07 Mar Implants and how to do them

A training tip for new Dental Implant Surgeons

(Dr Iulian Popescu)

When I decided to train as a dental implant surgeon I didn’t realise how difficult it could be. I don’t mean the technical aspect. What I mean is the practical and organisational aspect of building a pipeline of suitable case-study candidates.

How hard can it be?

I completed my initial implant training a little while ago. However, the practice that I was at had little call for implants, and so it was proving difficult to get the case studies I needed for my qualification. So my employer – {my}dentist – suggested I move to a different practice that had a patient demand for implants. A much longer journey to work for sure, but with a steady flow of patients enquiring about implants it would help me complete this stage of my studies and help the practice to develop an implant service.

However, it has still taken me more than 10-months to find three suitable patients to use as case studies. It’s not the fault of {my}dentist – it’s just the way it goes. And the reason surprised me.

I was, in fact, seeing (and continue to see) a reasonable number of patients looking for an implant or who would be well advised to consider such treatment. However, I have found that I have to refer about 75% of them to a more experienced colleague as the treatment they require is too complex (for my case studies).

A career tip

So here’s my tip to any would-be dental implant surgeon. Yes, it’s important to work in a practice that already has a reputation and a demand for implant work. However, you also need to think about how you and your colleagues will identify implant patients that fall within your scope of practice so that you can use them as a case study.

How to do that? Well, in my case I am a patient man. Beyond patience, I don’t know.

However, I think it is likely that finding case studies of patients with more complex requirements might be much easier than finding simple cases.

Dr Iulian Popescu – dentist currently training as a dental implant surgeon.

About the writer

Dr Iulian Popescu is an associate dentist with {my}dentist working at their Woodbridge practice, which is near Ipswich in Suffolk.

Many thanks to Dr Popescu and to Liz Murphy – PR and Social Media manager at {my}dentist –  for help with this article.

Note

Pearl Dental Software is not currently in standard use by {my}dentist. However, it does include charting functions for dental implants. For more information, please contact us.