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.