Fazeela Osborne Khan asks what makes an exceptional dentist.
Good relationships with patients can help to prevent not just dental anxiety, but dental neglect. If, as a team, you don’t prioritise the building and maintaining of productive relationships with your patients, you will see more contacting you with a problem that requires a more time-consuming and expensive solution because it has been allowed to progress. This experience will often be stressful too, for everyone involved.
Positive relationships mean you can share knowledge and develop trust and understanding. As a profession, we have long dealt with negative stereotypes about what we do, and few people would admit they actually enjoy attending dental visits, whether for a consultation or treatment. But patients are often far more interested in their mouth than we think.
Being able to give patients the whole picture, so they can see how they got to where they are today, will enable them to take ownership of their oral health. To get this, you’ll also need the skills to gather as much information as possible from them, during every interaction you have. Communication is one of the crucial pillars for a successful career and, if you are a novice dentist, you may find that this is one of the most challenging aspects of those early days.
Postgraduate training, undertaken sooner rather than later, can be a great way to learn how to build better relationships and, ultimately, create a healthier patient community. If you are looking for an area to train in, I consider dental implant therapies treatments that patients will be asking for more and more. Whether as a replacement for a single tooth, or for delivering extensive whole-mouth rehabilitation, dental implants have fast become the gold-standard, the desirable choice. With people living longer in the UK, dentists need to be well prepared for the clinical management of an older population. There are many options based on implants that are suitable for these patients, that give a highly satisfactory and stable result and can be delivered efficiently and conservatively, with minimal stress. Because an implant functions just like a natural tooth, it won’t impair chewing, supporting good nutrition ¬– even improving it, in some cases. No worries of slippage, or problems when eating ‘stringy’ foods like meat or fish. Why shouldn’t a patient in their 70s or even 80s be able to enjoy a steak? Telling patients how you can restore their dignity, and sense of self, whatever their age, is an extremely rewarding part of the job. It is not just younger people who want to be able to look in the mirror and see the best version of themselves. Training how to place and restore dental implants now will mean you’re ready when for when more patients say ‘yes’, building on established relationships, as well as accepting more referrals.
A dental implant can also be a cost-effective choice, and they’re comfortable too. A skilled implant dentist, supported by a brilliant team, will also deliver a solution that looks both beautiful and natural, and works in harmony with the rest of the features.
Of course, it is not just the older population who will be interested, and making enquiries. For younger patients who have lost a tooth through an accident or injury, an implant can be the perfect solution. Again, someone in this situation may not realise that this is an option available to them and they could be distressed at the thought of needing a removable prosthesis.
Quality training will not only make you an implant dentist, but also a better all-round clinician, who understands how key patient relationships are, for empowering people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Learn to be an implant dentist, and you will have the means to restore confidence and self-esteem, and instruct people – with the help of your team – in how to practise good maintenance with an elevated hygiene routine. Find postgraduate training that advocates lifelong learning, as well giving you the chance to find a mentor to support you, as your career progresses. Also look for a significant hands-on element, to back up the theory, as well as a teaching team that includes dentists whose work you admire. For example, The One to One Implant Education offers fully accredited postgraduate training programmes that will allow you to get going right way. Advanced courses are also available, but once you start your journey you will reap the rewards by becoming better at treatment planning, and building relationships in order to facilitate successful treatment outcomes.
Good relationships are the key to healthier patient populations, and any dentist who wants to be known as a caring, kind communicator as well as great clinician should access further training in order to develop these skills. Quality postgraduate education, in an area of high-demand now and certainly in the years ahead, will ensure you’re ahead of the rest.