Latest Blog Post

Time insurance

My friend Jimmy taught me about this years ago, but I think it's valid.

In a discussion with Dom in the practice today (Dom is one of our young dentists who is moving along with his implant career and will become a superstar), I was explaining the concept out of the back of my mind from nowhere from years ago.

I realised today in the team meeting that I'm entering my 30th year as a dentist.

That's an awful long time being a dentist, but one of the things that it brings is time insurance.

Dom and I were looking at a case together, and I said you must take that tooth out. We agreed and disagreed on whether we should take the tooth with a big area of infection at the tip of the root out or whether we should leave it.

When you get to 30 years and 10,000 surgical extractions, 6,000 implants and thousands and thousands of consultations, you have the right and probably the ability to make quicker, snappier decisions in these circumstances.

That's not to say that you'll get them right every time, but what you have is a back catalogue of successful cases that give you the validity to make the decision and to stand by it.

I never understood this when I was a young clinician.

I never understood the respect and the deference that some people paid the guys who were still around after 30 years, 

It never gets easier; you just get faster.

But it's true that you sit here after 30 years looking backwards at people who have only done some of this stuff for about 15 minutes, wondering how they can make the decisions the way they do, knowing that the route they're taking will never work.

By Colin Campbell on 05/09/2023, 18:00