New Dentist Career Advice — Contracts, Confidence & First Job | Level Up Dental
For New Graduates

You spent eight years learning to be a dentist. Nobody taught you how to sign your first contract.

Non-competes, lab-fee clauses, compensation structures, and a confidence gap no one warns you about. The first three years quietly decide your next thirty. Here's how to get them right.

The Stakes

Three things most new grads get wrong in year one.

These three decisions dictate your professional trajectory and income potential.

1. The Unread Contract

Signing radius non-competes, uncalculated lab-fee percentages, or termination clauses that freeze your relocation opportunities.

2. The Wrong Practice

Accepting a high-volume corporate environment with zero operational mentoring, where you are treated as a billing machine.

3. Waiting For Confidence

Assuming confidence is a feeling you wait to arrive, rather than a clinical skill you actively build in the chair.

What's Inside

The 12-Point Associate Contract Checklist

Make sure you audit these key details before signing any employment agreement. Labeled [CONFIRM] with San's framework.

1. Non-compete radius boundaries (mileage limits)
2. Associate commission split basis (Collections vs. Production)
3. Lab fee deduction allocation percentages
4. Termination notice requirements (30 vs. 90 days)
5. Equipment and supplies provisioning responsibility
6. Dental assistant assignment and training structures
7. Restrictive covenants on patient records ownership
8. Malpractice insurance coverage (Tail vs. Occurrence)
9. Minimum daily guarantee timeline limits
10. CE reimbursement allowances & study club limits
11. Practice purchase first-right-of-refusal clauses
12. Audit rights on monthly billing and collections summaries
The Blueprint

The Level Up Blueprint™ for New Grads

A step-by-step pathway to navigate from graduation to clinical confidence.

PHASE 01

Sign the Right Contract

Analyze compensation structures, negotiate the terms of your commission, and know how to walk away from toxic practice agreements.

PHASE 02

Build Chair-Side confidence

Develop clinical speed, master patient communication scripts, and increase case acceptance rates without pressure tactics.

PHASE 03

Choose the Right Path

Identify practice structures that align with your long-term goals and set your roadmap toward ownership or specialization.

This is for you if:

  • You just graduated and the real decisions are starting.
  • You want a mentor who is still actively seeing patients in the chair.
  • You want to avoid the common career mistakes that cost dentists years.

This is not for you if:

  • You are looking for a shortcut with no personal office effort.
  • You aren't willing to honestly audit your clinical bottlenecks.
  • You want someone to make your career decisions for you.
Proof

Coaching Cohort Outcomes

Below is a placeholder card for verified new-grad member results.

★★★★★

"Thanks to the contract frameworks inside the Career Accelerator, I avoided a massive 5-mile non-compete clause in my first associate agreement and negotiated a 32% collections split instead of the standard 28% production. That change alone added $18,000 to my first-year earnings!"

AM
Dr. Anika Mehta, DMD
Coaching Member

Start with the 12-point checklist. It's free.

Get the Free Contract Checklist