I hope you all have a great start to the new year! I’m bringing something a bit different with Craftsmanship in this next season and I am excited to share that with you!

As you can see, there’s no Newsletter attached to this email this month, and there’s a good reason for this. Over the last few weeks, I’ve decided to go all in on the podcast side of things and establish Craftsmanship as a true dental podcast, aimed at ambitious dental students. Being in my final year, I want to share a lot of the experience I’ve had so far and I hope it could be helpful and relatable to you if you are a dental student.

I am also three months, or exactly one season, away from my dental school finals, so prioritising my studies for now means less time would be dedicated to Craftsmanship, and the best return of my time investment will be the podcast, so I’ll be hyperfocusing on getting as many high-quality episodes out there! Not to worry, as the newsletter WILL return, bigger and better than ever, but for the moment, the focus will be on creating podcast content to help more dental students find Craftsmanship!

As I am writing this email, I have a handful of episodes prepared, and will even be recording a few on New Year’s Day today!

In the meantime, give my most recent episode a listen, about what I learned about communication so far in dental school!

With that being said, I hope you all have an excellent start to the new year, and a year ahead filled with growth in all that you care about! If you’re setting big new year’s resolutions, remember that we may think we have a long year ahead, but unless we take small daily steps, our goals will remain on the horizon, beyond reach, so just focus on…

Getting Better Today!

And I will see you all next month.

Omar

Welcome to the 6th Issue of the Craftsmanship newsletter. This has been one hectic month, and I am grateful to be closing out the first year of Craftsmanship with an edition that I am proud of! This month I also released a great episode with Dr Ahmed Hussain, all about anterior composites, so tune in here to learn all about that! Keep reading to learn about the diagnosis and management of tooth wear, how I found my first onlay case, and what I learned, as well as some highlights and challenges from this past month in my final year of dental school!

READ THE NEWSLETTER HERE!

I will see you all in the new year, and as always…

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali

I hope you have all been well! I am excited to bring you this month’s issue, featuring some great pieces, including a guide to onlay preparation. For this month’s case, I will be sharing my very own for the first time, so give it a read! I am also excited to announce Craftsmanship’s first-ever partnership with another dental company that aligns with my vision here! This includes a giveaway as well as a unique discount code for Craftsmanship subscribers, so you do not want to miss this one!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEWSLETTER

In this last month, I have created a separate Craftsmanship Instagram profile, so give it a follow HERE!

I have also released another episode of the podcast, featuring the brilliant Dr. Makbule Ogretme (aka Dr. Mac), where we discuss paediatric dentistry, the importance of communication, and her advice to keen dental students!

As always, thank you all for your support, and most importantly…

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali

I hope you have all had a great start to the new academic year!! Mine has been hectic, but I am excited to bring you this month’s newsletter! In this one I reflect on some highs and lows from the beginning of the final year of dental school, and on some extracurriculars too! I also share a detailed, evidence-based guide I put together about Caries Removal Endpoints, an interesting and debated topic in restorative dentistry! I am also fortunate enough to have Dr. Reece Manikandan featured in this month’s issue, where he shares parts of a full-mouth rehabilitation case he worked on during his DFT year and his reflections on the case.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEWSLETTER!!

Over this past month, I have also released Episode 4 of the Craftsmanship Podcast, which is part 2 of the chat with Dr Zain Rizvi, where we delve into some interesting restorative topics! Give that a listen here:

As always, thank you all for your support, and most importantly…

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali

I hope you are all having a great summer! I’m excited to bring you this month’s edition of the Craftsmanship Newsletter, featuring a brilliant case by Dr Harry Craig, as well as some of my reflections and thoughts going into final year, and a guide and resource about an interesting partial denture technique, that you don’t want to miss out on!

CLICK ME TO OPEN THE NEWSLETTER!

I Have also released several podcast episodes over the last month, and will look to release more in the next one:

As always, thank you all for your support, and most importantly…

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali

I hope you are all doing well! This Second Issue of the Craftsmanship Newsletter is here! I have made a lot of big improvements to the quality of the newsletter.

Instead of seeing it in this email, just hit the link below to access it! It’s in a Word document format so you can download and view it offline to read on your commute, or anywhere else!

CLICK THIS to read the August Issue!

As always, stay tuned for podcasts that will be dropping soon, and next month’s newsletter!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

This is a new beginning for me. I am very excited to put this all together to deliver a product and a platform dedicated to education and mastery in clinical dentistry.

In case this is the first time you are reading my work, my name is Omar and I am a dental student entering my final year of dental school. I know this journey towards mastering clinical dentistry will be years or even decades in the making but I am excited to share what I learn and document the process!

I will be sharing my experiences and reflections from dental school, evidence-based articles or literature reviews, clinical case spotlights written by guest clinicians, as well as any other interesting insights, quotes, book recommendations, you name it! Tangential to this newsletter I am also the host of the Craftsmanship Podcast, where I will delve into these ideas and much more in greater detail, bringing on guest clinicians for interviews, and case discussions, as well as solo episodes where I delve deep into dental topics, my experiences in dental school, and more! The link to the very first episode is right here:

🔍Clinical Case Spotlight

This month’s clinical case is presented by this month’s guest writer, Dr Ahmed Alkhaledi (Instagram @dentist_on_hand), a general dentist working in Ireland, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a conference last year! He shares a case referred to him for a second opinion, where he saves a badly broken down, yet vital UR4, for a patient who was told that an extraction may be the only option! He explains his protocols for restoring this tooth while maintaining tooth vitality!

Presentation

The patient initially presented with solely the complaint of a ‘chipped’ tooth, there was no pain associated with the damage.

Assessment

This is arguably the most important step in restoring any tooth, an accurate assessment will greatly increase the efficiency of your workflow, allowing you to reliably plan a course of action, minimising the risk of running into difficulties intra-operatively.

For this specific case and for the vast majority of my ‘Heavily damaged’ teeth, the assessment revolves around 3 main tests, the first of which is the clinical presentation. It is important to assess the tooth intra-orally for any lesions/cracks/probings that may affect prognosis and/or possible treatment modalities. Following the clinical exam, a cold sensibility test is indicated. Even though root canal treatment can be carried out after restoration, this is not the ideal situation as it can be inefficient. Therefore, it is highly favourable to be aware of the endodontic status of a tooth before commencing any treatment.

Radiographic imaging would be the next important examination to carry out, even though a PA may be required if an RCT is planned, a Bitewing radiograph is the only reliable way to assess both the presence of caries and its extent, mainly towards the bone.

The target tooth had no irregular probings, a fully normal response to cold, and a restorable margin.

Treatment - The Workflow

Given the extent of damage to the tooth and the presence of deep decay, a selective caries removal protocol followed by a deep margin elevation and indirect restoration was the chosen treatment plan, a minimally invasive option with hopes of preserving tooth tissue and pulp vitality.

Reflections

Whereas conventional dentistry would have you carry out crown lengthening +/- root canal therapy followed by a crown, with the help of good bonding protocols, a lot of teeth can be saved, and pulps kept alive without the need for any such destructive treatments. With that said, a DME is an extremely technique-sensitive procedure, and one that is heavily reliant on a multitude of factors, clinical skills, material choice, and time to name a few, and although it can do wonders in aiding the restoration of heavily damaged teeth, a sub-optimal DME can have dire consequences to the teeth and the associated periodontal tissues.

🦷Restorability & Direct vs. Indirect Restorations

This is the age-old question for restoring the badly broken down tooth, and with so many treatment options to choose from, it can be difficult to even know what to recommend to patients, let alone what to ultimately decide to move forward with. In this article, I aim to outline some of the main factors to consider when weighing up decisions like this one, to give more clarity as to how a dentist (or dental student!) can approach this scenario.

What I have recently learned on clinics is that the most important thing we can do as a dentist is solve the patient’s complaint. Every option should be considered through that lens, and we may find that this will eliminate several options that are otherwise clinically feasible.

After scouring PubMed in research for this article, I realised that if done to high quality, there is largely no significant difference between materials or digital/analogue techniques, and there is not sufficient, high-quality, and unbiased evidence supporting one approach over all the others.

In a systematic review looking at thirteen studies where direct and indirect composites were compared, the lowest-bias study found that there was no significant difference in the success rate, and the results with a higher risk of bias were also inconclusive. (Azeem and Sureshbabu) It is important to note the main influencing factor that was concluded was the amount of remaining tooth tissue, which is something I am sure you would have expected. This seems very intuitive, as we were all taught in dental school, that obtaining that 2mm ferrule circumferentially around a tooth is key to a good restorative prognosis, and several papers address factors like structural integrity, periodontal and endodontic status, which is really well summarised in this table:

(Dawood and Patel)

To delve deeper into these concepts, the first of which is the tooth’s structural integrity. Note that structural integrity here is most important for restorations that rely (at least partially) on mechanical retention. Purely adhesive restorations, such as the more modern, biomimetic adhesive onlays rely primarily on chemical adhesion, but may still incorporate some structural features that aid in retention and resistance. The features that can contribute to this may be unique depending on the scenario, but every tooth being restored will require adequate retention and resistance form, and the product of these gives the tooth good structural integrity. Retention form is of course the product of the features of a tooth that prevent the movement of a restoration along the path of insertion (generally axially), while resistance form is comprised of the features preventing movement of a restoration in the non-axial direction, such as rotational movements. For traditional full-coverage crowns, retention form can be made up of the clinical crown height and the taper of the preparation, while resistance form will come from preparations being shaped similar to the natural tooth, rather than circular and conical, and in some cases, slots and grooves can aid in resistance. Furthermore, key aspects of a tooth’s structural integrity include the potential need for a post and core system to be used to create this retention and resistance, as well as the 1.5-2mm (ideally) circumferential ferrule (Juloski et al.), whose primary role is to improve fracture resistance of the tooth.

The other aspects of the Restorability Index include the periodontal and endodontic status of the tooth in question, with periodontal status being important, as the periodontium forms the foundations for any tooth, and this should be stable ideally, but even in cases of minimal pocketing, restorability is not greatly affected. This becomes an issue when there is grade 2-3 furcation involvements, pockets greater than 5.5mm, and other signs like mobility. The endodontic status of the tooth is also crucial, as it is widely known that non-vital, endodontically-treated teeth are more brittle and prone to fracture. This however, does not directly affect restorability of the tooth as much as the complexity of the root canal system and endodontic disease, as well as the subsequent quality of any endodontic treatment done. The fact that a tooth is non-vital alone may not be the deciding factor when determining restorability; unless it is untreatable endodontically for whatever reason. It is cases where the periodontal to endodontic prognosis is very questionable that may need referral, or at least a multidisciplinary approach to improve the periodontal/endodontic condition, before definitively restoring the tooth.

Along with these more concrete, scientific factors determining the restorability and consequent options for treating a tooth, there are other, “human” factors that are key to determining whether direct or indirect restorations can be feasible. These can include finances, but also consider what phase of treatment is the patient in (they may not be prepared for indirect restorations that demand a higher level of oral hygiene), or whether there is adequate access and ability to isolate with rubber dam, which may be critical for direct composite restorations or indirect restorations whose cements rely primarily on chemical adhesion rather than traditional luting cements. From my perspective, it is crucial that treatment should only be done if these surrounding “human factors” can be met, such as the isolation during treatment and the oral hygiene for long-term maintenance.

I hope this serves as a brief overview of assessing restorability! This is the first article I am writing on this topic, so let me know what you think or if there are any other considerations! I have also listed my references below if you would like to delve deeper into this!

Referencing

• Azeem, Rubeena Abdul, and Nivedhitha Malli Sureshbabu. “Clinical Performance of Direct versus Indirect Composite Restorations in Posterior Teeth: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Conservative Dentistry : JCD, vol. 21, no. 1, 2018, pp. 2–9, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5852929/, https://doi.org/10.4103/JCD.JCD_213_16.

• Aziz, Ahmed, and Omar El-Mowafy. “Six-Year Clinical Performance of Lithium Disilicate Glass-Ceramic CAD-CAM versus Metal-Ceramic Crowns.” The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics, vol. 15, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2023, pp. 44–44, https://doi.org/10.4047/jap.2023.15.1.44. Accessed 14 Aug. 2023.

• Belli, Renan, et al. “Mechanical Fatigue Degradation of Ceramics versus Resin Composites for Dental Restorations.” Dental Materials, vol. 30, no. 4, Apr. 2014, pp. 424–432, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dental.2014.01.003.

• Dawood, A., and S. Patel. “The Dental Practicality Index – Assessing the Restorability of Teeth.” BDJ, vol. 222, no. 10, 26 May 2017, pp. 755–758, https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.447.

• Holme, William. “Gold versus Ceramic - Which Will Last Longer for Posterior Indirect Restorations?” Evidence-Based Dentistry, vol. 23, no. 4, 16 Dec. 2022, pp. 166–167, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41432-022-0837-7.

• Juloski, Jelena, et al. “Ferrule Effect: A Literature Review.” Journal of Endodontics, vol. 38, no. 1, 2012, pp. 11–9, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22152612, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joen.2011.09.024.

• Rocha Gomes Torres, Carlos, et al. “Computer‐Aided Design and Computer‐Aided Manufacturing Indirect versus Direct Composite Restorations: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry, 29 Sept. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1111/jerd.12820. Accessed 30 Mar. 2022.

📒The Dental Journal

In this segment, I will delve into an experience or two from dental school, and share my reflections!

Over the past month, I have started my final year clinical schedule and this has been a huge step up from my previous experiences, as we have begun our outreach clinic placements. These placements are opportunities for us to develop our skills in a different environment, and so far my experience there has been more independent than that in my other clinics, which I enjoy. This did lead to me miscommunicating with my tutor on my regular patient clinics though, as I had become more accustomed to the more hands-off approach to outreach. If you don’t want to make the same mistake I did, consider establishing the level of communication that is expected of you by each clinical tutor you may have, as it will differ. This is very important because it ensures that everyone on the dental team is on the same page, and this will always be in the patient’s best interest.

Speaking of outreach clinics, I have found that I have spent most of my patient appointments making dentures at these clinics, and one aspect that has helped me with my prosthodontic work is to have a good understanding of the knowledge base firstly, to be able to bring that into my appointments, but also to have a systematic plan for carrying out the treatment. For example, when doing a jaw registration for a complete denture, or non-ICP case, ensure that you know what to check and when for both the upper and lower arches. For example, a great approach I learned from a mentor is to think of the upper arch for aesthetics, and the lower for function, so the checks and measurements you take should be based on that. This means that when recording the correct OVD, ensuring the upper rim is adjusted first to have the correct level of incisal show, and then having the lower denture be adjusted to create the desired OVD, would mean that both the function and aesthetics are achieved. This would not be the case if you remove wax from both rims when reaching that OVD, as the maxillary teeth may become too short aesthetically.

This Month’s Favourites

📚Book: Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal

I have been picking this book up quite regularly again to read an idea or two and I really believe this one strikes the perfect balance of aiming high and striving for excellence, while also ensuring the journey to get there is an enjoyable one. Having unbreakable discipline is priceless, but no one beats the person having fun while he is doing it, and that is what this book speaks about. Highly recommend this one!

💬Quote: By Don Simpson (a film producer)

The great thing about being 90% finished, is at least you know you're halfway there.

This quote highlights the difference between good work and great work, and that it takes an average amount of time and effort to produce something good, but disproportionately more time to produce something undeniable! As great as the minimalistic approach, and the 80/20 rule are, reaching the summit of the mountain can take twice the amount of effort it took to get most of the way up!

This brings us to the end of this very first issue of The Craftsmanship Newsletter! I hope you found this insightful and inspiring! If you are a dentist interested in writing for the newsletter, then don’t hesitate to contact me via Instagram @omar_dental_ !

If you enjoyed this issue, stay tuned for the next one, as well as The Craftsmanship Podcast on Spotify, and let me know if you have any suggestions!

Get Better Today!

I know it’s been a while since I have sent a newsletter, but here is what I have been up to. Until the end of May, I was revising extremely hard for my final exams of fourth year, and had to sacrifice a lot to put myself in the best position to succeed in the exams. The results have not been released yet, so the jury’s still out as to whether all of that paid off!

Since exams, I have been working on something behind the scenes, and this is what I want to share with you now!

I will be rebranding the newsletter, from “The Weekly Check-Up!” to something new entirely.

I will be looking to curate a new newsletter and host a new podcast, both under a new brand name:

Craftsmanship

The newsletter will be monthly rather than weekly, and will also include case presentations from other dentists who will write for the newsletter, as well as articles or literature reviews written by myself. If you enjoyed my traditional style with the insights of the week, book recommendations, and dental school diaries, then don’t worry, because those are still here to stay, and will be a part of the newsletter! The first issue is projected to be released at the beginning of July and I will be hosting it via a new platform, not Substack (as I have been doing until now).

The podcast itself will be debuting soon and will feature a blend of solo episodes and guest discussions (much like my previous podcast on Instagram Live) but now the podcast will be a more professional one and will be found on podcast platforms like Spotify, etc.

I am very excited to bring both the newsletter and podcast to you guys, and my goal is to create a professional platform focused on education and mastery.

Stay tuned, I will be announcing the release of the podcast soon!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you are all well! It's been a very busy week back on clinics, and with exams only a month away, things are getting hectic!

I will be putting a load of my side projects on hold for the next month or so and really prioritising my studying, so this will be the last newsletter I put out until June. I will also be leaving the Discord Community for a little while, but I have some exciting plans to revamp it to a different platform after exam season so stay tuned!

🦷 Dental Diary

This week we had a lot of care-planning clinics and with one particular patient, I found that I was able to utilise a lot of the knowledge I accumulated about occlusion. I am especially talking about those advanced concepts like the anterior envelope of function, and I’ve detailed the story in this week’s Clinical Revelation!

We also had a variety of Professionalism workshops, as that’s something we’ll also be examined on in this year’s final exams, and most of my spare time was spent revising!

🧠 Insight of the Week

The insight of this week is a short one, but a relevant one this exam season, there’s a quote from the bodybuilder Chris Bumstead that I remembered recently:

This pressure is a privilege.

I don’t know if he came up with this, but it’s such a brilliant principle, and links to the idea that I recently learned about in psychology called cognitive reframing, where you change your perception about a problem to help you solve or overcome it.

Cognitive reframing has been studied to be the best form of coping mechanism, so being able to rely on this idea of transforming challenges into gratitude!

💉 Clinical Revelation

A patient came in this week with complaints about a painful, root-treated tooth and also spoke about issues with crowded teeth. She also had a chipped central incisor which she wanted restored.

I assessed the patient but while I was waiting for the tutor I had a great conversation with them about that chipped tooth. I told her that, although she wanted it restored, that would only be a temporary solution because the cause of that fracture isn't a restorative one, it's an orthodontic one.

She had failed orthodontic treatment when she was young and her lower incisors were crowded, one of which was placed and tilted more lingually. This meant that during function, that particular tooth constricted the anterior envelope of function, and was hitting the fractured tooth more than it should have, leading to the chip.

Definitive treatment would be orthodontics, either braces or aligners to correct the position of the tooth, and when the chipped tooth is restored, it would be much less likely to fracture again.

Obviously, we can't provide any orthodontic treatment at dental school so she’d have to get it elsewhere, but I was grateful that I was able to use the extra knowledge I gathered from lectures and podcasts to help this patient, giving them options that other dentists did not tell her about before, and it suddenly felt like all of that extra effort came into good use.

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you are all well! Firstly, Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating! I have had a hectic week, a perfect storm of Eid celebrations, studying for final exams, and a course thrown in the mix as well!

🦷 Dental Diary

This week was technically the first week back, but it was a lecture week, of a load of content, and the clinics all start next week, so I just got to work on those!

Although I wasn’t on clinics this week as we had our lecture week at the start of term, I was lucky enough to attend a course run by Dr Rupert Monkhouse and Dr Steph Azmy, all about primary impressions, called “Build It Don’t Take It!”. I’ve mentioned Rupert before, he has become a mentor of sorts for me, and I was fortunate enough to win a giveaway to attend his course up in Manchester.

🧠 Insight of the Week

Attending this course was a great experience, because not only did I have the chance to do a lot of hands-on impression work, I learned where the value of a course comes from. A few years ago I would have said that paying for a course when the information is out there is not worth it, etc. I learned now from experiencing it that it’s not about the information specifically, it is about the application of it and tying all of the theory and the practical elements together in a cohesive way that can be applied by the delegates systematically.

To give some context; I have already attended several lectures from Rupert and know the basics of what he teaches. In the course though, it was structured in a way that made it very applicable for anyone to use once they have understood the concept. On top of that, the practical aspects and the involvement of technicians, etc. all part of the course meant that the experience was very holistic and you would get immediate feedback on whether you understood the concepts.

That is the real value of a course; the information may be out there but a course packages it in the best way possible for it to be understood and applied.

I have decided moving forward that I will be investing more in education like courses, study clubs, etc. because it will pay dividends in the skills I can develop and leverage in the future.

💉 Clinical Revelation

This week I am sharing one key tip from the course that I thought was brilliant for creating good primary impressions. It’s Dr Rupert’s “Can’t Go Wrong with Alginate” acronym:

• C - compound/putty placed in areas where there aren’t teeth and the support is needed (palate and ridges)

• G - green stick used for extending any of those areas, such as the tuberosities or retro-mylohyoid areas

• W - wax to capture the sulcus depth and width for the areas where there are teeth

• Alginate wash to finish and capture the fine details

📚 Reading Log

I have begun reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. You may have heard about this one; it’s incredibly popular, and all about building habits and creating systems to help achieve your goals. I have heard about most of its concepts before, but I am finally reading the book itself to see what more I can learn from it!

I am very excited to announce that the dental community I had been planning since the beginning of the New Year is finally here!!

I have created a FREE online dental community over on Discord. It's linked right here:

CLICK THIS!

In the community you will find:

• Forums where anyone can contribute, about every dental specialty, study tips, resources, research papers and books, and more!

• Study rooms to host revision sessions, Q&A-style lectures, and quiet rooms to simply join and study with a some accountability!

• Exclusive events and lectures from qualified dentists, that I won’t release anywhere else!

• A community of like-minded dental students and dentists that you can get to know and network with, all looking to become better at our craft every single day!

It is completely FREE, so why not join? Very soon we will have hundreds of members in this community so you don’t want to miss out!

Don’t worry though, The Weekly Check-Up Newsletter is not going anywhere, so stay tuned!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you are all well! Firstly, Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating! I have had a hectic week, a perfect storm of Eid celebrations, studying for final exams, and a course thrown in the mix as well!

🦷 Dental Diary

This week was technically the first week back, but it was a lecture week, of a load of content, and the clinics all start next week, so I just got to work on those!

Although I wasn’t on clinics this week as we had our lecture week at the start of term, I was lucky enough to attend a course run by Dr Rupert Monkhouse and Dr Steph Azmy, all about primary impressions, called “Build It Don’t Take It!”. I’ve mentioned Rupert before, he has become a mentor of sorts for me, and I was fortunate enough to win a giveaway to attend his course up in Manchester.

🧠 Insight of the Week

Attending this course was a great experience, because not only did I have the chance to do a lot of hands-on impression work, I learned where the value of a course comes from. A few years ago I would have said that paying for a course when the information is out there is not worth it, etc. I learned now from experiencing it that it’s not about the information specifically, it is about the application of it and tying all of the theory and the practical elements together in a cohesive way that can be applied by the delegates systematically.

To give some context; I have already attended several lectures from Rupert and know the basics of what he teaches. In the course though, it was structured in a way that made it very applicable for anyone to use once they have understood the concept. On top of that, the practical aspects and the involvement of technicians, etc. all part of the course meant that the experience was very holistic and you would get immediate feedback on whether you understood the concepts.

That is the real value of a course; the information may be out there but a course packages it in the best way possible for it to be understood and applied.

I have decided moving forward that I will be investing more in education like courses, study clubs, etc. because it will pay dividends in the skills I can develop and leverage in the future.

💉 Clinical Revelation

This week I am sharing one key tip from the course that I thought was brilliant for creating good primary impressions. It’s Dr Rupert’s “Can’t Go Wrong with Alginate” acronym:

• C - compound/putty placed in areas where there aren’t teeth and the support is needed (palate and ridges)

• G - green stick used for extending any of those areas, such as the tuberosities or retro-mylohyoid areas

• W - wax to capture the sulcus depth and width for the areas where there are teeth

• Alginate wash to finish and capture the fine details

📚 Reading Log

I have begun reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. You may have heard about this one; it’s incredibly popular, and all about building habits and creating systems to help achieve your goals. I have heard about most of its concepts before, but I am finally reading the book itself to see what more I can learn from it!

I am very excited to announce that the dental community I had been planning since the beginning of the New Year is finally here!!

I have created a FREE online dental community over on Discord. It's linked right here:

CLICK THIS!

In the community you will find:

• Forums where anyone can contribute, about every dental specialty, study tips, resources, research papers and books, and more!

• Study rooms to host revision sessions, Q&A-style lectures, and quiet rooms to simply join and study with a some accountability!

• Exclusive events and lectures from qualified dentists, that I won’t release anywhere else!

• A community of like-minded dental students and dentists that you can get to know and network with, all looking to become better at our craft every single day!

It is completely FREE, so why not join? Very soon we will have hundreds of members in this community so you don’t want to miss out!

Don’t worry though, The Weekly Check-Up Newsletter is not going anywhere, so stay tuned!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you are all well! I am very excited and proud to announce that the dental community I have been working on since the beginning of the New Year is finally here!!

I have created a FREE online dental community over on Discord. It's linked right here:

JOIN THE FREE COMMUNITY HERE

In the community you will find:

• Forums for:

  • EVERY dental specialty - where you can share cases & ask and answer questions

  • Study tips

  • Research papers

  • Study notes

  • sharing self-development insights, books, and podcasts

  That anyone in the community can contribute to!

• Study Rooms, including:

  • Rooms where you can join revision sessions on topics of your choice with other students in your year/uni

  • Quiet rooms to join and study independently, but with some accountability

  • Lectures hosted by myself and other members

• Exclusive events and lectures from members as well as qualified dentists, that I won’t release anywhere else!

• A social community of like-minded dental students and dentists that you can get to know and network with, all looking to become better at our craft, every single day!

It is completely FREE, so why not join? Very soon we will have hundreds of members in this community so you don’t want to miss out!

All you have to do is hit the link above and quickly make and verify an account, it’ll take one minute and you’ll be ready to join!

Don’t worry though, The Weekly Check-Up Newsletter is not going anywhere, so stay tuned!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you have all had a great week! I am deep into spring break at the moment and dedicating a lot of my time to all the lecture content we have to learn this year, while also trying to make the most of the month of Ramadan!

🦷 Dental Diary

Taking a few weeks off from clinics for the Easter break has helped me prepare my strategy for getting through the coming exam season. There are a ton of lectures and tutorials for me to make notes on, learn and memorise, not to mention the odd assignment or two! With that being said I am trying my best to structure my work in phases and break up all the content into manageable chunks.

🧠 Insight of the Week

The insight of the week this time around is one I read about a long time ago, but only began to apply now!

To set some context, this month I am taking time to be more reflective and determine the direction I want to go in, both in and out of my career, and I found the importance of setting big, ambitious, astronomical goals. As long as the journey and the process mean a lot to you, and it’s one that you find fulfillment in, then aim as high as you like; shoot for the moon! The goals I am setting my sights on scare me a little bit, but I haven’t felt this invigorated since I decided to apply to study dentistry five years ago!

The real insight comes now; when working towards anything that means a lot to you, make sure that you can also foresee failure. Look ahead and think about what obstacles might you face on your journey to pursuing this goal. What could go wrong? Maybe consider journaling this down, because the next step is to try and solve this problem as if it has happened. This way, if this obstacle does materialise, you have the tools and strategies to deal with it. When doing this for my own goal, the first thing that came to mind for me was losing motivation. This goal is life-changing, and not just a little side project, so I have to be vigilant in following it, making sure that when the motivation for it (which is sky-high right now) does inevitably fade, I can rely on the skill of discipline, as well as try to design my environment in such a way that makes it easy for me to feel motivated, and make it more likely that I am in that state.

🎙️ Podcast Plug

This week I listened to an episode from The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett. This is an old podcast I used to be a regular listener of a few years ago, but I tuned in for this episode because of the guest, who is Dr Layne Norton. He is an expert on nutrition and in my opinion, one of the few people worth listening to in the health and fitness space, because what he promotes is completely evidence-based. He is also a world champion powerlifter which resonated with me because powerlifting is often not associated with health and longevity, but he is an advocate for training hard, minimising injury, etc. The podcast delves into his backstory which took me by surprise and it was a fantastic listen all around!

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you are all well and have had a great week! Chances are this may be the last week of university for you before the Easter holidays start, that’s the case for me at the moment.

🦷 Dental Diary

This week on clinics I had a patient cancel yet again, so I went to see other patients who have come in for general care planning, which was great because I got some extra practice diagnosing and treatment planning, which can only be a benefit.

With that being said though, I had the opposite experience in Paediatrics at Denmark Hill, where I finally had the chance to see a patient. I was lucky enough to see a young 7-year-old boy, to place a fissure sealant, and it was such a rewarding experience. I feel like my years of working as an 11+ tutor helped me communicate with the child, and I generally really enjoyed speaking with and treating them, and all the challenges that came with it. I had to be very mindful of the words I used when talking to the parent and my clinical partner and explain to them what we were doing and why. I realised this past week that I genuinely enjoy seeing and treating paediatric patients, and I can’t wait to gain more experience there.

🧠 Insight of the Week

My insight for this week is a reflection about how I can become better, when it comes to many different facets of my life: work, fitness, family, friendships, etc. After some reflection, I realised that one of the bottlenecks in my life right now is my inability to execute the things I plan.

When it comes to planning, I am about as meticulous as you can get. The only downside to that is that I often find that I am stuck in this planning mode and I am not able to execute and carry out everything I set out to do.

Here is what I found has helped me:

• When I plan, I try not to spend ages doing so, but the most important thing is to be very specific with the plan; that way, when I come to execute, there is no confusion, no mental debate, no hesitation about what needs to get done.

• The next idea is to set up my environment in such a way that makes me want to execute and makes executing a lot easier. For example, when studying, I like having a drink or snack with me, as well as things like background music, a timer, etc. If having these things will allow me to execute, then that should be prioritised.

Maybe you don’t relate to this and you have no trouble taking action on the tasks you plan to do, but if you are anything like me, you too might be affected by analysis paralysis and sometimes find that your current constraint is simply your ability to just do the things you said you were going to do, so I hope this helps!

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you have all had a great week once again! This has been a great eye-opening one for me, and I have had some time to reflect on my personal and career goals! Before we dive into it, I just want to wish every other Muslim reading this Ramadan Mubarak! I hope this first week and the coming ones will be of great spiritual benefit to us!

🦷 Dental Diary

This week at dental school we had our regular clinics replaced with a one-day implant course. (check out my latest Instagram post for more on this!) It was an interesting experience, and I really appreciate now that implantology is a fantastic career path to get into, perhaps not exclusively, but I understand now more than ever that being competent with implants should be a trait of any high-performing restorative dentist, so it’s a skill I would want to build once I’m out there in the real world of practice.

We still had our regular oral surgery clinic though, and I managed to extract my third tooth, with the help of my tutor at the end. This particular case was tricky because the root tips were very thin, curved, and spindly and this meant that when I was delivering with my forceps, one of the tips fractured and had to be fished out with the Cryers elevator. It was my first experience with the Cryers so I wasn’t very good with it and my tutor did have to step in towards the end and elevate that root tip out. I improved my surgery technique this time around, but in all honesty, it bruises my ego whenever a tutor steps in to help, and the challenge is accepting that more often than not, I do need their help and that it’s a part of their job, to help me when I put myself in a situation that’s not ideal!

I had a conversation with someone on Instagram afterwards about improving my surgical work, and they taught me something interesting; it is important to anticipate failure in some cases where it may be very likely and be prepared to deal with a complication, or in some cases, deliberately fracture a root, etc. and have a clear plan to remove the remaining root. This is in those tougher cases, but this mindset of planning, anticipating failure, and planning accordingly is so valuable, and if you explain it to patients, they may feel that they’re in good hands and that you are in control of the situation.

🧠 Insight of the Week

This week I was speaking to a friend about building our portfolios and networking, and I realised something interesting that I want to share; building your portfolio and networking are completely different!

This may seem obvious at first, but many students including myself, think that to progress in our career we need to attend conferences and seminars, do courses, and take lots of photos. This may be true, but to clarify with an example, saying you have been to a certain conference largely does nothing for your portfolio, because it doesn’t enable you to add any more value as a clinician.

Networking is just about who you know, that can offer you opportunities, and vice versa.

But you can’t network if you have nothing of value to offer. That is where your CV/portfolio comes in; it is your body of work, that showcases what you can offer an employer, a patient, and the profession at large.

Sure, rubbing shoulders with some top dentists is great, but if we have no skills to offer, then they wouldn’t want to offer us an opportunity. Think about it, would you if you were in their position?

The key then is not just to network, but to build up your skills and show your work. As the author Mark Manson writes, “Be so good they can’t ignore you”!

I know you’re thinking this is all nice and motivational, but how can someone build their portfolio? Here are just a few ideas I can think of, but I’m sure you can think of a few more!

• Record and show your work online (like on Instagram, LinkedIn, or a professional website); although we are still students, I believe our reflections on our work are a telling sign of our potential!

• Get involved with research and publications; this takes a lot of time and effort so make sure you enjoy what you are researching and learning about.

• Read articles/papers and implement what you learn with patients provided it’s evidence-based.

• Build or get involved with a society or organisation, that takes a variety of skills!

I’m sure there’s loads more you can think of!

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you have all had a great week! Mine has certainly been a busy one, with clinical exams, humanities presentations, and back-to-back patients on the clinic!

🦷 Dental Diary

This week on clinics I had a chance at redemption! To give some context, this year we have to complete 10 clinical exams on patients called CAFs, and in November I was attempting to pass my ID block CAF, but when I injected I had missed the lingual nerve and therefore failed that CAF. This experience drove me to become better and to gain more experience with giving injections specifically ID blocks. I promised myself that I wouldn’t resit the CAF until I had done another 5 ID blocks, and that is exactly what I did. On top of that, I had spent extra time reading about the complications of the injection, relevant medical history, and how it would impact giving this type of anaesthesia.

I felt that by this point, I earned a pass on this exam because of all the work I had put in, and that is exactly what I got! I’m grateful to be up another exam, but I do have a lot left to go, with not many clinical sessions left this year, so it’s time for me to step it up and focus on getting as many done as I can.

We also had a few submissions this week for our Clinical Humanities module, which I completed, but I felt that I had struggled with presenting when we were doing the presentation portion of the module, and that is something I will want to improve going forward. This, again though, will come the more preparation I do.

🧠 Insight of the Week

Failing that clinical exam a few months ago affected my confidence, and forced me to re-assess how I approached clinical dentistry and how I see and treat my patients. I learned that with every patient, there must be an element of preparation or confidence that cannot be faked. Before any difficult case, I learned that it is necessary to read as much as I can around the subject, to ask my tutors questions, and ultimately, preparation is the one key to true confidence.

The main lesson I took away from this is that there is no getting around the hard work it takes to perform well in anything. The only way to overcome failure is to face it head-on and be on the offensive. I remember how I felt attempting that exam the first time around, how I was unsure of how I was going to do because I had only ever done 1 ID block before sitting the exam, and it was almost a year prior; truthfully I didn’t deserve to feel confident at the time. Since then, racking up a handful of ID blocks and watching every YouTube video under the sun about technique meant this exam was just another ID block, and was nothing special.

💉 Clinical Revelation

The clinical tip I learned recently is about ID blocks, and it becomes useful when you have learned the anatomy associated with it, and it is to visualise the tip of the needle as you inject, hit bone, and manipulate the needle. Imagine the needle had a camera at its tip. I found that this helps with locating the injection site. I will say that this was only useful once I learned my anatomy, so make sure you do that, then give this a try!

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you are all well and have had a fantastic week! A bit of a different newsletter this week, as the focus will be on more clinical dentistry, where I will try and give you guys some more practical advice based on what I learned this week on clinics and from some amazing resources!

🦷 Dental Diary

The main reason for this different twist this time around is that I didn’t see any patients this week; I had a cancellation on clinics so I did some phantom head work to practice my composites, which will have been posted today (check it out ;) ) over on my Instagram!

I did have a Radiology tutorial this week as well though which was incredibly helpful because it made sure we solidified the lectures that we were given for radiology and human disease this year.

🧠 Insight of the Week

The insight of the week is a very short one, but it is all about the idea of working with precision as a dentist. Whether we are doing crown preps are restorations, we are often working in millimetre measurements (or even smaller), so approaching every step independently and making sure to nail it before moving on will help us maintain a high standard for our work and develop greater precision, and ultimately a better outcome for our patients. That means that when applying a bonding agent onto the tooth, only apply it in the specific areas that you are supposed to, and for the exact time you are supposed to, rather than just scrubbing the microbrush onto the tooth for a few seconds while we think about what we’re going to have for dinner that evening!

💉 Clinical Revelation

Here are the two best tips I learned this week about composite restorations:

• DO NOT drag your composite when you place it into a cavity, instead focus on sculpting and cutting it, as it maintains its smooth consistency that way. If you drag it, it can accumulate these flakes on the surface after you cure, and that pulling motion might lead to voids and deficiencies in your restorations!

• If you are using a circumferential matrix, like the OmniMatrix we have at King’s, it can be hard to create a tight contact point because of how we have to tighten the matrix to get a good proximal seal, and that creates a gap between our restoration and the adjacent tooth, leading to food packing. A great tip my tutor taught me is to place the matrix band, tighten it like normal, and place our wedge in. If we select the wedge correctly and it fits quite tightly, then we can loosen our matrix AFTER the wedge is in place, and that gives our matrix some give so that when we burnish it against the adjacent tooth, the matrix is loose enough to actually adapt, change shape and contact the adjacent tooth properly!

🎙️ Podcast Plug

This week I am plugging The Protrusive Dental Podcast! This is an absolute must-follow if you are a dental student who cares about your craft. The host Jaz Gulati is incredible at breaking down dental concepts in a digestible way, and although aimed at dentists, even as a student, his podcasts have helped me immensely!

On top of that, he brings on brilliant guests to discuss concepts, techniques, and dental philosophies! Specifically, his most recent episode with Dr Ahmed Tadfi was phenomenal! Dr Tadfi is a magician of a dentist. I really understood why in this episode, where he explains his technique for working with composite in meticulous detail, and he inspired the tips in the newsletter this week!

I will have that episode linked here if you want to check it out!

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Get Better Today!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you have all had a great week! It has been a bit of a different one for me, having a few days of clinic, then an exam to end the week as well, and I’ll get into all that in this week’s issue!

But first, just a quick announcement that I will be LIVE this Thursday (29th Feb) at 7 PM with Dr Gilan Nehad, AKA Dr. G from The Presenting Complaint Podcast. He is a young dentist currently working in DCT, so we will dive into that topic this week! If you have considered doing DCT after dental school or want to learn more about it, then you don’t want to miss this one, so tune in to ask any questions!

🦷 Dental Diary

Some big wins at the clinic this week, as I saw my case-pres patient and was able to reassess them, rechart their teeth, detect caries, take radiographs, and with the help of my tutor, was able to put together an updated care plan for my patient, which I am excited to make more progress with!

My partner also had a complete/partial denture case going, and he made primary impressions for this week as well, we were successfully able to “build” up the impressions, utlising all the materials in our arsenal to fabricate the best impressions we could. Check out my most recent post on this where I go into a lot of detail about that process, as inspired by Dr Rupert Monkhouse, whom I also saw this week, as he presented a lecture for our committee at the King’s Prosthodontics Society, which was fabulous. He has a way of simplifying removable prosthodontics, and even though I had seen him lecture before, there was still a lot to take away, particularly to do with digital dentistry, and combining that with the traditional analogue impression techniques.

At the end of the week, I also sat another formative exam this week, on our Human Health and Disease module. This is arguably the most difficult module we have and this exam was strange in that it was an MCQ, so a different format from what we get examined on at the end of the year, where we’ll have essay-style questions! Though this wasn’t necessarily good exam practice, it did help me figure out how my learning, understanding, and memorisation of this massive topic has been going, so it may be useful to point me in a certain direction with my revision for the final exams.

🧠 Insight of the Week

A big lesson this week came from a brilliant YouTube video I watched by Thomas Frank, which I will link below and I highly recommend watching if you want to gain clarity on what you want to accomplish!

An interesting concept that Thomas talks about is the idea of pressure; you may have heard of the saying that “diamonds are formed under pressure” and it’s what we students say after we have procrastinated for long enough and now that seemingly distant deadline for that hefty assignment is on the horizon. We say it as a way to motivate ourselves to produce good work because there is the pressure of that deadline. Thomas explains that this concept applies in just the same way to our larger aspirations and goals. Imagine a gas canister filled with air: because of the high pressure inside, it becomes very useful for a variety of things, like pumping a tire, but if we were to make the canister ten times bigger, then that higher volume would lead to a lower pressure, rendering our gas canister useless.

This is what happens when we keep putting new projects, goals, and aspirations onto our plate, we increase the volume of our “gas canister” but our resources (the air) like our time, energy, money, and focus, are limited and that means we can’t give our all for any of the goals we have set out to achieve.

Thomas goes on to explain how we can figure out what we want the most so that we can reduce the volume of our cannister, and apply the maximum pressure onto the few goals that we actually want to work on, so give that a try!

💉 Clinical Revelation

This week’s clinical tip isn’t technically a clinical one, but it’s something that’s potentially more important than any individual quick tip or hack I know of!

In dentistry, particularly in dental school, we often have many different inputs regarding how to do certain treatments; we’ve got our lectures, our tutors, any consultants, Instagram, other dentists in practice who we may have connected with, and so on. It can be difficult to figure out what we should do and why when every opinion seems to be different. But from my experience, they’re just that. Opinions. I was speaking to a friend recently about what we enjoy about this field we’re in, and I brought up the fact that although I am not an artist, most of the hobbies in my life have been very technical ones, but ultimately they had a degree of creative expression embedded within them. The same is true for dentistry.

I realised that as long as we know the basics by studying the properties of our materials, and can apply them with our creative flair, then we will cultivate our unique style of practice.

What do I mean by this?

Let’s take impressions for example. Some dentists love using silicone; others prefer compound for supporting soft tissues; some may use wax for some of the ridges and not others. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which technique you use as they can all produce the same, good results. What matters the most is your understanding of why you use them. That way, when an unfamiliar situation inevitably arises, you can approach it with no issues, as you’re not relying on a cookie-cutter clinical tip to lead to successful treatment; you understand the materials and tools you’re working with and know the purpose of each and can use them to problem-solve in any case that comes your way. So, if a tutor loves using wax in a certain area and advises you to do so, certainly follow their advice, but also ask them why. Surely it will be useful in some cases, but in others, it may be a hindrance in your hands, but you won’t be able to understand when those times may arise if you don’t know the purpose behind using it!

There is no one perfect composite, impression material, or bur. It takes the dentist to be able to manipulate all of these to their advantage and creatively come up with a solution.

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Get Better Today :)

I hope you have all had a fantastic week! This has been a really busy week at university, with a lot of oral surgery clinics, some shadowing, and even an exam to finish the week!

🦷 Dental Diary

This has been a week of me doubling down on my weaknesses and trying to turn them into strengths; I extracted another tooth, completely independently this time, and gave lots of LA in my SSC session, where I assisted the DCT dentists. Keep reading to see the main story from oral surgery this week!

I also sat a professionalism exam this week; this was a multiple choice test, which I anticipate will be similar to the SJT next year, but for some comparison is very similar to the Situational Judgement section of the UCAT which you might remember.

🧠 Insight of the Week

The big takeaway from this week for me will only make sense with some context. Let me set the table…

This week in my Oral Surgery clinic I was seeing a patient for a LL8 extraction. This tooth was slightly mobile because of some periapical pathology and it was causing the patient extreme pain. Our tutor for the day was the only one in the clinic, and she was very busy trying to help everyone with their patients.

Thus far, I had only extracted teeth under direct supervision, with a tutor always being there, helping me find application points for my instruments and guiding me through the process. But not today. Because my tutor wasn’t there to watch my every move, I was essentially on my own.

My clinical partner was there to help of course, and after having given the patient LA correctly with her first attempt, that meant I could get straight to it with my luxator. Naturally, I tend to rush these types of treatments, eager to move onto the forceps to quickly deliver the tooth. It was always my tutor who told me to stay using one instrument before moving on to the next.

Without my tutor there to help me this time, I realised very soon that I was once again rushing as I was on the forceps just minutes after starting, and wasn’t getting anywhere with them. Needing to overcome this, I paused, reassessed, and decided to start from the beginning, checking that every site had been luxated, then moved on to the elevators, working through the different sizes, before finally finishing with the forceps. I was even able to give some supplemental intra-ligamentary LA during the extraction when the patient experienced some pain. Engaging the forceps this time around felt effortless, and the tooth was delivered in no time, and the patient was out of pain.

The lesson I learned here is that sometimes, being left to your own devices to problem-solve for yourself can be very empowering. This only really applies once you know the basics and are just trying to put it into practice. If my tutor was standing with me they would have given me all the advice I needed, before I could have figured it out on my own.

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Omar Tabaqchali :)

I hope you have all had a great week! Mine has certainly been a busy one, and a bit of an off-week, especially towards the tail end of it. That being said, there was still a lot to be learned, so here’s what happened.

Before we dive into it though, just a quick reminder that Episode 7 of The Weekly Check-Up Podcast will be Live tomorrow evening (Mon 12th Feb) at 7PM, so tune in on Instagram, where I’ll be chatting with Dr Ali Hashemizadeh all about his journey through DFT and practice, and he will share some restorative cases he has on his page too!

🦷 Dental Diary

On clinics, the theme of this week in some ways was speed. I managed to see a patient who had to be booked in very late and did so in perfect time, so I am slowly learning to speed up my appointment times and get to the treatment I am doing, by making sure I am very succinct with my history-taking. After my clinical partner’s patient later on in that same day, we had some time before the end of clinics so I attempted a very fast crown prep, seeing how far I could go when pushed for time. This is something that I haven’t experienced yet, but it will certainly be a challenge in clinical practice; when you’re running late and patients are waiting, will you be able to maintain the high standard of work you set for yourself even under that time pressure? If you’re interested in how that went, I did put up a post explaining the challenges of that prep this week on my Instagram!

At the end of the week, I also attended my first dental course! This was a great experience, and once again, just like the BACD conference, showed me what is truly possible when doing high-end dentistry! This course was the Mini Smile Makeover Course by Dipesh Parmar & Payman Langroudi, and they were kind enough to have students attend for free to watch the course, so a huge thank you to them for the opportunity! Although I didn’t do the hands-on element of the course, I did watch the lectures that were given, and they were brilliant, essentially much more in-depth versions of our university lectures, diving deep into the specific clinical uses of different types of composites, their properties, and how they can be used together to create the strongest and most aesthetic anterior restorations. I can certainly take some of the advice and apply it in the clinic next time I do an anterior composite, whether that is with a patient of mine, or on the phantom heads.

🧠 Insight of the Week

The insight of the week has a lot to do with reading, but can apply to any other hobby as well! As I mentioned last week, I began reading a fiction book called The Name of the Wind, and it’s been sitting on my shelf for over a year so I decided to pick it up again. After a few days, I found myself losing interest, and forcing myself to read even a single page of the book! I reflected more on this, and the reason why I wanted to read that book to begin with. Now as you may know if you’ve followed my journey for a while, I mostly read non-fiction books, and that is mostly so I can learn and benefit from them. Fiction is something I read purely for enjoyment, so if I wasn’t excited to read one, then why bother with it at all?

After that realisation, I instantly switched the book I was reading with another one, Words of Radiance (the sequel to my favourite fiction book), and have been enjoying that since.

The insight in all this is to consider the reasons behind a hobby of yours if you feel that it has become stagnant or you aren’t making progress, and if the reasons aren’t aligning with your actions, then change one of them; either reflect on the purpose behind it or change the actions you are currently doing to get you back on track to fulfil the purpose of the hobby. As I write this I am realising that this can apply to so many aspects of life, like work and exercise too!

💉 Clinical Revelation

This week’s clinical tip is a crown prep one, so if you are in your third year doing that revered crown prep exam soon, this may be useful! Something I learned last year but had to put into practice this week when doing that phantom head crown prep was to focus on using the side of the bur to prepare the axial walls and letting the reductions I do passively create the margin. I find myself naturally trying to “draw in” that margin first with the tip of my bur before worrying if I’ve reduced enough, but focusing on the reduction will ultimately create the correct margin anyway, as long as you are preparing that the correct height and using the right bur.

Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!

That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!

Omar Tabaqchali :)