To be the best dentist you can be, find your mentor
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 8th February 2022
Every dentist needs a mentor. It doesn’t matter how long you have been practising, or how many people look up to you as a source of inspiration, support and guidance, having a mentor will enrich your career in fundamental ways.
In dentistry, there is always something to learn. This is what keeps us in love with the profession, because we can find solutions for problems that would have once been impossible to solve. But it can also lead to self-doubt, when we worry we don’t have the right skills to help a patient. New techniques are emerging all the time, alongside cutting-edge, high-tech equipment and tools to deliver them, and it’s easy to feel left behind. The science is constantly evolving too, increasing our understanding about dental disease and how to prevent it.
If you have a mentor, you get a sounding board and someone to discuss complex cases with. They can share their knowledge and insight, and you can share yours. The best mentor-mentee relationships are mutually beneficial and supportive, allowing you both to gain something from it.
Having a mentor will keep you focussed on the present, but ensure you have an eye on the future, which always comes around faster than we’d like. The day-to-day in a busy practice can be all-consuming; suddenly you realise you forgot to investigate a postgraduate course you’d been thinking about, and now it’s full – and that’s just one example. A mentor is often someone whose career pathway you admire, who made good decisions for their professional and personal growth at the right time, and who has enjoyed success and fulfilment as a result.
If you are leading a dental team and are being mentored, your colleagues will know that you are willing to keep learning and improving. In turn, they will feel comfortable asking for opportunities to develop their own careers. This will keep morale high and enrich the practice as a whole. Being open to new ideas, including further training, will keep people motivated and engaged and this positivity will be felt by patients. A mentor can help you be a better leader and create a team that shares your goals, and that is fully committed to growing a successful, thriving practice with you.
A great mentor can help you fill in the gaps. It is not uncommon for dentists to feel isolated, because it is by nature a solitary job. A mentor can keep you connected, but will often be able to see immediately, with their advantage of distance, things you could work on and possibly change. Dentistry is all about people, but that doesn’t only mean your patients! It means the professional network that you have around you, to ensure you are getting as much out your work as you can. A good mentor will keep you on the right track. They can help you decide when to update your clinical skills and knowledge, and also plan treatment better, by advising what they would do in a situation.
So where to find a mentor? You may have maintained connections you made at dental school, with your tutors and others. Now that you are qualified, further training is often the best way to gain a mentor who is fully invested in your career. There are many postgraduate programmes that will enable you to develop skills and knowledge in new areas, so you can raise the standard of care you provide and help more patients along the way. Quality dental implant therapy is increasingly sought-after, and training to be an implant dentist will allow you to expand your practice’s treatment provision as well as keep yourself inspired by learning how to deliver a result that endures. The One To One Implant Education’s fully accredited EduQual Level 7 postgraduate Diploma in Implant Dentistry not only offers exceptional training – with a significant portion of the course being dedicated to live surgery – but it also has a tiered peer mentor system, with every delegate receiving a tutor who has been taught by its team of experienced lecturers and clinicians. Secure a place on the programme and you will become part of an extended family, a thriving community of implant dentists who continue to support one another, keeping standards high as well as providing guidance, advice and friendship.
With a mentor, you will elevate your dentistry and stay engaged with this ever-changing profession. When you access further training, this can put you in touch with people who will be by your side for the rest of their career – wherever it takes you. Being a mentee is an enriching experience, and can help you inspire others. A mentor really is your secret weapon, allowing you to take your dentistry to incredible heights.
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 20thyear. 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.
To reserve your place or to find out more, please visit
https://121implanteducation.co.uk or call 020 7486 0000
