Mervyn Druian shares his thoughts on how dentistry is changing and his advice for those starting out in the profession.
What’s your take on the current status quo of the profession and how things are shifting?
The profession is, and has always been, very, very exciting. There’s every aspect of dentistry. And Great Britain today is probably in the forefront of the best dentistry in the world. We’ve got amazing clinicians, and the aesthetic dentistry, implants, restorative dentistry, technology, the scanners, the laboratories – everything is just absolutely world class.
However, we’ve got this huge problem with the NHS, where patients who have had pretty reasonable NHS dentistry for years are now finding it impossible to access dentistry. There’s still too many children with too much decay, causing immense problems for them and for their parents, and they’re having to have general aesthetic, to have teeth removed. I think that’s a real stigma on society today – it just shouldn’t be happening. We’ve got third world dental situation, which is absolutely awful, but then we have first world, brilliant dentistry.
Regarding corporate dentistry today, you could probably go through your whole career without ever, ever owning a practice, which I find amazing because, to me, one of the first things you did, as soon as you could, as an associate was look to see if you could buy into a partnership, own a practice or set up a squat practice.
But today, you can work for a corporate group and have a wonderful, fulfilling career in dentistry, and I, after 50 years in general practice, sold my practice to a corporate group, the Portman group, and we love it. It’s going great.
Compared to when you first entered the profession, in what ways is it different now for young dentists?
There is so much scope for a dentist today. When I first qualified, dentistry was mainly doing amalgam fillings, probably dentures and the odd crown. Now, the restorative prospects are amazing – the surgical prospects, implants, veneers and composite bonding, which wasn’t even heard of when I started. In fact, the original research of bonding composite to teeth was done at my dental school in Johannesburg, over nearly 60 years ago.
I still remember Professor Drea, who was one of the first people to work on how to because it was mainly for orthodontists to learn how to stick brackets onto teeth. And then it just went on to evolve with composites, and then porcelain and everything else took place from it.
But dentistry has changed, and for me to have been involved in dentistry over the last 60 years has been fascinating to see the changes, and I’m still in dentistry and still enjoying it.
I think the importance of patient communication has made a very big difference, because before you just had to be the local dentist, and people used to come to you and have their treatment. In fact, they didn’t even know your name, and they would come for treatment.
I’ll tell you a funny story. I had a Latvian dentist who worked with me. She was a six-foot tall, extremely attractive, blonde lady, whereas I’m short and dark. The patient would come to the practice and we’d ask them, which dentist did you see? They said, ‘I can’t remember.’ Was it a man or a woman? ‘I can’t remember.’ Tall or short? ‘I can’t remember.’
That is how I remember dentistry. When I first started in practice, patients would come to you because you were the local dentist. They didn’t come to you because you were the dentist. And that’s changed.
What challenges are you trying to help people overcome through your book?
The book, although aimed at dentists and the whole dental team, is really for everybody. It’s to save dentists and the team the years of footwork and slogging that I did to establish myself and to get our practice to become one of the premier practices in the country.
It’s a step by step on having an attitude of gratitude, on mindfulness, on thinking of the other person, on charisma, on the importance of enthusiasm, on team building etc. This is what the book’s about.
There’s a slight, small clinical aspect and an aspect on presenting cases and treatment, but really it’s to fill the dentist and their team with enthusiasm and excitement about looking after the patients, and about treating people coming for care.
What would you say to anyone who is feeling pressure in dentistry, and how should they navigate that pressure?
There’s always pressure in dentistry. The fact that you’ve taken a needle to a patient is going to cause pressure and stress. How many times does a patient say, ‘Oh, I hate dentists. I hate my dentist.’ They don’t really, but you have to get over it.
But I think to have an attitude of gratitude makes such a difference. When we are challenged, we’ve got patients who have given us a hard time, lab work hasn’t arrived or it’s gone to the wrong country, or whatever it is, you just need to think back to the patients who you have helped, look at the letters of gratitude you’ve received from patients, the ‘thank you’ cards etc. Those are the things that really keep you balanced.
Looking back on your career, what are your top pieces of advice for those just starting?
If I had to look back at my top pieces of advice for working in dentistry, it’s that you need to love people, you need to enjoy what you do and you need to share that enjoyment. Dentistry is really a fulfilling profession, and I haven’t finished with it yet.
Always try and run the practice profitably – loss is a four letter word, profit isn’t. Also, whatever you do has to have honesty and integrity, and whatever else you do, whether it’s with your team or with the people coming for care, it has to be a win-win. A win for you, a win for the person coming for care, and a win for the team.
Click here to find out more about Mervyn’s book.
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