One of the greatest responsibilities we have as a professional group is the construction and delivery of the story we tell to people who want to enter our profession as a lifetime career and vocation.
This is the introduction of high achieving, motivated and intelligent young individuals in school who are keen to pursue a career in dentistry. The profession as a whole has a huge responsibility to tell these people the truth about what the future holds and why they should enter the career as their chosen vocation.
It is absolutely clear from all the people that I speak to about dentistry that there has been a cohort of people entering the profession over the past 10 -15 years who have been hugely financially motivated. People have been encouraged to apply to dentistry because of the perceived earning potential at the other side where young men and women can earn extraordinary amounts of money in their 20’s and 30’s which is not consistent with most other professions.
Some people may take issue with these statements but I speak to young dentists on a regular basis and I can always pick out the groups in the audience who fall into that category. I have full and frank discussions with people often after lectures about that but as Bob Dylan said “ the times they are a changin’ ”
The story we have to tell prospective dental students now is that the capacity to earn income as a new graduate has dropped dramatically and the likelihood is that in the next 5 years the average salary for a dental associate, working in a corporate providing NHS dentistry will be somewhere in the region of £40,000 per year. I do not feel this is an exaggeration, merely a financial reality as the corporates try to screw down their costs to increase their profit margins in the next round of potentially selling their business. The ophthalmic model is certainly here in dentistry. That is not to say that there will not be room in dentistry for exceptional individuals who develop themselves to the highest possible way to the greatest possible heights. I believe these people will be rewarded financially and otherwise extremely highly but the opportunities for that will be less and less therefore the quality to achieve this standard will be higher and higher.
Where does this fall in succession planning? In our practice we have developed a system for work experience students in their final two years of school to attend the practice on a regular basis. These people are interviewed. Last year we took into the practice Matthew Giudici in September 2014. He attended the local state high school and expressed a huge interest in dentistry. He came to the practice and we had a full and frank discussion with Matt about what it would take for him to secure his place at dental school. He then attended the practice almost every single Monday from 3:30 until 6:00 observing dentistry but also doing tasks that were required around the practice; helping on reception, trimming models, making tea, ironing clothes, helping with audits. He saw the business for what it was – a team business where everybody pulls in. We accessed him work experience at a very busy NHS dental practice and also in hospital departments in maxillofacial surgery. Matt kept a journal of this. We investigated with him the application process for dental school and helped him with mock interviews and discussions about dentistry. One of the greatest triumphs was this year as I was waiting at Birmingham Airport to go on holiday with my family and I had a text to say Matt had been accepted to dental school. As a present to him we gave him a job in the summer at the practice for as many hours as he wanted doing a multitude of tasks which just made the practice better including audits, presentations and editing video clips for the academy. Matt is now at Bristol dental school and is turning out to be an exceptional addition to their student faculty.
We have started this process again this year and will do it every single year. I think this is a model that should be adopted by any responsible and sensible dental practice in the UK who wishes to promote the profession in the future. I think we could formalise this and then the 10,000 (reducing to 2,000) independent practices in the UK could give extraordinary work experience to exceptional young people who understand that dentistry is not a gravy train and they will not be rewarded for mediocrity when they exit dental school but will only be rewarded for exceptional. That’s the way it should be shouldn’t it?
Blog Post Number: 802
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