Lead Associate Dentist in Private Practice

Are You Ready to Actually Practice Dentistry?

Too often, associates are handed four columns of patients, one assistant, and a schedule designed to keep you busy — not to make you better. You're doing the leftover work, working through lunch, and wondering why your "adjusted production" paycheck never adds up. Corporate DSOs promise mentorship and deliver micromanagement. GPR programs promise training and deliver frustration. Sound familiar?

We built something different. And we'd like you to be part of it.

Pathway Dental Group is accepting applications for our next associate dentist in our Santa Maria and Lompoc locations on California's beautiful Central Coast.

This Isn't a Job. It's a Career Launch Pad.

Whether you're a seasoned associate ready for a better environment, or a new graduate who doesn't want to waste a year in a GPR program without private practice experience— we built this for you.

Our Clinical Director, Dr. Sten Ericson, works chairside with our associates. Not over your shoulder, not critiquing after the fact — with you, in real time, on real cases. Within your first 90 days, you can expect to be placing guided implants. That's not a typo.

Here's what your clinical training path looks like:

- Guided implant placement — within 90 days with an AAID doctor

- Grafting and PRF — hands-on, not just observed

- Sedation dentistry — integrated into your actual schedule with an ASDA doctor

- Full-mouth restorations and locator cases with a Kois trained doctor who has completed thousands of these cases himself, not one just talking from an ivory tower

- Advanced prosthodontics — the kind you only read about in textbooks in school

- Crestal sinus lifts, surgical extractions, molar endo and more

-Comprehensive aesthetic makeovers-with an AACD doctor who was an member of the education committee

-Clear aligner orthodontics with a doctor who was an instructor with POS

- A deliberate, unhurried pace — you'll start with a manageable column load and grow from there, with a mentor schedule that builds your confidence before your volume
We treat your first year here the way a great GPR should be run — except you're in a thriving private group practice, treating real patients who keep coming back, and you're being compensated for it.

Private Practice. Not a DSO.

This matters. You will never be a production number here. Our doctors collaborate openly — sharing CE takeaways, flagging mistakes early, and building each other up. No one is hoarding patients or throwing colleagues under the bus. When everyone individually does better, the whole does better. That's not a platitude. It's how we operate.

We aren't in LA — and we like it that way. Our patients know you by name. You can own a move-in ready home here for roughly half of what a fixer-upper costs in a major metro. You can live by the water, in wine country, or in a neighborhood that actually feels like one. And spend your time outside with your friends and family rather than stuck in gridlock traffic.

The Compensation Is Real.

Our associates make between $250,000–$525,000 annually on a percentage of what they produce — no smoke, no massaging of reports. You'll have the option to move to percentage-based compensation early once you're ready, so your earning potential grows as your skills do.

- 3½ days per week — no nights, no weekends

- Done by 4:00 pm most days; 1:00 pm on Fridays

- 4 weeks minimum vacation — your emergency patients are covered by your colleagues

- Full benefits package

- Partnership track available for the right person
What We're Looking for in You
A doctor who wants to be great at dentistry. Someone who's curious, coachable, and excited to grow — whether that's day one out of school or year five in a practice that never let you reach your potential.

We take every new addition seriously. We're backing the right person with our doctors, our team, and a patient base eager to meet the newest member of the PDG family.

To apply, send us your cover letter, resume, and — most importantly — tell us what makes YOU different from the stack of identical applications sitting on our desk. We look forward to finding out.

Pay: $225,000.00 - $550,000.00 per year
Benefits:
401(k)
401(k) matching
Dental insurance
Flexible schedule
Health insurance
Professional development assistance
Retirement plan
Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
Please confirm you have an active California Dental License
Please confirm you are willing to relocate to our area
Work Location: In person