So, a question often asked by people early on in their career or stuck in a rut in the middle of their career is, what skills do I need to become an implant dentist?
Firstly, you need to be able to communicate because all healthcare practitioners need to be able to communicate.
I believe that communication is 75% of healthcare.
Secondly, you need to be curious; you need to be able to look at yourself and the world outside of yourself and ask questions about how to be better, develop, and evolve.
Implant dentistry reinvigorated the careers of dentists in their 40s in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. Everyone at that time understood that that was happening, creating this extraordinary invention and interest in dentistry that had not been present before.
That's possible for anyone to harness.
You just have to want to, and you just have to be curious.
What you need to become an implant dentist is commitment and resilience, and stamina.
You don't just go and sit in a lecture theatre for a little while; take your hand out home and suddenly be able to do sinus grafting and immediate full arch reconstruction.
This is a journey for the rest of your life that you can share with friends, old and new, where, with extraordinary interest, you can pick up new skills and information which will massively benefit your patients, massively benefit your career and massively benefit your business whatever that might be.
You need to have some hands.
They don't have to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but you need to be prepared to work on your skills in order to make them better.
And finally, I would suggest that humility is one of the best skills you could have to become an implant dentist.
Implant dentistry is difficult, and the complications are distressing and upsetting for patients and clinicians alike.
You really need to have a thick skin but be able to look at yourself objectively in the worst times and know what you need to do to get better.
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