NMDA Journal Fall 2018

29 nmdental.org NEW DENTIST COMMITTEE By Joe Gherardi, DDS— New Dentist Committee Chair No not that kind, but now that I have your attention I would like to discuss the real concrete aspects that give value to membership. I have listed these before and I think they can best be broken down into two categories: financial benefits and social and professional friends. I’m sure you always hear about all the different things that the ADA & NMDA do “for” you on behalf of all dentists and the career of dentistry. Things like advocacy, legislative issues, and self-governing. And to be honest, these things all add up to probably the largest and most valuable assets that the ADA can offer you over the life of your career, but I don’t have enough time in this one article to elaborate on these details. So, representing the new dentists I would like to talk about a little more immediate and tangible benefits and ones that make sense to the wallet. First, being a young dentist and not having much of it, I will talk about the most tangible benefit that we can use, money. I would like to point out four huge money savers that more than pay for my membership dues. The first is registration dues to both NMDA and ADA sessions. If you are planning on attending the national ADA meeting this alone can save you hundreds of dollars in registration alone. This doesn’t include the NMDA’s annual summer session or the many free CE dinners that your local chapter holds throughout the year. There are also many products and endorsed vendors that make a big difference in your practice expense savings that both the ADA and NMDA offer. This is huge for practice owners, and I know in our own practice we were sorry that we waited to use some of these because after we did it seemed like a no-brainer and the continuous savings are a gift that keep on giving. The last two are huge difference makers. One, being particular to new dentists and our debt coming out of school, is the student loan refinancing program available through Laurel Road. ADA members are exclusively eligible for an additional 0.25% rate reduction. I am very OCD when it comes to big purchases and interest rates, so I’m constantly checking for a little better deal. With small things this “nickel and diming” seems trivial and usually is, however when it comes to large sums of loan principal and years of compound interest it makes a big difference; and on average it can save individuals a little over $30K over the life of their loan. That’s no small potatoes. And finally, another huge saver for the rest of your career which is the savings on insurance plans. There are several insurance plans available (through Great West) to members only that are seriously a steal when it comes to premium cost. In fact, I had a financial advisor/ insurance broker giving me a quote on some plans for term life and I gave him what I was paying for my term life through Great West and he looked at me and told me, “Well that’s crazy and I can’t beat that.” I also recently switched my disability insurance over to the ADA sponsored plan and am paying about one-third of what I was previously for the same coverage. When it comes to student loans and insurance coverage every individual is a little different so you should always research things best for your situation, but with what I have seen from myself and heard from others it seems hard to find truly better and cheaper options out there, which is why for me these are savings that my family and I will be able to utilize for a long time and more than cover my annual membership dues. Secondly, the other largest tangible benefit that I see is the friends that you can make with fellow members. No this doesn’t mean paying your dues equals access to a club, so don’t think of it as “buying friends.” It does however give a great avenue to meeting and connecting with fellow dentists in your city, around your state, and even across the country that you otherwise probably would not have the opportunity to meet. Not only can you simply meet these other great dentists but as all being members I believe the relationship that you can form with some of these individuals goes much deeper than ones that you usually form at other CE conferences and other dental meetings because your interests in bettering the profession align. This doesn’t mean you have the same views on the issues or how to improve it, but it does open the dialogue. And all of us trying to attain this improvement to dentistry is what truly matters. Furthermore, I believe it is many of these individuals that you meet through your membership that you will keep in contact with and share the most experiences with throughout your long dental career, and at the end of your career I would bet that these relationships will be worth even more than all of those other financial benefits. with