patient and becoming a better clinician in the process. Dr. Berlin believes in same-day dentistry and taking the extra steps and extra time to best ensure the patient’s wellbeing.

At a recent leadership course, Dr. Berlin spoke about completing a crown and root canal during the same visit, specifically reducing the occlusal 2mm, then reducing the interproximal, completing the root canal and finishing crown prep. Learning and adopting this mentality has been a game changer for me. Witnessing the efficiency of Dr. Berlin in completing root canals first-hand has given me a strong goal to work toward.

In dental school, I had the privilege of being exposed to many forms of hands-on treatment, including root canals, so I was pretty confident in my abilities when graduating. Some dentists may not have experienced such a high level of hands-on training and may not be as comfortable right away. I recently spoke with a colleague who said he was comfortable with most root canals, but uncomfortable with molar root canals. Different dentists will have varying levels of confidence and knowledge starting out. Regardless of how much experience you had in dental school with root canals, keep learning more. I’m still advancing my abilities with this each day and I recommend you do the same.



Extractions
Like with root canals, I was confident in my knowledge of extractions coming out of dental school. But the more cases I completed starting out, the more I realized I needed additional training. I attended a course by Dr. Jay Reznick. Dr. Reznick is a highly successful oral surgeon. His website – OnlineOralSurgery.com – features videos of procedures which explain step-by-step details of extraction treatment. Although a lot of the content can be learned in dental school, this resource provides for excellent review! I’ve been able to recap the basics and learn more complicated aspects of the procedure. Watching someone else successfully complete an extraction is beneficial and it gives you the confidence that you are making incisions and taking away bone in the right locations. Even if you already have confidence in this area, reinforce it.

This reinforcement is especially helpful if you are the only dentist in your office, as I am. If you don’t have a colleague physically present to offer advice, strengthening your confidence through some type of educational means is important. Whether it is Heartland Dental’s continuing education, Dentaltown’s message boards and online CE or another method of learning like F rank Spear’s website or OnlineOralSurgery.com, I keep my skills sharp. There are so many educational opportunities available. Some prefer online education, while others prefer to read a clinical publication.

Dental implants
While I was still in dental school, I participated in a weeklong dental implant residency at the WhiteCap Institute with eight other students. I was able to place implants and watch live surgeries. I think implants are the best restorative option available to patients, and I believe implants will become more valued in dentistry because of the effective, long-term restorative solution they offer. For these reasons, it was important to me to build my implant skills right away.

I would recommend using a cone beam computed tomography system for implant X-rays. I used cone beam X-rays in school. Some of the simpler implant cases can still be effectively carried out with panoramic radiographs. But for trickier implant cases, cone beam X-rays should be a standard.

For implants, I recommend young dentists complete some form of continuing education, because the implant process is complex and school alone doesn’t necessarily prepare you well enough. Seek out experience. There will be more and more demand for implants. Patients want a more natural-looking and functioning solution other than dentures and bridges. Start out with simpler cases and work your way up to more difficult cases.

The non-clinical part
It turns out the non-clinical part of being a dentist is actually a big part of being a dentist. Get good at it early on. In dental school, you might have not given much thought to what kind of leader you want to become in your practice. The approach you take in communicating with both patients and your team will have a huge impact on your success.

As I recommend seeking out continuing education to sharpen your clinical skills, I also recommend learning how to be an ideal leader. I had the opportunity to attend a course at the Bell Leadership Institute. This gave me very detailed insight on what type of leader I am and what qualities I possess, both positive and negative. It helped me identify my strongest and weakest traits and assisted me with the areas I needed to work on.

Dental school will prepare you for clinical issues, but not necessarily HR, communication or management issues that can, and will, occur in your practice. Learn the skills you need to handle problems the right way and inspire your team members. This has advanced my overall level of care immensely.

Starting out you’ll have many challenges. But you also have many opportunities both to change the lives of your patients and to change your life, professionally and personally. Remain a perpetual student. No matter how confident you are, there is always room to grow and more to learn, especially in this ever-evolving profession.

Dr. Chip Webb is a practicing dentist at Family Dental Care of East Peoria in Peoria, Illinois, a Heartland Dental affiliated office. He is a graduate of the Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine in Glendale, Arizona, and a member of the American Dental Association and Academy of General Dentistry.

Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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