Charity VanderWall-Lacey talks about her experience at the ADA New Dentist Conference:

Organized dentistry is an important aspect of our profession. To help foster involvement of new and future dentists, the Kentucky Dental Association, through the Kentucky Dental Foundation Grant, sponsored two D4 students, one from University of Louisville and one from University of Kentucky, to attend the 2015 ADA New Dentist Conference in Washington, DC. The New Dentist Conference was held in conjunction with the 2015 Annual ADA Meeting.

As a D4 student, less than six months away from being a new dentist, I have much more professional growing to do. Being able to attend the new dentist conference and parts of the ADA meeting allowed me to grow not only through CE courses, but through networking with other dental professionals. I received a lot of great advice and words of wisdom from dentists in various stages of their careers. I also attended CE courses and had exposure to equipment and devices I had not previously known about.  I was even able to share some of this learned information with my classmates during a group presentation as part of my clinical patient management course.

My time at the conference reminded me that, though I am currently concerned about essential clinical experiences and board exams, I will soon be a member of a great profession with an exciting future in which I look forward to contributing to.