Speaking from Experience
Like the rest of us, Heather Smith-Briggs ’04 has had ups and downs in her career. A down was on one of her happiest days when she delivered her son and learned her boss sold the practice.
“I never had postpartum depression, but I had ‘Oh, my God, I don't have a job depression,’” she said.
She leverages experiences and moments of learning like this to help other dentists with their careers. She lectures on a number of subjects, like contracts, insurance, and dental service organizations (DSOs).
A native of New Jersey, Smith-Briggs is the oldest of four. “We grew up very frugal,” she said. Her mother worked nights and her dad worked days. “We only went to the dentist when something hurt or when we had a swelling or an abscess in our mouth,” she said. “I wanted to change that.”
She majored in biology with a minor in chemistry and then applied to dental schools. She got accepted to all but chose Rutgers, then UMDNJ. “I was just impressed immediately,” she said. “The class sizes were smaller, it seemed much more intimate, and it just felt like a perfect fit when I came to interview.”
She got involved with student government and met some of her life-long mentors, like Eileen Hoskin, associate professor of professional practice and director of operative dentistry. “[She] was probably one of the most positive influences while I was at school,” said Smith-Briggs. She still vividly remembers how one day, she spent three hours making a temp, which accidentally got sucked by the vacuum just as she was about done. “I almost cried that day, right there,” she said. “[Dr. Hoskin] came over and made a new temp in five minutes. Boom, boom, like it was nothing. And she said to me ‘You win some and you lose some, but you've got to just keep your head up and keep going.’”
And Smith-Briggs kept at it. She graduated in 2004 and did a yearlong residency at the Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune. She has been with the same office for 15 years, which became a branch of ProSmile. She started out as a dentist and climbed up to her current role, the chief dental officer for ProSmile in October 2021.
“We are the largest private entity treating the Medicaid population,” she said. Pulling from this experience, she has a lecture called “Treat the Patient, not the Insurance.” She informs dentists about different kinds of insurance and dispels treatment and insurance misconceptions.
She also made it her goal to show what DSOs can offer. “The face of dentistry is changing,” she said. “When you work in the office with one other person, you are limited to the knowledge that you and that person have. With a DSO, the patient base is there, you build your speed and skills faster, and more importantly, you have this network of doctors around you.”
She recently came back to RSDM to tell students about ProSmile and deliver her lecture on insurance. “The students were very interested, very engaged,” she said. Smith-Briggs herself also re-engaged with the RSDM Alumni Association as a class representative. “It's nice to see that a lot of the same faculty are still here, even though it’s 20 years later.”
