CONS Tutorials, Social Media & Communication in Dentistry!
Hey everyone,
I hope you guys are doing well! I've had an extremely hard week juggling loads of things and was actually about to post on my story to say there won't be an email this week! Then I remembered a quote from someone who really inspires me and I realised that times like this are when being consistent matters the most! Anyways, enough waffle, let's get straight into it!
🦷 Dental Diary
This week has been a bit boring at dental school honestly, we really didn't do a lot of new learning, and with exams around the corner, I spent most of the time revising. However, the highlight of my week was actually my CONS (conservative dentistry) tutorial! In this module, we learn about restorative and conservative dentistry, i.e. fillings. Not only was my tutor very engaging, but I also got to ask some questions about the topic. I try to make it a point to ask questions whenever I can because, in my opinion, it's the best way to actually learn and really broadens my knowledge.
Some more details about that are in this week's Insight of the Week!
I also went to Guy's Hospital this week to practice more scaling (I know, so fun!) for my exams in the next few weeks. I've got a mock practical exam in just a couple of days, and the real exam the week after!
🧠 Insight of the Week
Specifically, the question I asked in my CONS tutorial was related to the case we were studying, but I asked about the effectiveness of another treatment option, one I had mainly studied on Instagram. My tutor then explained the pros and CONS (no pun intended XD) of both treatments and why he uses a certain methodology/philosophy when treating this type of case. This was such an interesting experience for me, because not only did it solidify what I learned independently, but it also taught me some of the disadvantages of treatments, something I probably wasn't going to learn on social media!
This really goes to show the power of social media, especially in a field like dentistry, where you can study the work of the best in the world, and learn from them. On the flip side though, social media is not usually enough, and it's really important to ask questions to solidify and expand your knowledge. This is something that can be done on social media too, and I sometimes DM dentists about cases they've posted if I'm curious about something. Even if you're just an applicant, dentists and dental students are genuinely really friendly so don't hesitate to message us, we're here to help people after all!
📚 Reading Log
I've managed to do a bit more reading this week as promised, not as much as I would have liked, but it's definitely an improvement. I'm reading a new book called "The Lies of Locke Lamora", which is a story about these orphan thieves and their lives in their cruel town run by crime syndicates! The premise sounds very interesting so I'm looking forward to getting through this one!
✍️ Applicant Tip of the Week
For this week's tip, I'm going to be addressing questions about communication and why it is so important in dentistry!
So, communication, along with maybe reflection (I could do another tip on this next week if you like) are probably the two most important skills a dentist should master. This is because you will need to be able to build rapport and gain the trust of each and every one of your patients to be successful. This is so hard because every patient is different so it's all about how you tailor your communication (this includes speech but also non-verbal communication like body language, tonality, etc) to each patient.
This is so key, not only to build rapport but also to ensure the patient is well-informed and can make the best decisions for themselves (notice how this ties in nicely with autonomy and medical ethics ;) ).
If asked about this, make sure you bring up this point and ideally mention a time you noticed the dentist talking to a patient in a certain way in order to best get across to them their treatment option, gain their trust, and ultimately improve their quality of life!
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 or just wanna chat! Talk to you guys next week!
Omar Tabaqchali :)