Do you need a mentor?....

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MsPurtell

to be successful in the field of dentistry? If so, how have you found a mentor, or how do you plan to? I ask because I'm clueless and I don't have time to f around screwing stuff up. I'm old and I need to get it right the first time.

Thx.
 
MsPurtell said:
to be successful in the field of dentistry? If so, how have you found a mentor, or how do you plan to? I ask because I'm clueless and I don't have time to f around screwing stuff up. I'm old and I need to get it right the first time.

Thx.
Click to expand...

Sorry but you can't substitute for experience (based on YOUR mistakes). Not a day goes by that I don't look at something and think.....hmmm...not gonna do it that way again. Sure it helps if you have someone you can ask questions but even then most of my "learning experiences" are made during the actual execution of what was told to me.

You know all that crap about how it's a journey not an endpoint......that's why they call it starting a "practice".......everyday should be a new learning experience.......

Hate to add to the corny sayings but I learn much more from making a mistake. Days when it's class II comps all day and they all look great are needed for mental health but kind of boring and not very educational.
 
Just wait a few years until you've been in practice a while and see some of your work and how its holding up or even worse, failing 😱 after 5 or so years! You'll really be amazed at how much you learn from that 😀
 
MsPurtell said:
to be successful in the field of dentistry? If so, how have you found a mentor, or how do you plan to? I ask because I'm clueless and I don't have time to f around screwing stuff up. I'm old and I need to get it right the first time.

Thx.
Click to expand...

Or were you talking about a mentor in a business kinda way? Someone to show you the ropes of running a practice.
 
Yep, I was thinking more of the business aspect. But also someone to bounce all kinds of ideas off of.......be it more business stuff or more clinically oriented stuff. It sucks having to learn from mistakes, but I know what you mean when you talk about executing a procedure for the first time and how that can really be the best learning experience.

UConn_SDM said:
Or were you talking about a mentor in a business kinda way? Someone to show you the ropes of running a practice.
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And in the meantime, how much business do you lose? That's what scares me. I know making mistakes is inevitable, but I want to get GOOD quickly. That's so critical with the cosmetic stuff. If something doesn't come out right, I want to be able to pinpoint the reason right away and not have the same problem crop up in the future. I just feel like the voice of experience can be a huge help as far as giving you pointers and so on.

DrJeff said:
Just wait a few years until you've been in practice a while and see some of your work and how its holding up or even worse, failing 😱 after 5 or so years! You'll really be amazed at how much you learn from that 😀
Click to expand...
 
MsPurtell said:
And in the meantime, how much business do you lose? That's what scares me. I know making mistakes is inevitable, but I want to get GOOD quickly. That's so critical with the cosmetic stuff. If something doesn't come out right, I want to be able to pinpoint the reason right away and not have the same problem crop up in the future. I just feel like the voice of experience can be a huge help as far as giving you pointers and so on.
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Take ALOT of CE from many speakers - note "cosmetic" speakers these days are roughly a dime a dozen, but while many of them say basically the same thing, it's their presentation/lecturing styles/skills that may or may not make the difference for you. Basically put, you could have 2 speakers talking about the exact same procedure with the same materials, but one of them phrases it in a way that sets of a "dental epiphany" for you, whereas after hearing the same speaker I may think that their just full of hot air. So take many CE lectures on that topic.

This is where large meeting like the ADA, Greater New York, Yankee Dental, Chicago Mid-Winter, The Hinman, etc can be great. Since you can hear literally 2 different lecturers a day for the length of the meeting talking about very similiar topics. Myself personally I find the type of lecturer that works for me is the type that spends a good amount of time on his/her failures and why it failed and then what they learned from it to make it better now.
 
MsPurtell said:
I'm clueless and I don't have time to f around ...... I'm old and I need to get it right the first time.
Click to expand...
ummmmh, are you talking about what I'm thinking that you're talking about? Nah, probably not! mentor for...? ohhhh, dentistry! Sorry, I can't really help you with that!
 
DrJeff said:
Take ALOT of CE from many speakers - note "cosmetic" speakers these days are roughly a dime a dozen, but while many of them say basically the same thing, it's their presentation/lecturing styles/skills that may or may not make the difference for you.
Click to expand...
Great advice! I wish that those CE courses didn't cost so much. I bleed, internally, every time that I have to pay for those classes. Since my interest is in Prostho/"cosmetic", I had a Prosth instructor as my mentor in school. I chose CE courses mainly towards my interest and/or procedures that I need improvement.
 
UConn_SDM said:
Sorry but you can't substitute for experience (based on YOUR mistakes). Not a day goes by that I don't look at something and think.....hmmm...not gonna do it that way again. Sure it helps if you have someone you can ask questions but even then most of my "learning experiences" are made during the actual execution of what was told to me.

You know all that crap about how it's a journey not an endpoint......that's why they call it starting a "practice".......everyday should be a new learning experience.......

Hate to add to the corny sayings but I learn much more from making a mistake. Days when it's class II comps all day and they all look great are needed for mental health but kind of boring and not very educational.
Click to expand...

Some of the most successful people are those who can learn from other people's mistakes without making them themselves. If we couldn't learn from other people's mistakes we would be one sad civilization. Its ok to learn from your own mistakes but learnring from other peoples' mistakes is certianly a more efficient way. Warren Buffet and Alexander Graham both say this is a key to success in life. I agreee.
 
SMC2UCLA2_ said:
Some of the most successful people are those who can learn from other people's mistakes without making them themselves. If we couldn't learn from other people's mistakes we would be one sad civilization. Its ok to learn from your own mistakes but learnring from other peoples' mistakes is certianly a more efficient way. Warren Buffet and Alexander Graham both say this is a key to success in life. I agreee.
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You can and should get advise from other people but in dentistry you have to learn what works in your hands. Maybe I was talking more about the importance of experimenting. Example - problems with proximal contacts in posterior composites? Ask 10 dentists what their secret is and you'll get 20 "you have to do it this way". Ultimately you just have to try it out and see what works for you because what works for you may not work for me.

Should a young dentist be looking for a mentor to help them transition into the business world of dentistry and get them up to speed on how things are done in private practice? Yes! But you're still going to have to stumble through experimenting with your mentor's suggestions to see if they work in your hands.

There simply is a learning curve with everything in dentistry that you can't skip over. Experimenting and fumbling with new materials and procedures is how you improve your skills.
 
Hehe.....no I don't need a mentor for that!

lnn2 said:
ummmmh, are you talking about what I'm thinking that you're talking about? Nah, probably not! mentor for...? ohhhh, dentistry! Sorry, I can't really help you with that!
Click to expand...
 
What kind of $$$ are we talking about?

lnn2 said:
Great advice! I wish that those CE courses didn't cost so much. I bleed, internally, every time that I have to pay for those classes. Since my interest is in Prostho/"cosmetic", I had a Prosth instructor as my mentor in school. I chose CE courses mainly towards my interest and/or procedures that I need improvement.
Click to expand...
 
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