Dental Tribune UK No. 1, 2022

UK News / Building a sustainable dental practice / Study examines public perceptions regarding sustainable dentistry / Industry

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The World‘s Dental Newspaper
PUBLISHED IN LONDON

uk.dental-tribune.com

Vol. 12, No. 1

UK NEWS

SUSTAINABILITY

PRODUCTS

Victoria Wilson discusses the value of
practising self-compassion for dental
professionals and how to do so.

Dental professionals can learn how to
build a sustainable dental practice in a
feature on sustainability.

Perio plus mouthwashes are the result of
years of research with a clear objective: less
chlorhexidine and greater eﬀectiveness.

Page 8 & 10

Page 12

Page 6

BADN launches menopause policy
An interview with Jacqui Elsden, UK
© Jacqui Elsden

By Franziska Beier,
Dental Tribune International
Even though it eﬀects roughly half
of the population, the menopause is
still a taboo subject in our society.
According to an article in the British
Dental Journal, menopausal women
are the fastest-growing workforce
demographic. Around eight in ten
menopausal women are working,
three out of four experience symptoms and one in four has serious
symptoms. In severe cases, menopausal symptoms can lead to employees leaving their jobs. In order

Jacqui Elsden qualiﬁed at the then King’s
College Hospital Dental School in 1983 as a
dental nurse and has been the president of the
BADN from November 2019 to November 2022.

to educate the dental community
about the challenges that menopausal
women face in the workplace and
the ways in which employers can
support them, the British Association
of Dental Nurses (BADN) launched
a menopause policy at the BDIA
Dental Showcase in London in March.
Dental Tribune International spoke with
Jacqui Elsden, outgoing president of the
BADN, about her personal experience
of going through the menopause while
working as a dental nurse and about
how dental practices can help their
employees to feel more comfortable
during this period of their lives in
order to keep their current staﬀ or
recruit new staﬀ.

Ms Elsden, thank you and the BADN
for raising awareness of such an important topic. Even though thorough
information material about the meno-

“We decided to raise awareness
about the menopause and
its impact on dental nurses.”
pause in the workplace was probably
long overdue, what made you decide
to react and launch a policy at this
speciﬁc point in time?
That’s a really good point, and
the answer is actually the COVID-19
pandemic. During that period, where
we initially were locked in, some of
us still had to work in practices in the
UK in dental emergency hubs. And
at that time, there was less awareness
of the eﬀect of aerosols. So, many

dental care professionals and dentists were clad in plastic from head
to toe. Coupled with that, the summer
of 2020 was really hot. Having a hot
ﬂush, covered in plastic, and unable
to leave the room was really tough.
The temperature in the room couldn’t
be controlled, and early on, we had
the windows open and didn’t know

 Page 2

Evolving business systems into 2023 and beyond
An article series on ﬁve basic systems to improve practice management—Part 1: Finances

I am delighted to have been asked
by Dental Tribune to share my observations and thoughts about where
we are heading over the next few
years and how this aﬀects the way
that UK dental professionals run their
dental businesses. There has never
been a period of such disruption, not
just in dentistry but for all of us—and it
is against that backdrop that I want to
help plan for a secure future. In this
article series, I am going to review
each of the ﬁ ve basic systems that
dental professionals need to have in
place and oﬀer my guidance as to how
best to prepare. This ﬁrst part will
focus on ﬁnancial systems in dental
practices.

Five basic systems
I am the proud owner of a signed
1999 edition of Michael Gerber’s
The E-Myth Revisited—Why Most Small

Businesses Fail and What To Do About
It. Published four years earlier, The
E-Myth Revisited remains a classic,
whose message is as relevant today
as when ﬁrst penned and to which
I refer all my new clients. Gerber
was the ﬁrst to describe the ﬁ ve basic
systems necessary to operate all
businesses, and I oﬀer his deﬁnitions
here with a dental spin to apply them
to our landscape:

By Chris Barrow, UK

1. Financial systems (which I will
discuss more in this article);
2. Lead generation systems (how we
attract new patients and sell more
to existing patients);
3. Lead conversion systems (how we
enrol people as long-term patients
and how we ethically explain and
sell treatment to them);
4. Operational systems (how we run
the business on a day-to-day basis
and remain compliant);
5. People systems (how we create,
lead and manage teams and how

we create a work environment in
which people want to do their best).
These oﬀer timeless wisdom that
I have been interpreting on behalf of
my clients in dentistry for a quarter
century. However, little could have
prepared any of us for the consequences that have unfolded since
two unrelated events—Brexit and the
COVID-19 pandemic—have changed
the landscape in many ways and
created dangers for the unwary.

So where are we now?
It would be easy to dwell on the bad
news currently circulating in the
marketplace; however, in setting the
scene for this series, I want to present
a balanced view—preferring to avoid
doom and gloom as well as false
optimism.

 Page 4

[2] =>

UK NEWS

whether we could use fans. During
that time, we received many calls at the
BADN head oﬃce from dental nurses
who asked about what they could do
because they were suﬀering great
discomfort from having to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) in
combination with the heat and were
afraid of passing out.
Many people announced that
they were leaving the profession.
Dental nurses in particular had had
enough. They are paid poorly in primary dental care in the UK, and on top
of that, they had to put up with the
additional stress of wearing PPE.
Considering that dental nurses are
predominantly female, we decided to
raise awareness about the menopause and its impact on dental nurses
in order to help practices understand
how we might retain more of our
workforce in practice.

Those are some of the physical
symptoms but there are also psychological symptoms. I haven’t suﬀered
from depression, which is known to
be a possible problem; however, I do
sometimes feel a bit low and fed up
with it. Some people even suﬀer panic
attacks.

What measures can practices take to
make working life easier for menopausal staﬀ ?
There are quite a few things that
I can think of. We put together an
overview in our advice sheet, and we
also created a policy.

during perimenopause, it can happen
that you miss one or more periods,
and then you just ﬂood and have a period for about two weeks. When this
happens, working in a dental practice
where your uniform is white is the last
place you want to be.
Other measures include oﬀering
staﬀ members who suﬀer from insomnia the option of coming in later
or working the afternoon shifts, if the
practice schedule allows this. Also,
air conditioning or fans can be really
helpful in order to control the room
temperature.

you demonstrate that you do have
a menopause policy in place, it might
make the diﬀerence of having ten
applicants for a post compared
with two applicants. I’m 57 now, and
I’m still struggling with the menopause. I started to work as a dental nurse when I was 17, so I have
40 years of experience. I’m not saying that I have all the knowledge in
the world about dentistry and dental
nursing, but I have a fair amount,
and so do my colleagues. If we all
decide that this is enough and leave,
then there’s an entire cohort of
dental nurses with a considerable

Menopausal symptoms surely vary
from person to person, but what are
some of the typical symptoms that
menopausal women experience? And
how do these symptoms aﬀect them
in relation to working in a dental
oﬃce?

Another really important issue is
insomnia. I ﬁnd myself wide awake in
the middle of the night, and I’m lucky
if I can string two hours of sleep together. With a sleepless night comes
fatigue in the day and the inability to
concentrate, which makes you rather
irritable at work. Brain fog is another
symptom. Sometimes I ﬁnd myself in
the middle of a sentence, and I just
forget what I wanted to say. This brain
fog can really make you think you
are going mad.

How has the policy been received so
far?
We have had a good response,
and some of our members took it
back to their own practices to use as
a conversation tool in meetings.

Is the menopause regarded as a taboo
subject in areas other than the dental
profession?

I’m going through the menopause myself, so I can oﬀer insight
from a personal point of view. Symptoms do vary, and some colleagues of
mine, who are in the same age group
and are going through the menopause, have not experienced a hot
ﬂush or a sleepless night once. However, for me, it has not been an easy
ride.
The ﬂushes are a problem not
only because you feel very hot but
also because you sweat a great deal.
As a result, you are afraid of body
odour while working in close contact
with the patient and other staﬀ
members, and this makes it necessary for you to apply toiletries often
or change your working clothes. I’ve
even fainted once. I was travelling
on a train, commuting to work, and
I needed to get oﬀ because it was so
hot. And as I got oﬀ the train, I passed
out on the platform.

The Health and Safety at Work
Act 1974 covers working conditions
for menopausal symptoms. Under
the Employment Rights Act 1996,
a dismissed employee can claim
unfair dismissal. Employees who resign can claim that their employer’s
behaviour and conduct led them to
resign.

The policy and the advice sheet
have been endorsed by other dental
organisations, including the College
of General Dentistry, the Dental
Technologists Association, the British
Association of Dental Therapists, the
Dental Laboratories Association, the
British Dental Industry Association,
the Orthodontic National Group and
the British Society of Dental Hygiene
and Therapy. We also received support from a non-dental organisation,
the British Veterinary Nursing Association, whose members are also
predominantly female and work in
similar conditions.

 Page 1 “BADN”

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

In order to educate the dental community about the challenges that menopausal women face in the workplace, the British Association
of Dental Nurses launched a menopause policy at the beginning of this year.

I suppose the most important
thing would be to allow open communication within the practice. Employers should have conversations with
employees who often phone in or
who do not seem to feel comfortable
at the workplace in order to ﬁnd out
the reason. And employees should
feel able to actually bring up the topic
with their employer. We hope that
our advice sheet and the specimen
policy will help encourage these conversations.
Regarding the style of the uniform, there are diﬀerent aspects to
consider. To make it more comfortable for people who experience hot
ﬂushes, you may choose lightweight
cotton instead of heavyweight cotton. Also, some employees might not
want to wear trousers, as they can
be restrictive, so give them diﬀerent
options. The colour of the uniform
is another crucial factor. Because,

IMPRINT
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
Publisher and Chief Executive Oﬃcer:
Torsten OEMUS

I think it is really important for
employers to understand what is
being experienced. If an employee
feels that she is listened to and understood it makes a great diﬀerence,
and she will do everything she can to
perform her work in the best possible
way. Those of us who are going
through the menopause don’t want
to be lying in bed during the day to
catch up on our sleep, we want to
act in a normal way.

amount of knowledge and experience that will be lost, when there is,
perhaps, a simple solution to avoid
this happening.

In a BADN press release, you stated
that legal cases related to the menopause have doubled in recent years.
What is the current legal situation?
Are there any laws in place that regulate working conditions for menopausal employees?

It really is, it’s happening all over.
Just looking at my own family, my
mother belonged to a generation
that never spoke about it. It was all
hushed in whispers, so she never
spoke about it to me either. It sounds
ridiculous but, when I got the ﬁrst
symptoms, I didn’t even know what
was going on.
In my parents’ generation, usually the mothers were housewives
and the fathers went to work. However, I wanted to work because
I didn’t want to be at home. And those
generations coming on behind me
sometimes do not have a choice—
they need to work. Thus, the whole
approach to work and careers for
women has changed in quite a short
space of time, really—in a generation.

Although the menopause isn’t
a disability in itself, it can be considered as such if it has a sustained
eﬀect on a woman’s ability to complete daily activities for more than
12 months.

I feel it’s partly my responsibility
to educate our younger generation.
Of course, the younger generation is
more curious and has the internet
and easily accessible information.
However, in spite of this, I do feel that
the menopause is still a neglected
topic.

Yes, it could, that’s exactly right.
I think in terms of recruitment, if

Under the Equality Act 2010,
employers are required to make
reasonable adjustments to an employee’s role or working conditions
if they have a disability which puts
them at a disadvantage.

Editorial note: More information on the
BADN, how it supports dental nurses
and the beneﬁts of a membership can be
found at www.badn.org.uk.

Tel.: +49 341 4847 4302

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Dental Tribune International GmbH makes every

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Material from Dental Tribune International GmbH

language, in whole or in part, without the prior

statements made by advertisers. Opinions expressed

I am sure menopause-friendly measures beneﬁt not only the staﬀ but
also the practice. Could you highlight
some of the advantages for those
dental practices which are willing
to adapt? As you said, most dental
nurses are female, and if the majority
decide to stop working, this could
turn into a real problem for the
profession?

Chief Content Oﬃcer:

Dental Tribune International GmbH

that has been reprinted or translated and reprinted

written permission of Dental Tribune International

by authors are their own and may not reﬂect those

Claudia Duschek

Holbeinstr. 29, 04229 Leipzig, Germany

in this issue is copyrighted by Dental Tribune Inter-

GmbH is expressly prohibited.

of Dental Tribune International GmbH.

[3] =>

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[4] =>

UK NEWS

Twelve reasons to be miserable:
1. The continued demise of NHS dentistry (the longest death scene in
history);
2. The recruitment crisis (nobody
replies to our adverts);
3. The retention crisis (my team
members are leaving dentistry);
4. The poaching crisis (my team members are leaving for better money
in dentistry);
5. The wages crisis (I am revising my
20-year-old key performance indicators [KPIs] on team wages from
17.5% to 25.0%);
6. The pricing crisis (we need to put
our prices up by 25% to stand
still—how are we going to do
that?)—more on that later;
7. The EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and
amortisation) multiples crisis (the
mergers of some of the largest
dental groups in the UK, deﬂates
multiples, as does the increased
cost of borrowing—some have
predicted a 25% reduction in goodwill values before year end);
8. The exit crisis (more of my clients
have their practices up for sale
than at any time before—hardly
surprising given what I have listed
so far);
9. The energy crisis;
10. The inﬂation crisis (the Bank of
England suggesting an inﬂation
rate of up to 18%);
11. The consumer conﬁdence crisis
(when all this bad news impacts
patients and leads to treatment
plans being delayed or not being
taken up);
12. Yet another new prime minister
and cabinet whose hands are going
to be full.
These are enough to make an owner
want to sell. I think we need some
balance. Here is a list of what I see as
the good news among all this doom
and gloom.
Twelve reasons to be cheerful:
1. Correctly utilised, the intra-oral scanner is the single greatest revolution
in the delivery of oral health education and advice in a generation.
2. Similarly, the intra-oral scanner is
the single best treatment generator ever invented.
3. The training of dental nurses registered with the General Dental
Council (GDC) and of treatment
coordinators in the use of intra-oral
scanning allows greater use of the
new technology to wow patients
and frees up clinicians’ time to
generate proﬁtable revenue.
4. The rise of dental deserts across
the UK makes compulsory dental
plan membership (and conversion)
easier than at any time since 1996.
5. Over the last six recessions (through
which I have lived and worked), the
sale of the very highest value and
most complex dental treatment
has remained robust—the more
you focus on the dentistry that
most dentists are either too scared
or too unmotivated to invest in,
the busier you will be.

valuations to decline. In summary, if
you are looking to grow, to sell, to keep
your team together or to recruit new
staﬀ members—put your prices up.

 Page 1 “Evolving business systems”

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

I want to encourage you to take action,
but I also want to remind you that
there are four areas where you must
be careful about price rises and (the
good news) many more areas where
you do not have to be.
The four areas of price sensitivity in
dental services and products:
1. The cost of a dental health review
(check-up);
2. The cost of a hygiene visit;
3. The monthly cost of a dental membership plan; and
4. Your price for Invisalign.

Dental consultant Chris Barrow is advising dental professionals to raise their treatment prices sooner rather than later in order to
stay proﬁ table in the current ﬁnancial situation.

6. The eﬀective collection of Google
reviews puts automated search engine optimisation within the grasp
of any practice and at no cost, thus
eliminating the need for the smoke
and mirrors of digital advertising.
7. The GDC scope of practice for dental
therapists opens up a whole new
world in the provision of preventive
maintenance on proﬁtable terms
and without the need for principals
to be drowning in check-ups.
8. The ability to grow therapist- and
associate-led businesses frees the
principal from the shackles of a performance-related earnout on sale.
9. The eﬀective and responsible use
of social media generates new
patients more cost-eﬀectively than
ever, resulting in decreased marketing costs.
10. The more corporates and microcorporates emerge amid the current recruitment and retention
crisis, the more the trend towards
salaried clinicians and the demise
of the broken percentage/hourly
rate model will continue, resulting
in better proﬁt margin management for owners.
11. The more practices are gobbled up
by corporates and micro-corporates,
the less competition there is for
independent owners, because corporate dental marketing is almost
always poorly designed and executed.
12. During the 2008 banking collapse,
goodwill values dropped by 25%
almost overnight—that lasted for
18 months before they were back
and beyond their previous highest
levels because there is no such thing
as a crisis—there are only cycles.
So now you can decide: is your glass
half-empty or half-full?

Nine steps to ﬁnancial
conﬁdence
Against this backdrop, I intend to identify winning habits, trends and actions
in this article series that are keeping
my best clients at the top of their
game, despite the challenges they are
facing. This is a summary of the nine

characteristics of dental practices
whose ﬁnancial systems are excellent
and their owners thus conﬁdent:

tasising about an exodus of patients
and/or declined treatment plans. FEAR
is Fantasy Expressed As Reality.

1. The owners understand their proﬁt
and loss statement, they are in receipt
of updated management accounts
every month (from cloud-based accountancy software) and set aside
the time to review the numbers.
2. KPIs are monitored monthly to spot
trends and compare against industry benchmarks.
3. ‘Every year, a 12-month budget and
cash ﬂow forecast are created, and
progress is monitored monthly.
4. ‘The average daily production of
every fee earner is closely monitored and compared with industry
benchmarks, and fee earners are
held to account.
5. The all-important operating cost
per surgery per day becomes a key
measure of the proﬁtability of each
treatment room.
6. As a result of which, each fee earner
has his or her own proﬁtability measured on a rolling 90-day cycle.
7. The owners fully understand EBITDA
and adjusted EBITDA when it comes
to an assessment of the goodwill
value of their practice.
8. The owners know the value of their
goodwill and can plan their exit in
a targeted manner.
9. Prices are set accurately and reviewed regularly.

Let us set some context here:

I believe pricing to be the most important of these nine steps in the current
climate. I suggested to my clients in
the fourth quarter of 2021 to increase
their fee per item (FPI) prices by at
least 20% in the ﬁrst quarter of 2022.
Like usual, 20% of them went ahead
and 80% increased by lower amounts
of 5%–15%. Without exception, all my
clients reported that their patients did
not bat an eyelid.
In the third quarter of 2022, I suggested
to my clients to increase their FPI prices
by another 20% in the fourth quarter.
So far, very few of them—if any—seem
to have taken the advice. My guess is
that they fear the consequences, or—
to put it in other words—they are fan-

• Before any energy bills cap, energy
bills are up 50%–60% this year so far.
• We all know what is happening at
petrol stations and on supermarket
shelves.
• I tried to book a standard-class
one-way ticket from Stockport to
Plymouth in September, and it cost
over £400.
• Last year, my wife ﬂew premium
economy from Manchester in the UK
to New York in the US via Heathrow
Airport for £750 return—the same
journey this year will be £1,500.
• My Amazon Prime subscription renewed last month, and it is 20% more
compared with a year ago.
• Supply chain delays are aﬀecting
every sector of the economy
• The media are doing a fantastic marketing job for all of us now by highlighting the dental deserts I mentioned all over the UK.
• The demand for high-value dentistry
has historically been very robust in
recessions (I am thinking especially of
between 2008 and 2010), and the waiting lists for treatment are growing
longer as scarcity creates demand.
I am certain that you will have similar
examples of everything becoming
more expensive, and as an aside, that is
why your team members are either
asking for more wages or looking
around for better pay. To repeat, the
KPI for wages has been 17.5% of sales
for the last 25 years. I advise my clients
that this will be at 25% by the ﬁrst
quarter of 2023 and is likely to stay
there. That is 7.5% of your proﬁts gone
unless you do something about it. You
have two options: ﬁrst, increase the
average daily production of all your fee
earners, and second, increase your
prices. These are not really options; you
must do both and you must start now.
Not doing so means less proﬁt, and less
proﬁt does not just mean that—it also
means less EBITDA in a market that
now expects multiples for goodwill

The ﬁrst three are sensitive to price
because they are regular repeats and
the fourth is because it is a globally
commoditised product, and the public
are savvy. In these four areas, you must
exercise some caution, but what does
caution mean? Up to 2021, caution meant
keeping the rise to no more than 5%
a year. In 2022, caution means a rise of
no more than 10%–15% in my opinion.
For all the other treatment areas, I advise raising prices by 20%–25%. If you
did not raise your prices in January,
you will still be behind, but will have
to catch up over the next 12 months.
However, you do not need to wait until
next year; nothing is going to become
better or easier and more time of low
proﬁt helps nobody in your business.
Have a look at your FPI price list within
the next seven days, revise the prices
and start as soon as possible. If there
is a price list on your website, you can
change it at the start of next month.
There is no need to mail your patients
unless you make changes to the ﬁrst
three points on my sensitivity list. Your
ﬁnancial ship is leaking proﬁt as you
read this article. Leadership requires
action. Put your prices up.
In my next article, I will be looking at
lead generation systems and the latest ideas on how best to attract new
patients, how to sell more to existing
patients and—dare I say it—how to
avoid wasting money on advertising
and marketing ideas that frequently
just do not work.

Chris Barrow
has more than 50 years of work
experience and has been active as
a consultant, trainer and coach to
the UK dental profession for over
25 years. His main professional focus
is through his Extreme Business
company, providing coaching and
mentorship to independent dentistry
around the world via virtual consultancy, practice visits, a workshop
programme and an online learning
platform. His blog, Thinking Business,
enjoys a strong following. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Barrow created
the Regeneration Coaching Programme
to help practices to survive lockdowns
and to bounce back higher after
their return to work. More information on his work can be found at
www.coachbarrow.com.

[5] =>

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[6] =>

UK NEWS

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

The practice of self-compassion
among dental professionals
Promoting well-being among dental professionals: How to practise self-compassion
ginning conversations in dental schools
and among dental teams will allow the
practice of self-compassion to become
more mainstream. The poet Rumi
wrote “Our task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and ﬁnd all the
barriers within yourself that you have
built against it”, and learning the skill
of self-compassion can help to break
down the barriers to love, both for
oneself and others.

In this article, Victoria Wilson explores ways in which dental professionals can understand the value of practising self-compassion.

By Victoria Wilson, UK
Kindness to oneself and self-love are
concepts that are often spoken about
in the context of looking after oneself
and supporting personal well-being.
According to the UK’s National Health
Service, “well-being is about feeling good
and functioning well and comprises an
individual’s experience of their life; and
a comparison of life circumstances with
social norms and values”.1 Dental professionals widely recognise the importance of patients’ well-being and their
mental health, and it is an ethical requirement that we always act in the best
interest of all of our patients. We have
to be accountable for this. Yet, are we
acting in the best interest of ourselves
so that we can always thrive as dental
professionals? Are we accountable for
doing so? Self-compassion could have a
signiﬁcant role for dental professionals.
The topic of well-being and mental
health is complex. This article will
explore how self-compassion can
support the well-being of dental professionals. In addition, it will identify
opportunities for dental professionals
to utilise self-compassion practically
as a tool to enhance their well-being
and ways they can become accountable for practising self-compassion.

Stress factors
dental professionals
experience
There are many stress factors experienced by dental professionals that have
been identiﬁed throughout literature. 2–4
All individuals deal with diﬀerent stress
factors to varying degrees. Common
stress factors that dental professionals
experience in a clinical setting include:

fection, and such self-imposed pressure can lead to a spiral of self-criticism
if perfection is not achieved.
It is important for dental professionals to consciously recognise the
stress factors that aﬀect them on an
individual basis. It is furthermore important to acknowledge that the extent
to which they are aﬀected by similar
stress factors varies at diﬀerent times.
Example of how the same stress factor
can aﬀect the individual diﬀerently
Dental hygienist—Scenario 1: The
dental hygienist goes to work, and the
surgery has not been left and restocked
by the previous clinician as it usually is.
The hygienist feels slightly agitated,
but proceeds to reorganise the surgery
in preparation for the day ahead.
Dental hygienist—Scenario 2: The dental hygienist goes to work feeling tired,
and the surgery has not been left and
restocked by the previous clinician as it
usually is. The hygienist is agitated and
bursts into tears before starting the day.
Dentist—Scenario 1: The dentist is at
work and receives a call from the reception while in surgery that a patient who
received treatment the day before would
like to make a complaint. The dentist asks
some more questions regarding the situation, takes a deep breath and accepts
that it is not possible to please every
patient even though he or she is always
trying to deliver the best possible treatment. The dentist stays calm, carries on
with the next appointment and schedules an appointment to call the patient.

• Fear of litigation;
• Running late for patients;
• Diﬃcult or demanding patients;
• Musculoskeletal pain; and
• Working without a nurse.

Dentist—Scenario 2: The dentist is
at work and receives a call from the
reception while in surgery that a patient
who received treatment the day before
would like to make a complaint. The
dentist starts to feel extremely agitated
by the news and is very abrupt with the
nurse and begins to feel stressed.

A common trait exhibited by dental professionals is the commitment
to meet the high standards that are
required of them. This can result in
a consistent desire to achieve per-

This example shows how similar
perceived stress factors in the same
scenario can aﬀect that same individual
diﬀerently on a diﬀerent day. Finding resources that can be used on a daily basis,

such as self-compassion, could help limit
the impact of certain stressors. Thus,
self-compassion could have the potential to build resilience in the dental professional to ongoing stressors.

What is
self-compassion?
Self-compassion involves treating
oneself with kindness and acceptance
using words and thoughts that are
contextually logical to oneself, like one
would address a friend who is suﬀering. In doing so, one can help to ease
the pressure often conﬂicted on oneself, which in turn can limit one’s
ability to function well and thrive. The
practice of self-compassion, avoiding
self-criticism and self-comparison, has
the potential to motivate one to reach
one’s own capabilities while cultivating self-awareness and seeing oneself
clearly and honestly with acceptance.

What are common
misinterpretations
of self-compassion?
Frequently, individuals have reported in conversation ﬁnding the
topic of self-compassion challenging
to implement. They may feel slightly
uncomfortable with the thought of
self-compassion being self-love, as it
may feel fake and not real, or narcissistic. This common misconception may
prevent individuals from practising it.
It has been discussed that selfcompassion may be diﬃcult to comprehend and practise. An unclear understanding of self-compassion and how it
can be comfortably practised on a daily
basis will in turn limit dental professionals’
exploration of how self-compassion can
bring potential value to their lives.
How can self-compassion be cultivated and implemented by dental
professionals?

Recognition
Self-compassion can be practised
by ﬁrst recognising when self-criticism
and self-frustrations occur and what
the known trigger is.

Imagination
It can be helpful to imagine how a
close friend is feeling about a particular
stress factor and imagine how one would
talk to him or her to reassure him or her
and reduce the pain he or she is feeling.

Practice
Regular practice of self-compassion
can improve the neural pathways for using
this helpful resource. At times when we
strive for perfectionism and fail to achieve it,
a natural relapse into self-frustration can
be the usual default response. However,
when perfectionism is not achieved, instead of self-frustration or self-criticism,
kind thoughts like “I did my best at this moment, this is all I can do and I acknowledge
that” or “I continue to learn every day and
accept this wonderful quality that I have”
could be a positive alternative. Through
repetition and regular practice, it will become easier, and allow us to default to
positive self-compassion more regularly.

How can dental professionals
become accountable
for implementing
self-compassion?
Every time a dental
professional resorts
to negative inner words
of self-frustration,
self-criticism, selfjudgement, he or
she should recognise the opportunity
to automatically shift
to positive words of selfcompassion, self-love, selfacceptance and self-appreciation, like
he or she would do for a friend.
However, it is diﬃcult to hold ourselves
accountable. Recognising this and using
a tool like the HabitShare app or simply
keeping a diary or holding yourself accountable at work or with a colleague,
friend or family member might help.

Dental professionals should seek
and ﬁnd the barriers they have built
within themselves, reduce these and
practise self-compassion in order to
maintain a mindset of being consistently
kind to themselves amid the constant
changes in the world and to increase
their ability to thrive. Imagine what could
come into your life when you become
as good at being kind to yourself as you
are kind to the people that surround you.

References:
1. UK Department of Health. Wellbeing: Why it
matters to health policy. 2014 Jan [cited 2022 Oct 26].
Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/
ﬁle/277566/Narrative__ January_2014_.pdf.
2. Collin V, Toon M, O’Selmo E, Reynolds L,
Whitehead P. A survey of stress, burnout and
well-being in UK dentists. Br Dent J. 2019 Jan 11;
226(1):40–9. doi: 10.1038/sj.bdj.2019.6.
3. Gorter RC. Work stress and burnout among
dental hygienists. Int J Dent Hyg. 2005 May;
3(2):88–92. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-5037.2005.00130.x.
4. Harris M, Wilson JC, Hughes S, Radford DR.
Stress and well-being in dental hygiene and
dental therapy students. BDJ Team. 2017 Sep 1;
4:17136. doi: 10.1038/bdjteam.2017.136

Victoria Wilson
holds a BSc and a diploma in dental
therapy and diploma in dental hygiene awarded by the Royal College
of Surgeons of England in the UK.
She has over ten years of
experience as a dental
hygienist and therapist, beginning
in the National
Health Service
and

private

sector in the
UK and progressing to the
private

sector

in the UAE. She
is passionate about
her work and fully
committed to oral health
promotion around the world.
She founded the Smile Revolution and
Smile Revolution Growth Hub, driving
innovations in oral health promotion
and leadership. In 2019, she launched
the Smile Revolution podcast, which
has over 13,000 listeners around the
world, and developed the Smile Revolution Thrive, the first subscription-

The future of cultivating
automated self-compassion
among dental professionals

based platform dedicated to enhancing

Changing the stigma and misconceptions of self-compassion and be-

found at www.smile-revolution.net.

the well-being of dental professionals
daily. In addition, she is a qualified
yoga instructor and mental health
first-aider. More information can be

[7] =>

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[8] =>

SUSTAINABILITY

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

Building a sustainable dental practice

Dr Sanjay Haryana.

staﬀ travel are the largest emitters of
greenhouse gases within dentistry.
Since dental appointments accumulate over a patient’s lifetime, total
emissions end up being extremely
high compared with those resulting
from other healthcare treatments.
In order to decrease emissions,
FDI World Dental Federation promotes source reduction through good
oral health or prevention. This is
because preventive dentistry results
in fewer appointments, fewer recall
visits, a reduction in materials and,
consequently, less clinical waste. Dental
diseases that are preventable or are
in the early stages of progression
should be targeted using individualised maintenance plans where home
care should be the centre of attention.

For example, switching to green
energy leads to a great impact, requires little eﬀort and minimises
interruption to day-to-day practice.
To make sustainable procurement
more manageable, it can be divided
into buying less, wasting less and
switching to products and services
with a lower carbon footprint.

Clinical waste is deﬁned as “any
waste which consists wholly or partly
of human or animal tissue, blood or
other body ﬂuids, excretions, drugs
or other pharmaceutical products,
swabs or dressings, syringes, needles
or other sharp instruments”. It is also
classiﬁed as hazardous and should
be incinerated.

Healthcare waste—
a major problem

The four Rs
in dentistry

Medical and dental care generate
substantial waste. The healthcare
sector is responsible for 5% of all the
greenhouse gas emissions in the EU.
Dental waste management has been
primarily focused on amalgam disposal, but this is no longer the main
issue. Even though it is well known

Waste management aims to protect humans and the environment. If
correctly done, it can also reduce
costs since most of the waste produced is clinical waste and is more
expensive to dispose of than household waste. A popular way to manage waste has been to employ the

• Recycle in the surgery

This is the most challenging area
since clinical waste cannot be recycled. The most common materials
found in clinical waste are tissues,
gloves and sterilisation pouches. We
should be able to establish routines
that allow us to open the pouches
with clean gloves, separate the plastic
from the paper and recycle appropriately. Small actions like this can have
a positive impact on the environment
and save costs for dental practices.

• Rethink in the surgery

Rethinking is the most important of
the four Rs. Even though reducing, reusing
and recycling are the most discussed,
they do not adequately address the clinical reality of dentistry or medicine. In order
to meet the Sustainable Development

How to reduce emissions, ensure sustainable procurement and manage clinical waste

By Dr Sanjay Haryana,
Sweden
Kindness to oneself and self-love are
concepts that are often spoken about
in the context of looking after oneself
and supporting personal well-being.
According to the UK’s National Health
Service, “well-being is about feeling good
and functioning well and comprises an
individual’s experience of their life; and
a comparison of life circumstances with
social norms and values”.1 Dental professionals widely recognise the importance of patients’ well-being and their
mental health, and it is an ethical requirement that we always act in the best
interest of all of our patients. We have
to be accountable for this. Yet, are we
acting in the best interest of ourselves
so that we can always thrive as dental
professionals? Are we accountable for
doing so? Self-compassion could have a
signiﬁcant role for dental professionals.
Sustainable dentistry’s two major
outcomes, namely good oral health
and reduced environmental impact,
could be achieved by focusing on
preventive care and quality operative
care. However, the large amount of
waste produced by the dental oﬃce
daily is a problem that needs immediate attention.

Reducing emissions—
a complex task
Dental caries and periodontitis
are two of the most common diseases
globally. Thus, the primary aim of
sustainable dentistry is to improve the
quality of life through preventive care
and quality operative care. In order to
be able to oﬀer this to the underprivileged part of the global population,
increased emissions are inevitable.
However, from an environmental
perspective, we want the population
to have immediate access to dental
care, but we do not want patients to
visit the dental practice too often.
After the manufacturing of dental
supplies and the dental waste generated in daily practice, patient and

According to Dr Sanjay Haryana, sustainable dentistry helps to make the workplace more attractive, is ethically correct and can serve as a great marketing tool.

Sustainable
procurement
Why should dental professionals
strive towards sustainable dentistry?
Firstly, it is the right thing to do ethically; secondly, it is a great marketing
tool; and ﬁnally, it creates an attractive workplace for new colleagues.
Before taking steps towards creating
a green dental practice and practising green dentistry, the practitioner
should understand that sustainability
minimises pitfalls and simpliﬁes the
process.
To build a sustainable dental
practice, it is essential to establish
the coming change with management
and take advantage of the trickledown eﬀect—the spreading of attitudes and behaviours through the
core of the organisation. The team
members must understand why the
change is necessary, feel responsible
for their roles and be inspired to take
part in the sustainability journey.

that dental practices generate great
amounts of waste, there is limited
data available on the eﬀect of this on
the environment. Similarly to sustainable dentistry, dental waste management lacks a global consensus on
how to tackle certain environmental issues that are associated with
dentistry.
In the day-to-day running of a
dental practice, waste is generated
from all parts of the business and
can be divided into three categories:
household waste, hazardous waste
and clinical waste. Household waste
is similar to that which is generated in
a residential environment and should,
if possible, be recycled. Hazardous
waste is considered harmful to
people and/or damaging to the environment and must be disposed of
through the appropriate facility. It
includes clinical waste, radiographic
solutions, amalgam and gypsum,
which generates a toxic gas during
degradation in landﬁlls.

four Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle and
rethink.

• Reduce in the surgery

Many practices work with preset
trays containing certain instruments
and disposable material, such as plastic tray liners, gauze, cotton rolls and
polishing paste. As soon as the tray
has been contaminated, all materials,
both used and unused, are classiﬁed
as clinical waste. Practices should review their set-up routines to minimise
the waste of unused material.

• Reuse in the surgery

Most of the waste in dentistry
consists of single-use equipment designed to minimise cross-contamination.
There is a need for the development
of novel solutions allowing sterilisation and reuse. However, practices
must consider whether the equipment is safe for patients and personnel and whether its production and
use have a positive impact on the
environment.

Goals of the United Nations as set out in
Agenda 2030, our suppliers must understand the waste management system
and align their dental products and
materials with the most appropriate
end-of-life procedure—incineration, landﬁll or recycling (chemical or mechanical).

Moving forward
All clinical waste is destined for
incineration and should, therefore, be
bio-based instead of fossil-based to
reduce net emissions. Additionally, a
consensus is needed on how to safely
minimise single-use equipment. There
are many diﬀerent types of plastics
used in the healthcare system, and a
circular approach will never be accomplished if they are recycled together.
Our eﬀorts in the clinical setting will
have little impact on sustainability
unless there is an alignment of equipment production, waste management
and end-of-life procedures. Only then
can good oral health and reduced
environmental impact be achieved.

[9] =>

PRAGUE
June 15-17, 2023

Digital
Dentistry
Summit

Register at www.digital-dentistry-summit.com

THE GLOBAL DENTAL CE COMMUNITY

In collaboration with
Digital Dentistry

Digital
Dentistry
Society

S U M M I T

Tribune Group GmbH is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or
endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry. Tribune Group GmbH designates this activity for 18.5 continuing education credits. This continuing education activity has been planned
and implemented in accordance with the standards of the ADA Continuing Education Recognition Program (ADA CERP) through joint efforts between Tribune Group GmbH and Dental Tribune International GmbH.

[10] =>

SUSTAINABILITY

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

Study examines public perceptions
regarding sustainable dentistry
Patients embrace sustainability in the dental practice

Given the relatively high levels of
material waste produced during the
course of dental procedures, a more
sustainable approach to dentistry
has been advocated by many within
the industry. A study from researchers
at the University of Sheﬃeld has
sought to examine how the general
public perceives the push for sustainability within the profession and
to better understand what compromises will be accepted in the
name of environmentally friendly
dentistry.

The research team, which is
spread across the university’s Department of Psychology and School
of Clinical Dentistry, set up an online
questionnaire for participants recruited via private dental practices
and by other means.
Data regarding the participants’
views about sustainable dentistry, as
well as demographic data and information about the participants’ overall
oral health, was collected between
August 2020 and February 2021.
In total, 344 adults responded
to the survey.

Positive attitudes
towards sustainability

By Brendan Day,
Dental Tribune International

Overall, the researchers found
that participants responded quite positively to sustainable dentistry and were
“moderately willing to compromise
time and convenience”. In addition,
they were somewhat likely to agree to
pay more and receive potentially less
durable dental treatment if it meant
that the treatment would be more environmentally conscious. Respondents
were least likely to accept compromises regarding the appearance of
their teeth or their oral health status,
whereas those having better self-rated

Leading virtual
orthodontic
solutions

A new study from researchers at the University of Sheﬃeld has found that dental
patients are likely to accept certain compromises in order for the dental treatments
they receive to be more sustainable.

oral health were more likely to view
sustainable dentistry in a positive light.
“Participants’ ethnicity, level of
education and employment status
were not found to be associated with
their attitudes towards, or willingness
to make compromises for, sustainable
dentistry,” the authors noted. However, they added that, similarly to the
results of previous studies conducted
on attitudes about sustainability,
signiﬁcant diﬀerences were present
in accordance with age and gender.

In their discussion, the authors
recognised a number of limitations
regarding their study, including the
relative homogeneity of respondents,
the lack of measuring household income or socio-economic status and
the focus on participants’ willingness
to make compromises rather than on
their actual behaviour. This focus was
justiﬁed by the reasoning that “there
is currently little choice for the public
when it comes to reducing the impact
of their dental treatments on the
environment”.

“Women displayed more positive
attitudes regarding sustainable dentistry.”

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Older respondents were less likely
to want to compromise their time
and convenience than younger respondents, whereas women displayed more
positive attitudes regarding sustainable dentistry than men did.
Survey respondents who were registered with a dentist recorded more
positive attitudes towards sustainable
dentistry than those who were unregistered. Whereas the frequency of
dental visits did not appear to aﬀect
these attitudes among participants,
the authors found that those who visited more frequently for routine dental
check-ups stated that they were more
likely to pay more to reduce the ecological footprint of their visits.

“[F]uture research may want to
use environmental assessment (for
example, Life Cycle Assessment), in
order to inform which types of compromises would have a beneﬁcial
impact on the sustainability of dental
services,” the authors stated. “Such
research would inform what changes
should be made, while our research
can inform whether such changes
would likely be accepted by the public,”
they added.
The study, titled “Exploring attitudes towards more sustainable
dentistry among adults living in
the UK”, was published online on
26 August 2022 in the British Dental
Journal.

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INDUSTRY

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

Simpliﬁcation is the secret to success
a consensus based on the latest scientiﬁc
ﬁndings and their own clinical experience.
They ensured that Success Simpliﬁed
considers the challenges and constraints
of a modern dental practice.

What is it all about?
Modern dentistry provides dental
professionals with plenty of opportunities to enhance their work. The
dental market is full of new ideas,
materials, techniques and tools to
help maximise treatment outcomes,
patient satisfaction and practice profitability, but is there such a thing as
too much choice?
The industry’s advancements are
impressive and certainly positive, but
it is important that dental professionals are not overwhelmed by the available options. When it comes to indirect
restorative work, which naturally can

be complex, too much choice can make
things even more complicated.
That is why *3M Oral Care has
partnered with ﬁ ve international experts to create Success Simpliﬁed—
a unique concept that helps dental
professionals streamline their indirect
restoration workﬂows for remarkable
outcomes achieved with minimal stress.

The faces behind
Success Simpliﬁed

Prof. Jan-Frederik Güth and Drs Paulo
Monteiro, Akit Patel, Carlos Eduardo Sabrosa
and Stefan Vandeweghe have developed

Aside from the inﬂux of new products and materials, patient expectations
continue to change. As a result, it is becoming more complex to meet modern
demands. Streamlining the workﬂow is
thus more important now than ever before. Fortunately, the answer is simple.
Success Simpliﬁed is a comprehensive yet highly accessible resource
that covers all seven steps of an indirect workﬂow, guiding dental professionals on how to simplify and
standardise their prosthodontic procedures. To sum up the basic principles of Success Simpliﬁed, the
goals of this concept are as follows:

selecting the simplest methods that
still ensure reliable results, being as
minimally invasive as possible, and
ensuring cost-eﬃciency for the dental professional and the patient.

A glimpse into
Success Simpliﬁed

Success Simpliﬁed covers everything from dental material selection to
restoration maintenance, providing an
enhanced understanding of each step.
For instance, the ﬁrst step focuses on
product selection—arguably the most
important part of the entire treatment
pathway.
3M Oral Care has combined the
very best of its portfolio and recommended the products that will work
optimally for each step. Its ethos is
underpinned by the belief that dental
professionals should be able to use
innovative products that truly make
an impact, all the while making their
lives easier. The ﬁ ve experts who have
supported and developed the Success
Simpliﬁed concept have also shared
their deﬁnitions of best practice recom mendations and protocols. Together,
this is aimed at helping the dental

professional achieve outstanding results the ﬁrst time, every time!

The future of dentistry

Nowadays, the focus of the dental
ﬁeld is on preservation, allowing patients to enjoy their natural dentition for
as long as possible. The development of
minimally invasive techniques has made
this a reality, and all dental treatment
should be supported by this underlying
principle. Success Simpliﬁed is ideal for
dental professionals seeking ways to
harness a minimally invasive workﬂow,
save time and money, and prioritise simplicity without compromising quality. As
dentistry becomes more complex, dental professionals can rely on simplicity
to help them keep pace.
To receive your free copy of the
Success Simpliﬁed handbook, contact
a 3M representative or request a free
sample of 3M Astringent Retraction
Paste at go.3M.com/susi-dt.
Watch the on-demand webinar on
Success Simpliﬁed, hosted by Dr Stefan
Vandeweghe, at 3M.co.uk/Success-Simpliﬁed.
* 3M is a trademark of the 3M Company.

Perio plus mouthwashes:
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Mistake and subject to change
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The Perio plus mouthwashes—also
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the result of many years of research
with a clear objective: less chlorhexidine and greater eﬀect. Perio
plus achieves a strong antibacterial
eﬀect thanks to a unique blend of
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TEAMWORK

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United in strength: for predictable and
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Valuable expertise and successful
use of polylysine and bioﬂavonoids are
combined in Perio plus for the ultimate
eﬀect. This product also owes its success to close collaboration with dental
professionals who contributed extensive practical experience. Perio plus is
a very eﬀective mouthwash, proving
itself anew on a daily basis against
acute gingivitis, in the care of implants and in postoperative care.

This product range is the ultimate showcase of Curaprox’s
dental hygiene expertise.
More information can
be found at curaprox.co.uk.

[13] =>

[14] =>

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

There’s never been a better time to join {my}dentist. With
record investment in our people and practices, the largest
clinical support team in UK dentistry, and unrivalled
opportunities, you’ll have the freedom to work the way
you want, build the career that’s right for you, and provide
the highest level of care to your patients.

Real freedom and flexibility:
We’re giving clinicians the freedom and flexibility to grow
the careers that are right for them. Clinicians won’t be
chased to hit a target or work hours that don’t suit them
and their families.

Unrivalled support:
We’ve built the largest clinical support network in the UK,
with more than 50 clinical support colleagues dedicated to
listening to clinicians and offering help and guidance when
it is needed most. Clinicians also benefit from an
industry-leading support centre and training academy.

Investment where it counts:
We’re investing more than £20 million every year to ensure
clinicians benefit from the latest materials and equipment,
outstanding facilities, and better-rewarded, supportive
practice teams.

Interview with Dr Florian Obadan
on the SKY fast & ﬁxed system. By bredent.

Dr Obadan, how did you start working with
the SKY fast & ﬁxed therapy?
I ﬁrst heard about the SKY fast & ﬁxed
implant therapy for immediate loading about
14 years ago; however, it is worth noting that
I ﬁrst started as a non-believer in the system,
its potential and how it would function. Then,
one day, I was translating a course held by
Wolfgang Lechner, currently the international
sales manager of the bredent group, and he
described the system in a way that captured
my attention and curiosity. I started to research the system and to read peer reviews,
but I still was not totally sold on SKY fast &
ﬁxed.

Doing dentistry
diﬀerently

“People are smiling from the
bottom of their hearts”

Back then, I was working in a small town
and community and could not aﬀord any failure. Since I needed more evidence about the
system, I went to visit the Swiss Dentaprime
clinic in Varna in Bulgaria, where a surgeon
came to do a demo surgery. It still wasn’t
enough to win me over, even though I assisted
during the surgery. Then, in June 2009, I went
to a course in Germany, where Dr Michael
Weiss also performed a live surgery using
SKY fast & ﬁxed.
Upon my return to Romania, I ﬁnally decided to give it a try after nine months of uncertainty. A patient of mine who I deemed suitable
for the procedure agreed to be my ﬁrst case.
The intervention was scheduled in July 2009
and was a success. August 2009 brought the
next two successfully completed cases and
with minimum discomfort to the patient.
Fast-forward to today: even though I do
not keep an exact count of the patients from
my clinic, I am proud that some 2,000 to
3,000 people are smiling from the bottom
of their hearts and not hiding any more, thanks
to SKY fast & ﬁxed, the therapy that restored
their smiles in just 24 hours and enabled them
to continue living just like before they had any
tooth issues.
Has SKY fast & ﬁxed made a diﬀerence in
patient satisfaction?
Initially, I ﬁnd that patients who are suitable for the treatment are also rather desperate. They have lost teeth and are likely to
be wearing a removable denture. Once the
provisional restoration is placed, you can see
a change in these patients: they start having

Dr Florian Obadan, based in Romania.

new expectations about a life with greater
functionality and improved aesthetics.
With the SKY fast & ﬁxed system, you can
achieve a high degree of treatment predictability and stability, which is not the case when you
try to reconstruct the structures biologically.
After surgery, you can see in patients’ eyes
how happy you have made them, and that is
really rewarding and reminds us why we are so
motivated to help patients every single day.
Is SKY fast & ﬁxed suitable for all patients?
When proﬁling patients, I would advise
dentists not to look at the age of patients and
instead to focus on their personal situation.

Ready to join us?
scan for
more info
www.mydentistcareers.co.uk

Dr Florian Obadan oﬀers hands-on training programmes.

[15] =>

INDUSTRY

Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 1/2022

“Dentists need to have
a full understanding of
how the bone might react.”
I have had patients in their late
thirties who showed up with many
unsavable teeth. The question is
whether you can give these patients
back their self-esteem and whether
you can preserve some tissue.
I would like to quote Prof. Carl Misch,
who said that for too long the profession was too focused on preserving
teeth rather than bone, and that is
exactly right. Compromised teeth
can lead to bone destruction, and
therefore the better option is to
remove them. The SKY fast & ﬁxed
system is suitable in many cases,
and the profession should align with
the evolution of these technological
advances.
Can you tell us about the evolution
of your cases?
When using the SKY fast & ﬁxed
system, you simultaneously beneﬁt
from a number of diﬀerent concepts.
The ﬁxation of the abutments on the
same day helps with the preservation
of the architecture of the structures

surrounding the implant, and the
outcome you get is excellent, having
great primary stability. I naturally
started comparing my SKY fast &
ﬁxed cases with the ones that I was
performing using a conventional protocol, and soon shifted to the SKY fast
& ﬁxed system, since the outcomes
indicated its superiority. It made so
much sense to me.
What is your advice on digital workﬂows?
I am the ﬁrst to admit that, when
you are used to an analogue method
of working, it is quite a change to go
digital. However, there is no doubt
in my mind that digitalisation is the
future, and we should always anticipate and embrace what is coming
next.
What is your advice to your peers?
Anyone who wants to start working with implants ﬁrst has to learn
about the biological processes that
take place in the deﬁned treatment

Dr Obadan demonstrates the immediate loading technique used in full-arch reconstructions.

area. When you can appreciate and
achieve a good understanding of
how diﬀerent tissues react, then
your treatment outcomes will become
more predictable.
In my view, it is important to
choose an implant system which
oﬀers you a lot of treatment possibilities from a prosthetic point of view.
Initially, it is best to start with an
analogue protocol because, in the
event of any unforeseen circum-

stances which call for quick decisions, it is necessary to have reﬁned
the requisite clinical skills. Dentists
need to have a full understanding of
how the bone might react and appreciate the quality of the tissue that will
surround the future implant, not just
the bone but the soft tissue as well.
They also need to learn about trends
in implantology, such as digitalisation, immediate loading, immediate
function and reconstruction of the
soft tissue.

It is also important to avoid
jumping from one system to another.
A system is often associated with
a whole philosophy behind the
actual product design, and it takes
time to ﬁgure out how far it can
take you. I have been using the
SKY fast & ﬁxed therapy since 2009,
and I am convinced that I still have
not experienced its full potential.
Sometimes the limitations are within
yourself and not with the tool you
are using.

THE GLOBAL DENTAL CE COMMUNITY

Dentistry's largest online education community
webinars / live operations / online CE events / CE credits
www.dtstudyclub.com

@DTStudyClub

Tribune Group is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of
continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry.This
continuing education activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the standards of the ADA Continuing Education Recognition Program (ADA CERP) through
joint efforts between Tribune Group and Dental Tribune Int. GmbH.

[16] =>

THE ‘PERIO PLUS
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+ Regeneration and protection
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+ Additional protection against
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+ Inspiring fresh taste sensation
*Studies available at: perioplus.com/studies

UR
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[cover] => Dental Tribune UK No. 1, 2022

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Table of contents

[toc_titles] =>

UK News / Building a sustainable dental practice / Study examines public perceptions regarding sustainable dentistry / Industry

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