Attending my FIRST Course!
Hey everyone,
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 :)