Advice for young dentists
Q: What’s the best thing to do at the start of your career?
A: Get out of your comfort zone.
I was presenting an in-office seminar to a great group recently, many of whom were young dentists. That is, they had less than 5 years of practicing experience.
I was asked the question:
“What should we do as young dentists to advance?”
My answer was simple:
“Get out of your comfort zone.”
When everything is new in your practice of dentistry the tendency is to fall back on things that are simple and easy.
To just do a clean, when full periodontal treatment is called for.
To just do a filling, when a porcelain onlay would be much better.
To just leave a gap or do a partial, when an implant would be better.
To recommend an extraction rather than doing a root filling, core and crown.
Perfectly natural to want to keep your life easy and your stress low but not the best for your career in dentistry, long-term.
The danger is that if you keep dodging challenging treatments then you can de-skill in certain areas of dentistry such as endodontics and crowns.
During the dental degree you only get to do a few crowns and so you have not built a reliable database of knowledge in that area.
I think that young dentists should always aim to be doing one or two procedures a day that are slightly out of their comfort zone.
Please let me emphasise the word — SLIGHTLY.
The procedures should be a challenge but achievable. Not something that no young dentist can achieve like a full mouth restoration. And definitely not something where there is the risk of a screw up.
This constant challenge of being slightly out of your comfort zone will move your career on wonderfully.
