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Embrace Progress: Congratulations, You’re Just an Orthodontist by Daniel Grob, DDS, MS, Editorial Director

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For most of us, obtaining the title of "orthodontist" is the culmination of a dream and lifelong journey.

I am often reminded of orthodontists who decided to pursue the profession after a pleasant experience in the orthodontist chair many years prior. There was a desire to give back after having a life-altering moment while still an impressionable adolescent.

That this experience is powerful enough to lead to orthodontics as a career choice is quite a testament to the profession.

Young adults these days agonize over making the right decision on a future career, hoping to end up in a field where they find fulfillment. After all, work is supposed to be enjoyable—isn't it?

Some have the luxury of taking the time to figure it out. These students take many college credits, volunteer in dental clinics and offices, and generally spend lots of unreimbursed time, trying to make the right decision. Or to put it another way, trying to convince themselves that they have made the right decision.

Many of us did not have that luxury. We got here by the process of elimination.

I was the ultimate lost soul in undergraduate studies, hopping from major to major without clear direction. Destined to become the first college-educated person in our family, I knew I had to get it done, whatever it took and whatever the outcome.

So how did I become an orthodontist? While still an undergraduate in a science class, I had a lab partner whose father was a dentist. He said that it was a good job. I interviewed him and he wrote a letter of recommendation.

I applied to dental school, got in after three years of undergraduate studies and was able to skip declaring my major (which, by the way, was still up in the air).

Dental school, prosthodontics residency, practice, more education, and bingo! I had arrived.

It's different now!


A rigorous application process for pre-dental school results in overachievers fighting for admission into dental school. From what I am told, these applicants include a good number of already graduated medical doctors who are disenchanted with their profession and are looking for a career change.

Parents who are medical doctors encourage children to attend dental school because it looks to them like a better lifestyle.

Once in dental school, the survivors who decide to apply to orthodontic programs are even more driven to further their education.

As you know, only the top students get into orthodontic residencies or programs.

The desire to constantly achieve is inherent in their DNA, as is the goal of constantly performing and getting praise from parents, professors or colleagues. Most of the attendees were scholars or Eagle Scouts, played musical instruments, served as the football team captain or head of the debate team or student council. You get the picture.

They can't wait to get out of school so that, despite the competition from hundreds of individuals like themselves, they can begin to tell the dental and local communities that they are the best and that all clinicians before them just don't get it.

Most then relentlessly approach general dentists and expect them to reward them with a neverending supply of patients and an income listed in many magazines to be in the top 1 percent.

Really? Is that business? For those of you who haven't noticed and those of you about to enter the field, change is here and it's happening fast.

So what now?
The point is, you have achieved what you strived for. Congratulate yourself on your success and realize that you have jumped through the hoops, you have pushed yourself to the limit, and you have succeeded.

You have done it! But remember, you're just an orthodontist. The public doesn't much care about how many years you went to school and how much debt you racked up doing so.

Now what are you going to do with it? The next step is up to you.

Roger Levin, who famously declared that orthodontics is the first specialty to "go commodity" and predicted the elimination of the specialty of periodontics, recently stated in one of his tips of the day, "Put business on your list of CE activities."

Another entry encourages you to "change with the times."

And boy, the times are changing.

The next step may just be taking everything that you have learned and achieved, then applying it to the moral, ethical business of dentistry and orthodontics.

For many, it may be employment in a corporate setting. For others, it may be purchasing a practice where there is an opportunity to take what has been done in the past and continue to grow and advance the business based on a plan established by the predecessor. Keeping the practice the same rarely will be worth the financial investment and risk.

For the last group, the sky is the limit. Right here in Orthotown Magazine we see testimonials and advertisements of those at the top, pushing us to go further. However, we can reach for the top and still remain humble. Orthodontic think tanks believe the previously described alpha tendencies of orthodontists will not long allow for the specialty to be relegated to a second-tier position in the dental world.

Observations
As the editorial director for Orthotown Magazine, I am constantly coming across examples of the mainstream orthodontic mindset and mentality.

On the general dental side of the publication, dozens of articles are submitted monthly that show what can be done—procedures, innovations and new ideas.

On the orthodontic side of the business are articles, however valid and timely, that often present with clarifiers and modifiers explaining how the treatment plan was a compromise, and could have been better, or taken less time, if only the patient had done something differently.

Many clinicians are hesitant to submit because of the potential backlash from colleagues. Criticisms are leveled. Sometimes a doctor's professionalism is questioned.

A recent author of a well-written and documented article told me on the side that he received numerous comments regarding the lack of post-treatment cephs on his otherwise outstanding clinical report.

While peer review is an important process of what we do, it often can be a discouraging and even innovation-killing process. If you look at innovators throughout history, you'll find they often were ridiculed by their peers.

Let's also examine this idea in light of the business side of things. It's time to better serve patients by using solid business principles. But be aware that incorporating innovation may mean you won't always get peer approval!

Have the courage to use your talents to change the world. If you don't, someone else will!


Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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