It's crazy how little actual clinical experience so many dental schools graduate their alumni with.. I gradded having only done 1 live endo and 1 bridge!
This really resonated with me. I graduated the same time as Aidan, am also not good at multitasking, have a passion for exodontia and am in the process of specializing. There's no clear path to an oral surgery career in my country, you're either in the GD or MaxFac pipeline, anything in between you have to figure out for yourself. If he can make it, perhaps so can I and I find that very encouraging. You talk about taking extra time for passion cases. I really struggle with this, because according to studies, the duration of extractions is correlated with the likelihood of post-op pain and complications. Also, a long extraction is unpleasant for the patient, probably moreso than a long restorative appointment. So there's always that guilty feeling when taking on tougher cases, because it would probably be in the patient's best interest to refer them to a specialist. Do you have any advice regarding this?
I think you certainly have a point and you are right. Then again booking a lot of time out in your agenda doesn’t mean the procedure will take ages. First and foremost it puts your mind in a state of calm because you know you have time and there is no pressure of dissappointing other patients by being late. Because working under stress can seriously affect your skills negatively temporarily. So you can also see it like this, it is in the patient’s best interest to have you in a state of calm where you can perform your best. And also it is the best interest interest of our whole patient population that we practice to become perfect so yeah that means there is a point were you are sub par, but you’re intentions are set on becoming great for your whole patient population. So putting the needs of the whole before any individual needs (off course shadowed by a mentor to keep it safe)
Thanks Doc. Please allow me to explain my comments as that's not how I meant it :) My main passion is Restorative Dentistry - to have the extra time here is a huge blessing. When it comes to extractions, I do not suggest taking longer to take a tooth out. As you mentioned, it is in the patient's best interest for it to be an efficient extraction. What I meant here is that sometimes when you're not sure if the extraction will challenge you / you have a doubt about if you will be able to remove it, by having extra diary time can allow you to feel less pressure and if you need to seek help for this case, the time is already there. I understand what you mean about feeling guilty so the way to mitigate this is to A. take on cases just beyond the edge of your comfort zone (not miles away!) and ensure you're in an environment where there is a mentor and you have pre-warned that that you may need their assistance if things do not go to plan. Thanks for the comment and wishing you the best!
