Sometimes I get a bit stressed doing dentistry, I worry when I run late and I’m not very good at rushing.

I’ve realised I will never be a very quick dentist

I don’t like patching things up, I don’t like putting things off and I like to give my patients all the options

I don’t know how you manage an emergency pain appointment in 5 minutes

I take a lot of radiographs because you should and because I believe that 1 in 10 will totally change your treatment plan

I care so much how things go that I carry disappointment of  a poor contact point around with me for hours.

I probably need to get a life

Sometimes I feel like I want to give up, I think that everyone else just does it easily, that they are better than me, that they never have bad days.

I wonder how anyone can work so fast, I wonder how anyone can be so good, I wonder where they find the time?

I dream of putting little stains in my occlusal composites and the day when I never have to admit defeat when; trying to place a rubber dam for 10 minutes/ pulling an amalgam out/ not finding a canal and generally looking like an idiot to a patient.

and then I remember that I’m getting better all the time

Because I kept trying i can now most times throw a dam on

My composites are looking better all the time, so are my preps, my impressions, my dentures, my root fillings

It’s getting easier, there are no short cuts but It’s slowly getting easier

I wouldn’t say I’m getting much quicker but I’m learning my pace and I’m learning how to make that work for me

I try to do it once and do it right

I know that to get better, you have to go outside your comfort zone; and that means sometimes things get messy

I’m not afraid to try and I’m not afraid to fail

I will do so being honest and knowing I tried my best for the patient

I don’t have all the answers yet but I’m keeping the faith that one day I will

One day the hard work will pay off and people will wonder how I got so good

My patients will continue to come back for years and I will enjoy seeing my old work.

I just have to keep trying and keep believing

We are all in the same boat

We just have to keep the faith

Chris

I remember being asked as an interview question if I would describe myself as proactive or reactive? I gave the standard answer that of course I was both:

Proactive meaning I prepared thoroughly so that I could face new problems in my stride

Reactive meaning that I could respond well to new situations and quickly develop strategies when difficulties arrive

Well last week was my first in a new job. Probably like many of you and if your anything like me you will have realised that no matter how proactive you have been there was a lot to react to! For the, “fly by the seat of your pants” folk this will have been a bit easier than for the proactive among us who like to feel in control at all times!

For me, it was a difficult first week but enjoyable and as a proactive person I have been working out how best to meet the challenges I faced so that next week is easier. One of the hurdles is that I now work across 2 surgeries and although I went in and stocked the surgeries as best as I could before starting work there is some equipment that I have to move between the surgeries.

To counter this I have stocked up my own dentists trolley! Laugh if you will but this little fun box (from wicks) is the answer to my dental equipment dreams. It contains all my favorite stuff: bur kits, dam sheets, loupes, camera, vitrebond, sectional matrix kit and much more! In time I will have all the crown stuff in a separate compartment the endo stuff in another and the white filling stuff in another… can you imagine the bliss of it?  Being able to work in any surgery, anywhere, at any time!

I hope you can agree it is something to aspire to and having just shelled out for my very own digital camera and worked hard to research and order all this stuff it with some pride I look upon my trolley and how far I have come.

I also just want to mention that the best thing of all the kit I have bought in was some schottlander bur kits: See here.

Of them i can highly recommend the finishing bur kit and the eastman crown prep kit which have both been a joy to work last week!

I know most people won’t have this particular problem when they start their job but it might be something else. Or maybe you can envisage a problem you can see coming up that you could prepare for. If I’m honest I wish I was more of a reactive person but I think I struggle when I face hard new situations. I have to have my trauma guidelines on hand, know what is the surgery and have cheat sheets on how to use all the bonding materials ready. It’s not easy, no one ever said it would be; stuff will happen, but at least I know I’ve tried my best. Just remember that if you are out of your comfort zone maybe the best thing you can do it to take a step back temporize as best you can and be ready for another day. Patients will understand this and the most important thing always is that we avoid at any cost doing any harm!

Anyway, I wish all those people like me good luck with their second weeks, it’s got to be easier than the first… right???

I am now prepared to react!

Chris

I guess you have noticed but I’ve given myself a little extended holiday from the blog. I’ve not written for a while, not got back to some emails and generally shirked my responsibilities.

As the blog is voluntary and can be quite time consuming I feel a little odd defending my absence but I will because I genuinely feel I’ve let down the people who read it, write comments and make it what is is. It’s been great to see people commenting in my absence and makes me very proud of what we have set up, and by the way the blog has its 1 year anniversary last month so yay to that! I also turned another year older so I’ve written a new  profile page but kept the same photo so I can pretend I’m getting wiser but not uglier!

Here are my excuses:

1) I had my MFDS part 2 exams to revise for (all passed now thanks), and work to complete to finish my VT (done!)

2) I was staring s Norman in the play “A Nightingale Sang” (and growing sexy mustache)

3) I went on holiday to see my sister who lives in Germany

4) I was feeling a little burnt out to be honest and really needed to spend some time with loved ones before I moved from Newcastle to Sheffield to start my new job! I found the easiest way to do this was to just take a total break from the dental social media scene and try to hide from emails

5) I’ve moved to Sheffield and have had to prepare for the new job which I start tomorrow (gulp)

It doesn’t mean I stopped having ideas for blogs or getting photos of cases. In fact I’m hoping to have a productive August of stuff to put up. The thing was the longer I waited the more I wanted to get back to blogging with a bang and I’ve actually spent the last 3 weeks researching porcelain bonding and crown types and manufacturers for a new guide on what i think is a very confusing subject. I’ve written about 5 pages on it on word so hopefully I’ll split it into blogs and post with pics soon but I’ve not quite got there yet and I can’t wait to post something any longer!

I also just want to say that I am really committed to keeping this blog running long term as I love writing it so please subscribe and stay with it! I cant promise an article every week or anything but I will do my best to keep the content useful, clinical and only occasionally whimsical.

Chris

P.S If you have emailed for advice or blog related things in the last month or so, I’m sorry for the delay, I will be working through them shortly.

I’m feeling reflective today having got the day off to myself. I was supposed to be heading home to see my mum but I forgot I was going to see Hot Chip tonight, so I’ve been a little at a loose end.

I’m afraid I don’t feel like writing about dentistry much today. I had one of those days yesterday where the job got me down and I’ve been stewing on it all day.

Mind if a share my stewing about yesterday?

Well at first there was a patient with a terminal upper bridge and lower denture worn to nothing. Last visit I suggested he really needed to move to an upper denture and get a new lower one. Yes I appreciated £198 was a lot of money but the bridge really was on the very last legs and I didn’t think he could keep getting it re-cemented every month. Yesterday I attempted to take primary imps and do a full exam. Question “could you take the denture out please sir”, answer “I haven’t been able to for 4 months and it has only been out twice since it was made.”

Well the horror must have showed on my face as I resorted on trimming back the slimy denture in the mouth to release it and expose the most unbelievable path of insertion I’ve ever seen. I then had to scale all the teeth fully take impressions and adjust the denture to something reasonable, running miles late in the process. None of that bothered me but it was the overriding feeling that the patient thought I was ripping him off. That the work was not needed, that I’d conned him into having new dentures and insulting the old dentist by trying to correct the current set. “Your a very good salesman” he told me when I first convinced him to get a new set, “A good salesman but a lousy dentist” was how it sounded now.

Then later a set of complete dentures at try-in, I’d been asked to make a new set by another dentist at the practice after he’d struggled twice to match the ladies expectations. I’ve done the works on these dentures and had some trouble with the lab but I thought they were going well god fit, excellent extensions, occlusion spot on, yes the upper needed a wash impression as the cast had a large air blow but they were a pretty good. “Not happy” said the lady “the lower denture moves” she said thrusting her tongue forward. And that was when it hit me… I could never match this ladies expectation of what a complete denture could achieve on almost no ridge. I tried to explain and make her understand the limitations but then I heard “well if I’d known that I wouldn’t have paid you to let you try to make a new set”. The miscommunication was my fault, I’m sure, and I still hold out hope of wowing her when they are finished.

What hurts is despite all the effort I make with dentures, the books the greenstick and the time I take, she still felt I’d ripped her off. Even though the cost of the dentures had already far outweighed her cost, even though I thought I’d explained at the start the limitations, she still felt I’d ripped her off.

I’m sure you have felt like this in your job. I was ready for a holiday, tired and exposed and took it too personally. I see that know and I’m over it, I’m going to do my best to amaze them next time I see them anyway: perfect dentures all round. But if not I’ll tell them the truth; that I’ve done my best, better than some would do and that I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.

I wish that was easy for me to do. I want every patient to be delighted with treatment I provide to understand how I’ve excelled when it’s finishe, but that is an unreasonable aim. They are not dentists; they want “no pain” and speed, not beautiful posterior crown margins. I need to stop trying to show off to them when I get in a sclerosed canal after 20 minutes hard slog. It’s too important to me to do my best for me to change how I work but I need to toughen up mentally, improve my communication skills to ease these situations, stop seeking constant approval and have more confidence in what I’m all about.

I have therefore decided today to make this goal for myself:

I am going to develop an inner confidence in what I do and be proud of that. Proud enough that I do not need the constant approval of others or to favorably compare myself against others in order to remain proud.

Maybe you already have this. Insecurity is my least favorite weakness I see in myself from time to time and I hate how it affects my relationships and mood. I’m not saying I’m a complete arse, or at least I try not to be, however I acknowledge there is certainly room for improvement.

So in the spirit of my new resolution I’d like to share something personal with you all. This is a poem I wrote when I was 18. I’ve given it a little rework recently and it was supposed to be part of a larger collection that never really took off. I wrote about 5 poems in all and sent them to this little competition. Having failed miserably to even get some feedback I sort of stopped writing. This was my favorite from the failed venture and I’m still a little proud of it and now I have an excuse to share it. I am nervous to share it, like the first time I blogged, or put up clinical photos and that usually means it’s a good thing to do.

Hope you enjoy it but if not don’t worry, I’ll not lose sleep over it

Now I am officially ready for the floor!

All the best

Chris

Since I started the blog I have become the king of the to do list. I can’t keep on top without them.

Prioritise into A) urgent, B) Priority and C) low priority and  start ticking them off!

I found this website off a Seth Godin blog ages ago and I’ve been using it for at least 3 months.

I love it: It’s called Teux Deux and I have it is probably my second most used bookmark. I strongly recommend it to all busy people to get their lives in order!

Chris

Sorry to go very off topic but I just want to share this website with you.

A while ago I went on holiday with my best friends two of which are in a band. They made a great album, funded it by helping build the studio they recorded it in and are really tallented song writers.

Their problem was that record companies are being squezed at the moment and they couldn’t get a good distribution deal. The other problem is everyone is downloading all the music for free and the record business doesn’t know what to do. We need to change the way the game is played.

We mulled it over on holiday and got discussing a certain Seth Godin and a free-volution. We agreed that hard core fans would always support bands and want the hard copy of CD’s and come to gigs. What the band needed was more hard core fans. Answer to get them, distribute: give the album to everyone for free to download and get it out there.

That was not even 4 months ago and I’m so proud of the band, they have embraced the Godin. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them but the new website is fantastic, launched tonight and I couldn’t be more proud of them. If I made a dental website it would be like this. All the ideas we dental marketers talk about.

Sticky homepage, moving images: tick

KEDO (knock em dead offer) -Free album: tick

Links to social media: tick

Gets people on the mailing list: tick

Easy to navigate and full of suprises: tick

Great product: thats for you to decide, I’m biased but I think they are great!

All they need now is the album to go viral. Please give it a go and pass on the link if you like it.

Go on give it a go!

DEAD LIKE HARRY

The incidental blogs tag line is helping dentists to succeed:

There are a lot of these definition type things floating though the internet but here is my favouite; the one I live to:

The definition of professional Success:

* I do what I love to do

* I do it with the people I love

* I do it when I love to do it

Tom Morris, paraphrased quote, first showed to me by Chris Barrow nearly a year ago

It fair enough that you have to pay your dues when you start out but you should always be aiming for this in my opinion. Also make sure the juice is worth the squeeze (to quote “A girl next door”). At the moment people seem to take jobs doing something they don’t want, to get to where they do want… is it really necessary? If it is then fine but just make sure it is and your not getting sucked in by promises that never materialise.

Do what you want; not what they, or the system, or convention tells you to

Chris

The following statement is in the conservatives draft manifesto: Page 9 of 12 right hand column

“Under Labour fewer people are able to see an NHS dentist. So we will introduce a new dentistry contract that will tie newly-qualified dentists into the NHS for five years, allow dentists to fine people who consistently miss appointments, and stop paying dentists to carry out unnecessary appointments. These changes will allow us to give one million more people access to an NHS dentist and give every five year old a dental check-up.”

Makes you think doesn’t it? Here are a few of my concerns:

1) Almost every dentist does some private work because so many treatments are now unfeasible under the NHS contract. By unfeasible I mean, “will cost the practitioner considerably more do to than they will be paid  (not including their time)”. I don’t care what you say about swings and roundabouts people do not work for nothing and we can see this across the board, complex treatments are being avoided like the plague. If dentists can’t offer any private treatment is that then unethical… a reduction of options.

2) Is it legal to make people work for the NHS? I know of no other career where this is the case. It sets a dangerous president and I can’t see it being legal with EU laws. Also why stop at dentists, why not stop business graduates working in America, ban emmigration and make oversees graduates pay taxes forever. I know the university system is heavily subsidised but this is the case for hundreds of courses where would this end.

3) How will these poor 5 year tied in dentists be treated? I was absolutely broke when I came out of 5 years at university and that was only paying 1k a year for tuition. I’m not from the richest of backgrounds but I was helped out by my family and I still racked up a 30K debt. This included working full time in every holiday until 5th year and having a part time job for the last couple of years term time. I think it is inevitable a trapped work force will get paid less and receive worse conditions than they do now.

Add to this the plans to raise university tuition fees from 3K a year to 5K and you have graduates leaving with say 50K of debt! Quite the model for social mobility! What you will find is that only the richest people who can afford to be paid through university by there parents will do dentistry. To be honest the people who do it already are most likely to have dental parents. I know I would never have considered a 5 year degree if tuition was 3K as it is now. Social mobility is what keeps this country great, people awarded on merit and endeavour not their parents funding, I would be sad to see that end!

4) Will it change anything? To be honest most dentist don’t leave the NHS for 5 years anyway. It’s not easy to go private and compete against the NHS brand. I can see the same number of NHS dentists staying the same under this new deal. The only difference is there will be an excuse to pay them worse and guess what? After 5 years: resentment, more people leaving due to debt and being poorly treated. It might even reduce the work force!

5) It doesn’t address the problem. The work force leave the NHS because of the conditions they are forced to work in. Endless paperwork, reduction of funding and services they can provide. Lets face it no one has a clue what you can and can’t do on the NHS these days. We have no guidance, we lie to the public that all services are available, corporates reduce UDA values (there is no transparency), young dentists have little or no opportunity to tender a contract. The contract is also bound to change almost every day and we are left funding practices which are effectively built on uninsured quicksand.

People wouldn’t leave the NHS if they were given clear guidance on what they could provide. Were treated like professionals, were rewarded for giving excellent treatment within the guidelines provided and were allowed to provide what is not reasonably affordable on the NHS on a private basis. I would personally give anything to end the cloak and dagger offers of bonded crowns for molars or cobalt chrome dentures. Will someone just give everyone guidance on what is and what is not NHS. Fund us to do what is deemed appropriate (and affordable) properly, get rid of the cheats with careful monitoring and then leave us alone!

People don’t “go private” for the money. I think when you balance the loss of NHS pension, increased indemnity, training and start up costs they work out about even. People go private to work in the environment they can control, doing a job they love the best they can.

Hope that is not too much of  rant. I felt my cheeks fluching as I wrote.

I’m going to discuss my feelings on this at our regional young BDA tomorrow. That is a story for another day but I will say this, “If your not in a union, then you don’t have a voice at all and you really are just ranting on cyberspace!”.

I’m off to take a chill pill.

Please feel free to criticise everything I’ve written, I seem to remember I did vow never to get pollitical again… oh well!

Chris

Man I tell you what blogging really is easy. Just hook up a domain and add wordpress or blogger or just get a page by logging in. It’s not tough and the only difference between it working and not is the content you put up. It took me a weekend to set up this blog and while I will admit there was a fair bit of swearing at the computer, all I did was read the online instructions and follow (I’m crap on computers).

The only thing that makes a blog work or not is the content. If you work really hard to keep the content good and updated, just say what is on your mind, be honest and tell your friends it seems to work out.

I just watched this film from the net and I really agree there is way too much emphasis on social media stuff in business at the moment. I’m not saying it doesn’t work, frankly I’ve met loads of people from writing this blog and  with 100 views a day I’m going to class it as a success. I’m just saying that in general blogs are just ok, no big deal, it’s what you put on them that counts. Most of them only get written for 3 weeks and lie abandoned like beached whales with nothing but an introduction and a link to the business website on them.

I’m just saying don’t buy into all this twitter, facebook and blogging rubbish too much. You can’t sell anyone anything in a short time frame from any social media (IMHO). All it helps you do is build relationships. Maybe in time a network of friends and contacts from your field of interest which one day maybe just maybe could lead to a job or business opportunity.

Most of all they are just FUN

It is fun to write a blog, fun to get comments and views, fun to share your thoughts and fun to be on facebook

If it’s not fun, it’s not interesting and people won’t read it anyway!

Chris

p.s. If anyone does want any advice about setting up a blog then just drop me an email. It won’t cost a bean