Somewhere around 20 years ago, a young dentist who qualified from Birmingham turned up at the practice where I worked. That's what we call a VT.
He was a new graduate, looking to find his way in dentistry. I was assigned to be, to effectively be his educational supervisor, ‘his VT trainer’.
We did that for a year, he came into the practice where I worked (I didn't own it), and then later on, as we worked together, we would jointly train new graduates together.
I left that practice when it was sold to a corporation in quite short order, and he stayed there, continuing to train.
He now has 3 or 4 or something like that practices, and he has his own VTs that come to him. Some of the VTs that he has trained have become educational supervisors themselves, and so therefore he is now the guy who trained the people who train the people who come.
Today, we had one of his VT's (they're now called DFTs) come to visit us at the practice for a day. We were laughing about the fact that I'm effectively his grand grand grand trainer or something like that, and so the guy spent time with us today, sharing knowledge, sharing laughs. Just seeing what things could be like 30 years further down the line when you've been working in your career for decades.
We never really know, do we, if what we say will land or what we do will affect somebody's behaviour, but the chances are that it does, and that it compounds over the years. It's just something that you can't count on a day-to-day basis.
So, the best thing to do is just continue to turn up.
Blog Post Number - 4416
Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid, and this extraordinary challenge, please click here.
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