So you’re a young dentist who has just brought a practice? Where do you go next with so much to do?

In becoming a business owner it’s easy to become utterly distracted in the running of the business without paying any attention to your clinical career and how that must also develop in tandem with your business skills. It’s easy to see a path way that suits the business itself, plugging the gaps that everyone else leaves and doing the jobs that no one else wants to do to keep the wheels turning. This is a recipe for disaster.

Sometimes it’s necessary to take time away from the madness just to plan your course over the next 2-3 years to decide where you would like to be, not only as a business owner but also as a clinician. For all of us in dentistry (or at least most of us) these things run side-by-side. There is much more to a career in dentistry than just pushing out basic work in high numbers to keep the accountant happy and going home at the end of the day exhausted only to do paper work. One of the ways for young practice owners, to re-inspire their careers is to become involved in the pursuit of dental implant skills. This involves an attempt to achieve mastery over a longer period of time in basic surgical and restorative skills which adds advantages not only to the dentist themselves but to their team, their patients and their practice overall.

One of the benefits of becoming involved in implant dentistry to a high quality level is that it is financially rewarding as well as intellectually and spiritually rewarding. It allows you to build a deeper and greater relationship with both your team and your patients. It’s essential though to pick the ideal courses for yourself as you pursue your pathway through a career in dentistry as a post-graduate and identify the courses and post-graduate education that you feel would be best for you. There are many different choices out there from introductory courses, to year courses and MSc’s based at Universities. There are Master Classes and online education available, examinations and assessments, live skill courses and also conferences. What and how do you choose?

At The Campbell Academy we have a concrete philosophy that we believe it takes up to five years for any introductory dentist to achieve competency in implant dentistry. We believe it’s necessary to reach a level of placing 50 dental implants or more a year, to maintain and improve over time. We have tried very hard to structure a pathway for committed and ethical dentists in implant dentistry to move towards that goal utilising academic teaching, using some of the best educators for hands on teaching and live skills with real patients and real procedures. We also mix this with online learning and discussions with colleagues to try and create a tribe of people who continue to talk long after courses are completed.