The implant dentist pathway: choose practical, hands-on and building on the basics
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 23rd July 2023
At dental school, being asked about your career pathway may have sent you into an anxious spin. Whether your course had met, exceeded or fallen short of your expectations, what comes next doesn’t always have a straightforward answer.
Dentistry is a challenging profession to be in right now – quite simply, the need is sky-high. Becoming a dentist is to enable people of all ages to lead better, healthier lives where they feel like the best version of themselves. As a novice, the reality of the problems you see every day, once you start caring for real patients, is often the steepest learning curve. The gaps in your dental degree can look glaring, exposing the areas in which you haven’t got enough knowledge and hands-on experience to offer the kind of holistic experience people want.
Dental implantology is one such area, a modern treatment segment that is in demand and can be life changing, yet requires skill to plan and execute successfully and ethically. A general dentist who can incorporate implant work into their own practices safely and effectively is a dentist who is able to deliver customised, comprehensive care.
When you add dental implant training to your career journey, you can do more. Professional fulfilment will not only come from your fantastic results, but also from the team you’ll build around you. Dental nurses, dental hygienists, dental therapists and technicians… they are all integral to the process. You’ll obviously unlock a valuable new revenue stream, too.
With little or no experience in implant dentistry, do not think that training will take up too much time, and disrupt your work life balance. There are pathways available that will develop the skills you have, while giving you focussed learning that will allow you to achieve your goal.
Look for a postgraduate programme that is both highly practical and establishes protocols using the latest theory. A successful implant practitioner is defined by how successfully they deliver in a range of disciplines, not just their clinical skills. These include data collection, diagnostics, communication with the lab, material selection and more. A quality postgraduate course will recognise this, to give delegates the confidence to treat their own patients from start to finish. You will achieve outcomes that are highly aesthetic and also functional, and that will restore people’s sense of self by giving them back what they thought was lost.
A significant hands-on element is crucial, so you can get involved in as well as observe live surgery. It will teach you how to safely and predictably provide dental implant procedures, and offer the opportunity to be present and assist with more advanced cases. This can then become a springboard into further study, enabling you to accept complex referrals in the future.
When you choose work-based implant education, you will be building on the basics that make a great dental practitioner, that is trusted by their patients to keep them in good oral health for a lifetime. Implant training that is based on skills development, also communication and teamwork will enhance your everyday dentistry, improve your problem solving and how well you engage with the people you care for and work with. This approach will teach you how to be meticulous in your planning too, to create unique treatment plans that people will want to stick to, and your practice colleagues will understand how to support and implement.
This is a pathway that will give you the freedom to bring what you’ve learned back to practice, during the time that you are completing the programme and beyond. Sharing what you’re doing will inspire others too – when a dentist embarks on quality implant learning this is often a catalyst that reinvigorates the whole environment. The dental nurse, dental hygienist and/or dental therapist et al may be motivated to start their own new career pathway so they can stand by you and give each patient gold standard care.
The One to One Implant Education has a fully-certified PG Diploma in Implant Dentistry that will teach the GDP how to carry out surgical and restorative implant procedures. Technical support, as well as mentoring is given throughout this 18-day programme, with live surgery and prosthetics a core element, ensuring you can start transferring your skills within your own practice remit. This is a pathway that will take you from novice to safe, competent and confident implant dentist, ready to get going right away and build a foundation for more advanced practise, when the time is right for you.
For a novice dentist, a pathway into implant dentistry that builds on the basics is ideal, because it will help you be a better clinician, team player and communicator while you’re learning. Even with little or no previous experience, with the right programme, general dentists can start safely and predictably offering these treatments to their patients.
To reserve your place or to find out more, please visit
https://121implanteducation.co.uk or call 020 7486 0000.
Dr Fazeela Bio
Author bio:
Dr Fazeela Khan-Osborne is the founding clinician of the FACE dental implant multi-disciplinary team for the One To One Dental Clinic based on Harley Street, London. She has always had a passion and special interest in implant dentistry, particularly in surgical and restorative full arch rehabilitation of the maxilla. She has been involved in developing treatment modalities for peri-implantitis within clinical practice.
Dr Khan-Osborne is also the Founding Course Lead for the One To One Education Programme, now in its 20th year. As a former Lead Tutor on the Diploma in Implant Dentistry course at the Royal College of Surgeons (England), she lectures worldwide on implant dentistry and is an active full member of the Association of Dental Implantology, the British Academy of Aesthetic Dentistry and the International Congress of Oral Implantologists.
