Build a Dental Career You Control.
Dental school taught you how to become a dentist. The Handpiece Less Traveled helps you figure out what to do with the career you’ve earned.
You don’t have to predict your career.
You have to retain the ability to choose it.
Five Decisions Will Shape Your Dental Career
Dental careers rarely go exactly according to plan. But most of the major choices you’ll face fall into five areas.
THLT gives you a framework for thinking through each one.
01
Where Should I Practice?
Market, competition, opportunity, and where you career has room to grow.
Explore This Decision →
03
Should I Own a Dental Practice?
Decide whether ownership fits the career and life you actually want.
Explore This Decision→
02
Where Can I Learn the Most?
Evaluate an opportunity by what it will teach you—not just what it will pay you.
Explore This Decision→
04
When Should I Pivot?
Recognize when something needs to change—and make sure you’re moving toward something better.
Explore This Decision→
05
How Do I Build Financial Freedom?
Build enough financial flexibility to make career decisions because you want to—not because you have to.
Explore This Decision→
THLT is More Than a Book
The Handpiece Less Traveled started as a book, but the goal is bigger than that.
THLT is a free career-development resource for dental students and young dentists trying to make better decisions about their careers.
No sales pitch. No single “right” path. Just honest conversations, practical frameworks, and lessons from dentists who have actually lived through these decisions.
Real Stories
Learn from dentists who have taken different paths—and what they learned along the way.
Practical Frameworks
Use the THLT Career Evaluations to think through major career decisions for yourself.
Explore THLT Resources →
Honest Mentorship
Get perspective from people who care more about helping you make a good decision than telling you what decision to make.
Why I Built THLT
I graduated from dental school in 2007 thinking I had a pretty good idea of what my career would look like.
I didn't.
Since then, I've practiced in multiple states, worked as an associate, owned practices, made money, lost money, made good decisions, made some terrible ones, and changed direction more times than I ever expected.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that some of the most important decisions in a dental career are the ones nobody really teaches us how to make.
That's why I built The Handpiece Less Traveled.
Not to tell young dentists what path to take.
To help them make better decisions about the path they choose.
My Story→
Start With The Decision You’re Facing
You don't need to have your entire career figured out.
Start with the decision that's in front of you right now.
The THLT Career Evaluations will help you ask better questions, understand the tradeoffs, and make the decision for yourself.
01
Where Should I Practice?
Where Can I Learn the Most?
Start Evaluation →
02
03
Should I Own a Dental Practice?
04
When Should I Pivot?
05
How Do I Build Financial Freedom?
THLT Market Evaluation
THLT Learning Environment Evaluation
Start Evaluation→
THLT Ownership Evaluation
Start Evaluation →
THLT Pivot Evaluation
Start Evaluation →
THLT Financial Freedom Evaluation
Start Evaluation →
You Don’t Have to Figure it Out Alone
THLT is being built as a community for dental students and young dentists who want honest conversations about building a career in dentistry.
Learn from other dentists. Ask questions. Hear different perspectives. And make your own decisions.
Join the Community
Connect with dental students, young dentists, and experienced dentists navigating the same career decisions.
Join the Community →
Watch the Conversations
Hear dentists talk honestly about the decisions, mistakes, pivots, and lessons that shaped their careers.
Watch THLT →
Read the Book
The Handpiece Less Traveled explores the five major career decisions through the successes, failures, and lessons that shaped my own career.
Learn About the Book →
You Don’t Have to Predict Your Career
You have to retain the ability to choose it.
There is no single right way to build a career in dentistry.
Learn from people who have taken different paths. Ask better questions. Understand the tradeoffs.
Then choose the path that makes sense for you.
START WITH THE FIVE DECISIONS →