Reflective Practitioner

A recent dental school reunion (30 years) allowed time for reflection on how much dentistry has changed over this time, but in many ways has also remained the same. While most colleagues had worked in a single practice for 30 years and were now reaching the point of selling practices to corporates, it is unlikely that undergraduates who qualify today will have a similar route available, even if they did choose to follow it. Working in a dental school as I do, many students are looking for career portfolios, mixing and matching opportunities to allow personal development. However, what will be lost with an increasingly mobile workforce is the opportunity to learn from our errors, which often only become apparent with time, when working in the same practice over many years. Similarly, my experience in dentistry is that, on occasion, compromises may work, but most often they do not given the hostile conditions in the mouth, both microbiologically and physically. Time often brings to light the folly of clinical compromise, but for many we may not see this.