Preparing Practice-Ready Dentists at UCSF

Dental schools train dentists to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients. But what if a patient can’t afford the recommended treatment? How do dentists lead or manage a dental team? How do they evaluate the financial health of a practice?

At UCSF School of Dentistry, preparing students for their careers means also teaching the practice-management skills needed to navigate the operational, financial, and regulatory realities of dentistry that are relevant across a variety of professional settings.

“Success is going to mean different things to every dental school graduate. Whatever success means to them, we want to make sure we’ve given them the tools and knowledge to achieve it,” said Diana Nguyen, DDS, health sciences associate clinical professor and chief of general dentistry at UCSF.

Building Skills Across the Curriculum

Eva Bender, DDS, health sciences associate clinical professor, said students develop practice-management skills throughout all four years of their day-to-day clinical experiences, including coordinating patient care, managing time, working with electronic health records, and taking on leadership roles.

Bender explained that understanding the business and management side of dentistry is applicable across career pathways, whether that’s helping community-based practices expand care with limited resources, overseeing student clinics and institutional planning in academia, or applying systems-level thinking to policy and program development in public health.

“Ultimately, preparing students to understand the business and management of dentistry ensures they can step confidently into any professional environment,” Bender said.

From Dental School to Practice

In their final year of UCSF’s DDS program, students take a required four-course series designed as intensive practice-management preparation for the clinical, operational, and business realities of practicing dentistry. These advanced general dentistry courses incorporate guest lectures from faculty members, private practice owners, specialists, and dental organization leaders, who provide real-world perspectives on the clinical and business decisions dentists face.

Nguyen, who designed and now leads the four courses, drew from her recollections of being a new dental school graduate. “There were so many things I didn't know. I didn't know the right questions to ask. I didn't know how to evaluate job opportunities and if they were right for me,” Nguyen said.

Topics across the four courses include dental insurance, legal and regulatory compliance — including the California Dental Practice Act and jurisprudence — and evaluating clinical or operational issues. Students also explore steps involved in practice ownership from creating a business plan and securing a loan to evaluating a practice location in relation to the type of dentistry they hope to provide.

For Celine Ngo, a fourth-year student in UCSF Dentistry’s DDS program, the series has helped make career options that once seemed abstract more concrete. Before beginning the coursework, Ngo said she knew broadly about paths such as working as an associate or owning a practice but understood less about what those paths and other practice settings actually looked like.

“I liked learning that my career does not have to follow one specific path and that I can stay involved in different areas of dentistry throughout my career,” Ngo said.

Bringing Practice Into the Classroom

Hibret Benjamin, DDS, health sciences assistant clinical professor at UCSF and owner of Marina Tooth Fairy Dental, is a guest lecturer for the course series. Her lecture aims to bridge the gap between dental school and the realities of practicing dentistry.

“I try to share the things I wish someone had taught me before I graduated,” Benjamin said. “I also talk very openly about mistakes, lessons learned, and how my practice has evolved over the years.”

“Clinical excellence is only one part of being a successful dentist. You also have to know how to communicate, lead a team, manage your time, understand the economics of a practice, and earn the trust of your patients,” Benjamin said.

Putting Practice-Management Skills Into Practice

Alongside their coursework, students develop practice-management skills through the day-to-day experience of caring for patients in UCSF’s Pre-Doctoral Dental Clinic. They manage schedules, coordinate with faculty and clinic staff, use Epic and other systems, and navigate financial and treatment discussions.

Clayton Nordstrom, administrative supervisor at the UCSF Pre-Doctoral Clinic, said he sees students build greater confidence in their practice-management skills over the course of their education and training.

“By the time they are in their final year, I see students becoming much more independent in their communication, organization, and problem-solving,” Nordstrom said. “They also begin to think more like practitioners because they begin to understand that there is a patient, a schedule, a team, and a business component all connected to every clinical decision.”

Working alongside clinic staff gives students a chance to navigate experiences that are difficult to recreate in the classroom, Nordstrom said. A patient may be frustrated about a bill, confused about an appointment, or upset about a delay in treatment. Students work with clinic staff to listen to patients and find solutions that follow clinic policies.

Those experiences reinforce that successful patient care depends on more than the individual dentist. “Those day-to-day interactions help students understand the importance of teamwork, professionalism, empathy, and adaptability—skills that are essential in practice but are difficult to fully develop through classroom instruction alone,” Nordstrom said.

Story by Erin Wilkey Oh
Photos by Maurice Ramirez