Tricks and tips for the dental graduate

 Chhaya Chauhan offers tricks and tips for the recently-qualified young dentist.

This is an exciting time of year, when the new generation of dentist have just graduated from five years of hard work at dental school. They are looking forward to their freedom and finally starting their working life. Here are a few tips and pearls of wisdom for you if you are at the beginning of your dental career.

Don’t stop learning

You may well have had enough of learning and sitting exams by now. After the elation of passing exams and qualifying to be a dentist, I remember thinking my learning days are over and I’m never going to have to pick up a book again.In fact, I soon realised I was only at the beginning of my journey to be a dentist.

There are lots of exciting courses to learn new skills. Adding some extra strings to your bow can be very rewarding. Courses such as dental photography, short term orthodontics (for example Invsalign, Six Month Smiles braces and Inman Aligner) and anterior cosmetics (for example anterior composite courses) can be great fun to learn and get involved in in the early years of your career. It is important to use a system with a good mentoring network, who can help to answer any questions so you can feel supported in choosing your cases. I have found it is best to start with something very simple and work your way up.

Invest in yourself

I soon realised that if I wanted to feel good about the work I do, I would have to buy the right equipment to support my career. Things I bought early on that I couldn’t do without are my loupes and SLR camera and intraoral camera. There are lots of other bits I…