In 2009, when I set up the NHS specialist practice in Alfreton in Derbyshire, we (very controversially) took all the minor oral surgery out of Chesterfield Hospital at that time (well, almost all).
It was clear from the outset that we were not going to be particularly liked by the consultants in the hospital, and that turned out to be true but as you would expect, one of the first people we treated for removal of third molars ended up in ITU with a trachy due to a complication in the surgery.
Publication was a post-op infection that progressed to cellulitis, and therefore our name was even more dragged through the mud, in spite of the fact that we have been enthusiastic and entirely upbeat.
We had a bump as soon as we'd started.
We got over that bump in the road to build something extraordinarily successful and fantastic, but we could have stopped and given up, but we didn't.
The Campbell Clinic was launched at a glitzy party at the riverbank in Nottingham in October 2013 on a Thursday evening. On the Saturday, I received a notification from the General Dental Council about the complaint that would lead to my high-profile (in my view) GDC case.
I could have just bailed out of The Campbell Clinic then, but I didn't.
There was a bump after the start, but we got over it and carried on.
The launch party for the newly constructed Campbell Clinic facility in Edwalton in Nottingham was scheduled for the 11th of March 2020. From a long way out, it was supposed to be a brilliant affair with lots of cool people coming and a big celebration to try and catapult us into the world of the new clinic. It was in the middle of the COVID pandemic, and we hadn't quite shut down, but we were in a minute. As a result of all that and everything that happened, it looked like we might lose the practice and even our house.
Exciting at the start and a bump straight after. Have to get over it.
In 2009 (around about the time the Alfreton patient was in ITU), we took delivery of our first CBCT machine with much excitement; we were one of the first in the country.
I don't know what we scanned on the first patient, but it wasn't their head, maybe a light switch, we had a bump, we couldn't do it, but we got over it, and we learned.
Five years later, we would buy a full CEREC setup and a lab milling system. The first time we've provided a CEREC for a patient, we couldn't scan them, the 2nd, we couldn't mill it, the third, we couldn't fit it, and the 4th, we couldn't cement it. It took about five attempts after the bump from the start of that to get things going until we could use it properly.
This happens all the time through life; if you look back, you'll get it.
The excitement in the beginning is wonderful, but as soon as you start the project and it collides with reality, something goes wrong.
That can set you back or stop you or make you give up, but failure is a temporary condition; it's giving up that makes it permanent.
Once you get old enough, and maybe wiser, we expect it to happen, and then you can deal with it.
Blog Post Number - 4173
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