College of General Dentistry Student Advice

Four important reasons to get involved with research

Qasim Mohammedbhai, fifth year BDS student at King’s College London, explains the benefits of conducting research whilst at university or as a dental practitioner.

In this blog I am going to be talking about getting involved in research, either as an undergraduate, postgraduate or even a fully-fledged member of the dental team. The two questions I am going to address are:

  1. How do I get involved in research? 
  2. What can I gain and how can I benefit from doing research? 

In answer to the first question I will tell you about how I got involved in research. I got on really well with one of the professors at King’s College, Dr Ian Thompson, luckily, he was one of the teachers that had a lot of time to give to his students. I was always interested in research so I asked him whether I could get involved. He did a lot of work with bioactive ceramics, a burgeoning area of research within dentistry. From that point forward, we worked on a project which tests the ability of bioactive ceramics to prevent dentine hypersensitivity. 

So how can you get involved in research? My first piece of advice is to think about what you are interested in. It will make the work you do a lot more engaging and far more relevant. For me that happened to be dental material science. The next thing is asking around, be it your personal tutor, PhD students, or senior dentists in practice, and ask them whether they know of any research opportunities. This is where studying or working in a teaching dental hospital is invaluable, as there are so many research opportunities available. I had to ask a lot of people before I landed my research project, so you need to persevere with it.  

NB. Remember you are not pestering them; you are going to be a valuable asset as you will be the one doing a lot of the hard work!

The second question is what skills can one gain from doing research. Now the obvious one is something to write on your CV, but there are far more useful things to be gained:

1. Lateral Thinking
In research things always go wrong. Results will be off, the methodology won’t work out or the machine breaks, the list goes on and on. Ultimately, it is up to you to find a way around this hurdle. It can be very frustrating at times, but it hones your problem-solving skills. If you speak to the experienced clinicians, they will tell you that is what dentistry is all about.

2. Perseverance
Research is not as glamorous as it may seem. At times it can be cumbersome and disheartening when things are not going your way. This is where determination and patience are invaluable. 

3. Critical appraisal
One of my clinical supervisors always used to say: “If you have a patient seen by 5 different dentists, you’ll end up with 6 different care plans”. What this means is that unlike medicine there is no set guideline or protocol for dental treatment. Ultimately, the choice is in the hands of the practitioner. The way one decides is by reading papers, but these need to be critically examined and not blindly followed. Once you have carried out experiments of your own and evaluated your own research, you can understand the shortcomings of other experiments. Experiments can be hard to visualise, so the analogy I offer is imagine reading about doing an extraction versus actually doing one yourself. There is something to be said about actually doing the procedure in order to properly understand it. 

4. Public Speaking
This is a skill you learn by experience alone. Academics get the opportunity to discuss their research at conferences in front of large audiences. In my case, I was fortunate enough to give a talk at the British Dental Hygienist and Therapists conference and present a poster at the annual biomaterials conference. 

In summary research is not a members-only club and is easier to get involved in than you may think. Not only does it enhance your CV, but more importantly it enables you to develop a number of skills, key to becoming a successful dental practitioner.

Author bio

I am a final year dental student at King’s College London. During my five years of university I have found an interest in Prosthodontics and research. Outside of Dentistry my biggest hobby is sport. I have competed in first teams for hockey, table tennis and squash. Another passion of mine is languages, I speak Spanish, Italian, Gujarati and am currently learning Arabic.

Qasim Mohammedbhai

This student advice blog was originally published by FGDP(UK) in March 2020 and has been republished by the College of General Dentistry with the author’s permission.

College of General Dentistry Careers, Student Advice

Tackling life in general practice after Foundation Training

Dr Khush Shah, General Dental Practitioner, delivers three pieces of vital advice to help you tackle life in general practice.

I graduated from King’s College London in 2016 and completed my Dental Foundation Training in Birmingham. During Foundation Training, I was in two minds as to whether I wanted to move back into hospital or continue life as an associate dentist. In the end, after speaking with numerous people and seeking advice on the matter, I chose not to apply for DCT and have been working as an associate since. Reflecting upon this decision, I have not regretted it at all. 

The step into General Dental Practice as an Associate can be very daunting to take. Having been sheltered at Dental School and then having the presence of an Educational Supervisor safety net, people can find themselves very isolated when they choose to move into general practice (over the more structured hospital route). Couple that with the added pressure of striving to achieve a UDA target or embarking upon more complex private treatment plans, this will all add up to more stress in one of the most stressful professions in the UK.

I have three key pieces of advice to help you tackle life in practice: 

  1. Set yourself realistic goals: Specify timeframes, self-reflect and adjust your goals accordingly. 
  2. Surround yourself with people who will help you achieve this
  3. Develop and invest in yourself: Don’t think twice about the expense of a good pair of loupes, a DSLR camera or a highly recommended course you’re considering, as you will reap the benefits of these without a doubt.

1. Realistic goals

My biggest piece of advice would be to plan where you would like to see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years and at the end of your career. With goal setting – AIM BIG – but plan your smaller steps to achieve this. Everyone is different, which is why it is so important to take the time to personalise your Personal Development Plan. It is easy to say you want to “produce the best dentistry for your patients” or “run a successful practice”, however these are too generic. Specificity will help you identify weaknesses and develop strategies to improve these, highlight your strengths and allow these to flourish, but most importantly enable you to work towards the final goal you have set yourself. Learning which methods of self-reflection work for you, is a vitally important part of this, as it will give you scope to amend these goals as you progress.

2. Develop a peer support network

It is important to surround yourselves with like-minded individuals. This will form the basis of your peer support network. This can be through horizontal integration, with colleagues of similar experience, or vertical integration by finding a mentor to support and advise you. Not only does this allow you to discuss how to handle different situations, it provides you with a channel of communication to share any problems or anxieties that you may have. However, it is also crucially important that you are not comparing or competing with your peers. This can have a hugely negative impact on one’s self-confidence as it is much easier to compare your weakest traits (e.g. molar endodontics) and forget about your strengths (e.g. your attention for detail when producing secondary anatomy on a composite restoration). 

3. Develop and invest in yourself

There is an increasing array of postgraduate courses available and this can make it difficult to narrow down which would be most suitable for you. They have been set up to target a demand from young dentists where there are gaps in the undergraduate teaching curriculum. There are many deciding factors to look at: level of hands-on experience, post-nominal accreditation, number of contact days, individuals teaching the course. These elements will be valued differently by all; however, it is important that the right course is chosen for YOU. 

People will advise you to do as many courses as you can early on, or in contrast not to dive into a postgraduate course too soon in order to build up clinical experience that will be directly relatable to the course that you plan to undertake. In hindsight, there is no right or wrong answer to either of these and it depends on how best you learn (i.e. theoretically or practically). What is very clear to me, however, is that if you pick the right course, you will be investing in yourself in a way where the rewards will speak for themselves. Do your research, ask other people about courses they have been on and decide which will best suit you.

Author bio

I qualified from King’s College London in 2016. I completed my Dental Foundation Training Scheme in Birmingham. Since then I have been working full-time as a dental associate in a mixed practice. 

I completed my MJDF qualification in 2017 and have continued my postgraduate training by currently undergoing both a restorative and an implant course.
 

This student advice blog was originally published by FGDP(UK) in November 2019 and has been republished by the College of General Dentistry with the author’s permission.

College of General Dentistry News

College of General Dentistry opens to all and outlines membership package

The College of General Dentistry (CGDent), the UK’s only professional body dedicated to primary dental care, has opened its doors to all dental professionals.

Uniquely among the UK’s colleges, membership of the new organisation is now available to the whole dental team at all grades, dependent on an individual’s level of education and professional achievement.

Continue reading “College of General Dentistry opens to all and outlines membership package” →
College of General Dentistry News

FGDP standards and guidance now available at cgdent.uk

The standards and guidance documents previously published by the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP) are now available on the website of the new College of General Dentistry (CGDent), the first independent college and only professional membership body in the UK specifically for primary care dentistry. 

The FGDP recently transferred from the Royal College of Surgeons of England into CGDent, and the new College has assumed the Faculty’s function to develop and maintain evidence-based guidance and standards for the general dental professions. 

Titles now available from the College include:

  • Standards in Dentistry, a comprehensive collection of standards and guidelines for primary dental care
  • Clinical Examination & Record-Keeping, a complete reference guide to record-keeping and examination, including history-taking, consent, confidentiality, data protection and more
  • Antimicrobial Prescribing in Dentistry, which gives clear, simple and practical guidance to dentists on when to prescribe antimicrobials, what to prescribe, for how long and at what dosage
  • Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography, the leading guideline on indications for radiographic investigation, covering treatment planning and monitoring, ionising radiation regulations and best practice
  • Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment, which helps dental practices meet the standards required by the Ionising Radiation Regulations 2017 (IRR17) and Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 (IRMER17)
  • Training Standards in Implant Dentistry, which summarises the training that should be undertaken to carry out implant dentistry safely, and the standards which should be met by training courses
  • Dementia-Friendly Dentistry, which enables dental professionals to understand dementia and its implications for dental practice, and adapt their patient management and clinical decisions accordingly
  • An Introduction to Research for Primary Dental Care Clinicians, which introduces the principles of research methodology, discusses the relevance of research to primary dental care, and provides an overview of the different stages in a research project

These publications join the College’s COVID-19 guidance documents, which were developed with the FGDP last year:

  • Implications of COVID-19 for the safe management of general dental practice: a practical guide, which supports dental professionals to take a risk-based and evidence-based approach to providing safe general dental care, whatever the national threat level
  • Dentistry during COVID-19: Psychological advice for dental teams, policy makers, and communicators, which offers straightforward suggestions to address common challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in dental practices, and lists resources and organisations which can support dental professionals’ mental wellbeing.

Digital copies are available free of charge at https://cgdent.uk/standards-guidance, and print editions will soon be available.

A programme of webinars exploring each of the publications, and how they can be put into practice, will begin soon. Co-hosted by the College of General Dentistry and ProDental, the UK’s largest independent provider of online dental CPD, many of the events will be free for all dental professionals to watch live, with access to the recordings and CPD certification also free for CGDent members.

Events to discuss Selection Criteria for Dental Radiography, Standards in Dentistry and Clinical Examination & Record-Keeping are expected between October and December 2021, with Dementia-Friendly Dentistry, Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment, Training Standards in Implant Dentistry and An Introduction to Research for Primary Dental Care Clinicians among those anticipated next year.

To keep informed about these events as dates and times are confirmed, sign up to the monthly CGDent newsletter at cgdent.uk/college-newsletter. 

To find out more about the benefits of joining the College of General Dentistry, visit cgdent.uk/benefits.

College of General Dentistry Recent event

How to get the best from your career in dentistry


Recorded webinar. Thursday 23 September 2021.

We discuss career options for dental professionals and how the College’s Career Pathways can support your career, looking at specific questions:

  • Not sure where to go next in your career?
  • Not sure which courses to take?
  • Not sure what opportunities are available to you?
  • Want to find our about the new College of General Dentistry (CGDent previously FGDP) Career Pathway?

No matter what stage of your career, CGDent is here to guide you and help you make the best decisions.

The webinar, hosted by CGDent and ProDental CPD, is relevant to the whole team, no matter what your role or stage in your dental career, and starts our program of interactive career and development planning workshops.

Chair:

  • Dr Abhi Pal FCGDent, President of the College of General Dentistry

Speakers:

  • Ian Dunn
  • Dr Sanjeev Bhanderi
  • Dr Amin Aminian
  • Dr Jalpesh Patel
  • Dr Sami Stagnell
  • Dr Amit Mistry
  • Dr Archana Prasad
  • Dr Ross Hobson
  • Dr Roshni Karia

CGDent members and ProDental subscribers have access to the recording of this event, and can claim CPD hours, free of charge.  A £20 fee applies for non-members/non-subscribers.

watch webinar

This webinar is part of the new partnership between the College of General Dentistry (CGDent) and ProDental CPD.

Membership of the College of General Dentistry is open to all registered dental professionals. Membership for dentists is available from £94, and for other registered dental professionals from £33. The full list of CGDent membership rates is at https://cgdent.uk/membership-fees/. 

College of General Dentistry Recent event

Dental Teams ARE Healthcare Teams: Redeployment During COVID-19

Recorded webinar. Monday 6 September 2021.

Dental healthcare professionals who have been redeployed during the pandemic discuss their experiences in this webinar hosted by the College and ProDental CPD. Reviewing real life stories, the panel talk about what it was like, who did what and what was learnt? They also consider whether the experience has helped others realise that dental professionals ARE healthcare professionals.

This event is part of the ‘PDJ Live’ webinar series that explores topics covered in the Primary Dental Journal, the College’s highly-regarded, quarterly journal for the entire general dental team.

Aims:

To consider the various redeployment options that were undertaken by dental professionals during COVID-19.

Objectives:

  • Review real life stories as to what happened
  • to consider the implications for dental teams going forward – What did we learn?

Chair:

Wendy Thompson

Speakers:

  • Shaun Howe
  • Stefan Serban
  • Harriet Powell
  • Sally Eapen-Simon
  • Jason Atkinson

The recording of this webinar is available here.

CGDent members and ProDental subscribers have free access to the recording and can claim CPD for free. A £20 fee applies for non-members/non-subscribers.

watch webinar

This webinar is part of the new partnership between the College of General Dentistry (CGDent) and ProDental CPD. To receive information on upcoming events, sign up to the CGDent newsletter.

Membership of the College of General Dentistry is open to all registered dental professionals. Find out more here. Membership for dentists is available from £94, and for other registered dental professionals from £33. The full list of CGDent membership rates is at https://cgdent.uk/membership-fees/. 

College of General Dentistry Blog

Realising the potential

President Emeritus, Professor Nairn Wilson FCGDent, welcomes members to the College of General Dentistry and reflects on the impact of the new College for the general dental profession.

Congratulations on your membership of the College. Please use your new postnominals -FCGDent for Fellows, AssocFCGDent for Associate Fellows and MCGDent for members, to help raise awareness of the College. Also, please encourage the members of your dental team, together with your friends, acquaintances and colleagues in dentistry to follow your good example and join the College. The more members, the sooner the College is going to be able to make application for a Royal Charter, establish faculties and schools and much more besides.

If only dentistry had had its own independent Royal College in years gone by, the standing and status of the profession, the importance of oral health to general health and wellbeing and the impact of dentistry, both NHS and private in healthcare provision would be in a much better place. The College, which is going from strength to strength, intends, amongst many other things, to address these issues and while it is at it, work on transforming public attitude to oral health and the value of lifelong, longitudinal dental care. I see the introduction of the College being akin to a tethered boxer suddenly having full use of both hands. The activation of the College changes the odds which, despite the commendable, ongoing work of the professional associations, have plagued dentistry for longer than anyone cares to remember.

When the College is firmly established as a Royal College of high national and international standing, oral healthcare professionals will look back and wonder how dentistry managed prior to 2021 – no unified voice for the whole profession, a mishmash of career arrangements, exclusion from critical, high level considerations of healthcare, and, most importantly dentistry being undervalued and poorly understood. Our successors, in looking back, will recognise and thank all those who got behind the formation of the College, specifically those listed in the College’s Roll of Honour. As a pioneer in the membership of the College, you too could be included in the Roll, if you are not already listed – a once in a lifetime opportunity to be immortalised in the early history of the College. All you have to do is contact me ([email protected]) and I will be delighted to guide you through the process.

In encouraging you to help fuel the College fire, and get behind our elected President, Abhi Pal, and the recently constituted College Council, the only way forward must be seen to be ‘up’. The College needs more than being timely, unique and forward thinking; it needs its members to be committed to its purpose and vision. Knowing many of the founding members of the College, hopefully including yourself, the College can be confident in going forward. No problem however difficult, no barrier however high, no disagreement however polarised should stop the College realising its transformational potential.

The future of the College and, in turn, dentistry, which I believe to be full of exciting opportunity, is in your hands, as members of the College. Get engaged, help recruit more members and together change things for the better – your College, your future, your call!

College of General Dentistry News

Faculty of General Dental Practice (FGDP UK) joins the College of General Dentistry

31 Jul 2021

The Faculty of General Dental Practice UK (FGDP UK) has today completed its separation from the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) to join the new College of General Dentistry, realising the ultimate ambition of its founding members to establish an independent college for general dental practice. 

At the start of its 25th anniversary year in 2017, the Faculty announced that it would begin preparing for independence. Today’s separation sees FGDP UK’s charitable functions transferred to the College of General Dentistry (CGDent) which was formally launched earlier this month (1July 2021).

RCS England has long supported dental surgeons, and is proud of its role in providing an academic home for general dental professionals for over 40 years. The Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS), which remains at RCS England, first held an examination for general dental practitioners, the Membership in General Dental Surgery, in 1979.  

Since its establishment in 1992, FGDP UK’s mission has been to positively influence oral health through the education of the general dental professions and the provision of evidence-based guidance. The CGDent will now assume these responsibilities, and is grateful to RCS England for its role in establishing the FGDP, and for enabling it to grow and thrive in preparation for its eventual independence.  

FGDP UK and FDS have frequently collaborated, perhaps most notably in the delivery of the MJDF (Membership of the Joint Dental Faculties) examination, and the RCS England and CGDent are committed to continuing to work together going forward in the interests of the dental professions and the patients they serve. 

Commenting on the separation, Professor Neil Mortensen, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: 

“We wish our colleagues from FGDP very well as they embark on the exciting task of establishing the College of General Dentistry. Together, over the last 29 years, we have provided a professional home for general dental practitioners, and the FGDP been a positive force for improving the care provided to patients. I am left in no doubt that we will continue to work together in the future to build on this very important work.” 

Abhi Pal FCGDent, Dean of the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK, said: 

“Today sees the realisation of the vision of our founders to develop the FGDP towards the ultimate goal of independence, and I thank the Royal College of Surgeons of England for supporting our profession by hosting us for the last 30 years. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the thousands of colleagues without whose participation none of the Faculty’s achievements would have been possible. We are extremely grateful for the hundreds of thousands of hours given by so many over the years to running our regional divisions, supporting study groups, marking examinations, organising CPD days, drafting standards, developing curricula, serving on our boards and committees, peer reviewing papers and all our many other activities which ultimately benefit the general dental professions and our patients. I would also like to thank all our members for their support, and I look forward to continuing to serve you as President of CGDent.” 

Janet Clarke MBE FCGDent, Chair of the College of General Dentistry, said: 

“The transfer of the Faculty of General Dental Practice into the College of General Dentistry is a hugely significant moment, and I would like to welcome all transferring FGDP members to the UK’s first and long-awaited independent college for dentistry. We have already launched an enhanced set of membership benefits in preparation for your arrival, and look forward to engaging you as we seek to build on the work of the FGDP to develop guidance and career pathways for the whole dental team.”

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College of General Dentistry Blog

Career Pathway for dentists to provide a flexible structure for 21st century practice

Phil Dawson, general dental practitioner with a special interest in restorative dentistry, explains how the College’s Career Pathway for dentists is being developed to provide a clearly defined structure whilst offering the flexibility needed by the contemporary practitioner.

I graduated from the University of Liverpool in December 1991 before commencing my first role as an associate dentist in sunny Wigan the following month. If someone had asked me back then what my career goals were, I think I probably would have answered “to be a dentist”!  Now the best part of 30 years later, I sit writing this blog having achieved, I feel, this mighty goal!

During this time, I am or have variously been:

  • Associate dentist
  • Principal/partner of multi-group mixed NHS/private practice
  • Educational Supervisor/VT trainer (as was)
  • Specialty Dentist/Honorary Teaching Fellow at Manchester University
  • HEE appointed mentor
  • ORE Examiner
  • Course Lead/Director/Tutor/Examiner for FGDP Diploma in Restorative Dentistry
  • Clinical Support Manager for {my}dentist
  • Associate Dental Dean for Conduct & Performance at HEE NW

Despite the above list, if asked by anyone I still describe my job as a “dentist”!

The various stages in my career have developed not as part of some grand master plan, but rather by independent, often disjointed steps. I suspect I will not be alone in this mode of career progression. My career history goes to prove that dental careers often ‘happen’ and develop over the course of our practising lifetime, possibly in unplanned ways and taking directions which initially seem quite unlikely.

My association with FGDP and CGDent began when I completed the second cohort of the Restorative Diploma in 2008. This was to turn out to be a pivotal moment in my career development as most of the roles in the list above were as a direct consequence of this qualification, including becoming Course Lead/Director for the Diploma in a classic poacher turned gamekeeper move! My eternal gratitude goes to Professor Paul Brunton and Mr Ian Wood for such inspiration.

This close association culminated in being asked by CGDent to be Chair of the Working Group for Career Pathways for Dentists. I was tasked with recruiting a group of individuals that was representative of dentists today – no easy task I admit, but I have been blessed with meeting some highly motivated and intelligent fellow dentists throughout my career so far.

The idea was to develop a pathway that identified the different stages of career progression, the key features of these different stages and how these stages might be evidenced. Right from the outset it was emphasised that the old-fashioned notion of ‘tick-box’ career progression was NOT what we were after! Yes, we wanted a framework for career progression, but it was imperative that this framework contained a great degree of flexibility so as to allow the modern 21st century dentist to adequately showcase their career development whilst also allowing the profession and the public to be confident that such a framework represented a safe and coherent structure to career progression.

Another exciting feature was that this process was to be introduced throughout the WHOLE of the dental team – different working groups were to be similarly set up looking at career progression for hygienist/therapists; dental nurses and orthodontic therapists; clinical dental technicians and dental technicians. I felt this was such an important feature of the process – aligning the career pathways of the WHOLE of the dental team as befits the College of General Dentistry.

My aim was to recruit a team of individuals who, using their own experiences and visions, would be able to develop ideas of career progression along the lines set out above. It was humbling that everyone I approached did agree to join the Working Group – and so it is made up of quite an eclectic group of individuals.

The College’s aim in developing these Career Pathways, is to provide some structure to aid our career progression without this being too prescriptive. As you will appreciate from reading this blog, my own career has followed quite a unique pathway, and the Working Group has been keen to allow for this variability in career development.

As I write this, the final version is still in development but the end-product is looking very exciting. I wish such a structure had been in place all those years ago on that first journey from Liverpool to Wigan….!!

You may also be interested in reading blogs from other practitioners involved in developing the Career Pathways programme.