MY DENTAL HISTORY

My Dental History

My Vision was to produce a resource for the general public that would promote public prevention in Oral Health.
It follows my journey as a General Dentist from September 1982 until September 2020. There are some reflections on what we have achieved, and also what we haven't. I hope you will be able to retire content with what you have delivered through your professional life, rather than escape from a failing system forever looking over your shoulder crippled by threat of dental litigation.

The idea being this was to make a podcast, but podcasts work better with more than one person, so I've made these through a keynote presentation and audio. The sections are usually under 17 minutes partly as the storage on my laptop doesn't enable me to make a longer one, but also its the optimum time as used on TedTalks as advised by Chris Anderson. Listen and or view this on your phone, a device that never existed when I qualified. Please give feedback on the format you prefer. There is a lot of history, and I hope this helps improve your work life balance.
Most of all, enjoy your dentistry.

general public videos

This is a three minute introduction on why I've made a dental App, and these websites. We all need to help one another, and we often work in what is sometimes termed and echo chamber. If we don't consider other ideas and views our progression as a profession serving the public will be diminished.

This is a longer introduction. The memory on my computer , like my own, is finite and its in two parts. One of the drivers behind the App was to support newly qualified dentists who qualify every year with more academic knowledge as advocated by the dental academics who taught them, with limited idea of general practice.
My experiences was not ideal, but I hope at least they may help in any discussions you may have among a peer review group of us retired boomers, plus millennials, gen y, and z. As well as others in the dental team.

This is the second part of about five minutes.
Please give feedback on the format, as I can make them in zoom with me hidden in the corner. Or with a different format as I'll put on the Bedminster video.

INNOVATION- WHY WE NEED IT

I went to the HETT talk in September 2023. There is no interest in Dentistry, and the talks were rather alarming. The bureaucracy and levels of strata of different interested bodies stifle innovation, generally due to potential litigation and nimbyism as in "Parkinson's Law" from the 1930's. Listen to Johnathan Sumption's Reith Lecture.
We need to take back control of our profession and embrace some of the benefits of Covid rather than revert back to the old ways of gradual change, and ever decreasing access.

To quote Peter Drucker
"The best way to predict the future is to creat it"

MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT THROUGH PEER REVIEW
I am quite lucky as I'm an optimist, resilient, with a poor memory, and I have been lucky- so far. I think if we can collaborate and combine our strengths we can all benefit. This is one way we can be proactive as a profession and help one another.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEO FOR NEC PRESENTATION

I paid around £1250 to give a short talk on Prevention at the NEC in May 2019 after I'd developed the App. No one came, except my brother. I remember then going to a full lecture theatre with 500 listening to a lab promoting their private crowns.

Developing a Dental Health Service

This is some background to how and why I have made the website and App. As with all the videos, I hioe there is something of value. There are many references to the YouTube videos I have used as a background. There are 3 things of particular value.

1. The Miro Board
2. the Value Proposition template
3. the business model canvas

MY DENTAL HISTORY

The background to these videos of my dental journey. I think there is a lot to learn from from history, and while many will not agree with some of the comments, it is a focus to debate especially for FDs and their trainers. I hope it presents some options especially on MID through digital technology.

This was my first position in general practice.
ABERTRIDWR

The main topic discussed are
1. Prevention
2. Diagnosis
3. General Anaesthetics

This was my second associate position as a GDP.
BRISTOL, BEDMINSTER

The main topics here are

1. Patient complaint
2. GDC hearing
3. Mental Health

This is a second part to my time in
BRISTOL,
BEDMINSTER

The main topics here are

1. Dental Amalgam
2. Oral Surgery
3. Advances in Perio/Prevention

I've added some links as well as text, I think.
Feedback please. [email protected]

HIGH STREET, CENTRAL BRISTOL

The main topics are
1. Occlusion
2. Crown presentation
3. Lectures-ask questions

This was the first practice where the principle worked.
He was an exceptional clinician, and was carrying out clinical work with an understanding of dentistry far greater than anyone I had met in the past. We had inhalation sedation, which isn't mentioned in the video. If I wanted to sneak off early, it generally wasn't a problem as he had a leaky system, and by the afternoon was in an extremely relaxed frame of mind.

BROADWALK,KNOWLE,BRISTOL

I bought a partnership in a busy NHS practice called the Amalgam Factory by some dentists. I discuss

1. Note taking, pattern of work
2. A 30 year of dental treatments
3. Fraud?

BROADWALK, KNOWLE,BRISTOL PT 2

The main points are

1. taking time out, holidays
2. Failing treatment, ART
3. history of AAA

Some treatment can fail for over 30 years. Do implants last this period of time? If it ain't broke, why fix it? As long as you discuss with the patient further options, and regularly review, write down the discussion in the notes, you can be seen to be acting in your patients best interests.
Look at the separate video on endodontics. We should be doing more.

STOCKWOOD 1

The main points are

1. Setting up a squat
2. Ozone therapy
3. Innovation in health

In this I mention how I was nearly bankrupted by the NHS, and the background to some innovations i have tried and how being forced to adapt, or "CHANGE' ultimately encouraged me to enjoy work, and deliver dentistry and make prevention pay, through a plan.
Also how early adopters in the NHS kept me out of a wheelchair.

STOCKWOOD 2

The main points are

1. some influential lectures in Las Vegas
2. Early adoption with a Cerec bluecam
3. MID with a Cerec

I went to the 30th Sironaworld conference in LAs vegas. Of 5,000 dentists in the main conference hall there were 4 Brits. The Volkscrown was shown, but then discarded, not due to the material, but due to dentists using the material incorrectly.

STOCKWOOD 3

The main points are

1. Hypochlorous or hypochlorite
2. Digital radiography and photography
3. ART & the diagnodent

We were early adopters for digital ragiographs, and its how I've been able to produce these dental histories to enable a discussion for FDs and their trainers on treatment options. There are no examples of SDF, and that is a massive disappointment. I think we could save a fortune in financial and mental health cost if we used this in primary schools..

STOCKWOOD 4

The main points are

1. examples of 30year failures
2. Criminal dental examples on YOUTUBE
3. Think for yourself

There are a lot of things in dentistry that shouldn't last, but do. Some poor outcomes are often not "failures" of the clinician but caused by the host response, or lack of it. We have not taken on board the innovative initatives due to Covid. The outcomes from AAA, and the lack of advances in Teledentistry. What will you champion?

PATIENT COMPLAINT

This is a brief 2.5 min video made regarding a patient complaint. It involves endodontics, which are a lot easier to perform, but carried out less frequently.

Five mins chat will protect you more than five minutes on notes. As with a lot of videos, you may not agree, but please discuss with colleagues and learn. It's a way we can improve our service for the general public.

DENTAL CORPORATE EXPERIENCE
This is a video on my thoughts of working for a corporate. It follows listening to a Simon Sinek audiobook called "The Infinite Game". It explains how wealth and therefore health inequality started bak in the 70's on the academic paper by an economist. Capitalism should work with the invisible hand as outlined by Adam Smith.

FD talk on DIGITAL DENTISTRY
I used to give talks to VDPs, now Fds at the practice and show them our Cerec system. it was a morning session, and separate group in the afternoon with a meal in-between at the local Indian restaurant.
This is a 20 minute quick run through the content, and I hope it has some thing of interest. It is essential that anyone qualifying is comfortable with the latest scanning technology. It has many possibilities apart from the use of aligners. Here are a few.

HOW TO MARKET HEALTH AND YOURSELF
This briefly outlines how we can promote ourselves better and use IT to improve our services. Ultimately we can use IT to improve our work routine, and if you don't have the time, you will benefit from someone within your dental team to help you, or show you how to do it. This is a video made specifically to promote teledentistry which I think would enable us to improve children oral hygiene by enabling any member of the dental team to be in any bathroom, virtually.

ENDODONTICS

These are my opinions on endodontics.It has never been so easy to carry out a high success rate with the modern equipment and materials we have. However, it seems less are carried out than ever.
We all have the necessary skills to carry out the procedure for the majority of conditions, but it seems that less are carried out. We need to educate the public more, and ourselves less.
Health delivery is not a science, the human body is too variable for everything and everyone to be predicable. We all want good outcomes, we just need realistic expecations and pricing for us and the public.

DIGITAL SCANNING

I bought a cerec blue cam in 2010, and this is my experience on how it worked as MID and within the NHS. We can use these scanners to provide all manner of restorations, and with the adhesives in a multitude of different ways.
We are taught the perfect crown prep, but this is how we can retain more of the tooth tissue and increase longevity of the what remains of the natural dentistion before more complex and expensive options.

HOW TO MAKE A BUSINESS

I have

PEER REVIEW FD DISCUSSION

I was a trainer for twenty years, and we used to really enjoy it. After a graduation Ball the trainers would stay on in a hotel for training, bonding.
On one occasion in around 2006 we were spit into two groups and told to make a video. There was no instruction, only a video camera, but I had brought my iBook. I made my first video, while the Actors retired to the bar. If I find it, I'll post it here.
The second video I posted was when the corporate I sold my practice to wouldn't return my phone calls, or emails when they were not paying us correctly, and making it difficult to hit our annual target. It had a immediate response. The following day I had a solicitors letter for constructive dismissal.

PEER REVIEW 1

Those explains initially how to make a presentation yourself. We all have a history of records,and should be able to present our cases, or get a variety of treatment plan options and feedback from colleagues. We can all learn from each other.

PEER REVIEW 2

These are a few more slides I have used when discussing cases. There are examples of crowns, acid etch bridges, root fillings, and odd teeth that remain functional, although not ideal radiographically.

PEER REVIEW 3

This section shows a few radiographs on root fillings. The equipment and materials have recently improved but are carried out less. We need to discuss how we can provide reasonable RCT at a reasonable cost with reasonable outcomes far better than forty years ago. Plus a trauma case.