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Dental student develops the job-finding site he wishes he’d had

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I’m sure most of you have seen DirectTV’s latest advertising campaign. The storyline always goes something like this… Your cable goes out, you get mad, and through ongoing consequences of your frustration, you end up in a roadside ditch, your grandfather gets punched over a can of soup, or you become a local fisherman the locals call “big fatty face.” I laugh every time I see these ads. Oddly enough, they also remind me of my senior year in dental school. Let me explain why…

Many graduates will go on to residencies. Some join a family member in practice or a dentist they have known for years. The majority of graduating students however are still working out their postgraduate plans well into the spring.   The results of this scenario aren’t always great. If it were a commercial ad, it might sound like…

A graduating senior can’t find enough opportunities. Because he can’t find enough opportunities, the graduate becomes frustrated and has to take a job at Fancy Shmancy Smiles. Because he settled for Fancy Shmancy Smiles, the dentist begins to hate dentistry and his performance drops. Because his performance drops, he loses his job. Because he loses his job, he begins to work for a zoo performing extractions on African hyenas and root canal therapy on Silverback gorillas. Don’t perform root canal therapy on Silverback gorillas. Use DentalPotential.com and find the practice that fits you best.

I’m not an advertising executive. But my imagination stands to tell you about a website called Dental Potential. I had it developed during my senior year of dental school to help resolve the previous scenario. I know my story is far from realistic, but there is truth in it. I found it takes a lot of effort to find the right practice. A lot of this effort is unnecessary and leads to frustration. I imagined a site where dentists all over the country would post their practices and positions online so I could see them on a map, and filter out the ones that best suited me. It would be free for everyone. It would save everyone time. Most importantly, it would result in more dentists finding the right practice for them.

My plan is to make Dental Potential the one location where dental professionals go to place and find opportunities. The postings are organized, map based, and clean. Viewers can create a profile, add their resume and an introduction video, and apply to openings in seconds. The site just launched a few weeks ago, and is growing by the day. You can read more about the purpose of the site and the way it works by visiting the about page or the F.AQ. section from the homepage.

I didn’t work this hard to settle for just anything. I hope you won’t either.

~ Dr. Jordon C. Smith, Oklahoma ’14, CEO Dental Potential, LLC.

 

Jordon Smith

Jordon Caine Smith, DDS, is a graduate of the Oklahoma University College of Dentistry, class of '14. He practices in Broken Arrow, OK, at Divine Dental Works. Jordon is also the CEO and creator of Dental Potenial, LLC.

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