Why Mentorship, CE and Good Systems are Critical to Practice Success

You're listening to the Phil Klein Dental Podcast So how important is continuing education in our career? How important is it for the young dentist, or any dentist for that matter, to find a mentor, someone that could provide invaluable practical advice? And how important is it for you, the young dentist, to position yourself so that you can get the best mentor and the most out of the relationship? We'll be asking these questions to our guest, Dr. Devin McClintock. Dr. McClintock graduated with honors from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. She completed two years of general practice residency in addition to a cosmetic dentistry residency through the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. Dr. McClintock, thanks for joining us on the show. Thank you so much, Phil. It's great to be here. Yeah. So from your experience, when it comes to cosmetic dentistry, what's the best piece of advice you can give recent grads and young dentists that are out there right now practicing? You know, one of the best advice that I ever received is, you know, continue education. The real dentistry starts outside of dental school. And if you're passionate about something, especially something as niche as cosmetic dentistry, it's important to, you know, follow your own drive there. You know, find the resources, find the... the academies that are going to help support you find those courses, those smaller hands-on courses that are going to be able to provide you with that knowledge base and that foundation that. you are interested in having and ignore anyone else telling you it's a waste of time i mean i can't even begin to recall how many attendings from my you know residencies uh told me that cosmetics was a waste of time and i think if you really are passionate about something don't don't listen to the naysayers follow your own heart because there are resources out there for you and it all comes from that continuing education that passion for continuing education and i think that applies to any kind of, you know, interest you have, but especially cosmetics. So let me ask you this. When you first get out of dental school, how soon do you think it's important for a young dentist to start getting involved with continuing education? I mean, they just finished school. They want to get the practice going or they're working for an associate or maybe they're in a DSO or whatever. Should they be taking these CE classes like right out of the gate? You know, I... advocate now for the dental students that I mentor, start before you graduate. I mean, there are so many resources available to dental students at a significantly discounted rate, which is just an added bonus, but get ahead of the curve. I mean, it's so overwhelming when you're in dental school and I can totally relate to that. I remember being so stressed out about everything and not even begin to imagine. fitting anymore in my brain. But if there is a certain area that you're interested in, or especially if you're thinking about specializing in something like surgery or PROS or, you know, pediatrics, getting that extra exposure is going to, one, really give you that experience to decide if specializing is something you really want to do. But also just kind of give you a jump on kind of what's out there in terms of technology, materials, where. each branch of dentistry is going. And like I said, the resources are there. But, you know, definitely as soon as you get out the gate, it's exhausting and, you know, overwhelming to think about. But the earlier you can get involved and surround yourself with, you know, the people who are as passionate about the different things you're passionate about are, the better you're going to be in the long term. Yeah, I hear from a lot of KOLs that are out there that have been practicing for two decades or more, their advice is to younger dentists is to find a mentor. Find someone you really respect, you trust, take courses from them, read their literature if they write up in journals, peer-reviewed journals. Do you find that to be very important as well? Without a doubt. I never give a lecture or webinar or talk to a dental student, potential dental student, anyone without. first talking about mentorship i think that is the key and again regardless of what you're field is, what your subspecialty is, having good mentors around you, but also making sure you are making yourself someone worth mentoring, which I think is somewhere where sometimes people get lost in the weeds where they don't really understand what's the best way to find a mentor is to make yourself someone worth mentoring. Show those people you're passionate. Reach out to people. Go to these meetings. Make connections. Go ask questions. If someone puts their email up, you know, send them an email, message them. That's how I've found all of my mentors was, you know, reaching out to someone else who I either then connected with or they connected me to someone who might be a better match. But I would be nowhere personally or professionally, but, you know, really both personally and professionally without the mentors I have in my life. Yeah. So the mentors obviously see the enthusiasm. that you have for dentistry. And they sometimes think of themselves when they first got out of dental school and they respect that in you. And same in the entertainment industry. You have these established actors and then you get these young people that are coming out of acting school and they're going to different events. And the top actors connect to the younger ones and try to help them, give them advice, help their career. And that's natural. A lot of established dentists that are mentors enjoy. sharing their secret sauce with young people that are coming out of the dental school environment, which is your prime example of that. So tell us when you graduated dental school and your professional development journey. Yeah, so I graduated in 2016, and then I took it a little bit of an unusual path after I graduated in that I did a general practice residency, decided I wanted to do an additional residency. So I actually did two years of general practice residency that was hospital-based, worked as an associate for a year in a DSO-style practice, and then actually ended up going back to do a two-year cosmetic residency. with, again, a mentor one-on-one in his office for two years before ultimately coming back to Virginia, working as an associate, and now as a practice owner. So when you get out of dental school, do you think you know something? Like, is that how it works? I mean, I went to dental school a long time ago, and I went straight into endodontic specialty school. But as a general dentist, is the notion that I graduated dental school and I'm ready to hit this head on? do my thing? Or do most dental students realize very quickly that what they learned in dental school, that packed curriculum of everything being squeezed into a four-year period, just ain't enough to do the thing in the real world? What's your thoughts on that? Well, do you want the honest answer? Do you want the social media answer? Because social media will tell you everyone's perfect right out the gate. But I'll give you my honest answer was absolutely not even a little bit. I felt prepared. I mean, you have so much crammed into your brain. And I joke all the time, like, I genuinely don't remember what I learned in dental school, because I feel like what I learned in dental school was basically like the history of dentistry. You only have four years to try and learn as much as possible. And a lot. changes in dentistry I mean it changes year to year let alone you know decade to decade and yeah when I was in dental school we were still doing proficiency exams on amalgams I haven't placed an amalgam in six years probably since my hospital residency so for me that was a big part of doing residencies was to get that experience, to feel better. But even in my first associateship, I really, you know, I would have patients ask me why. And I didn't always feel confident that I could give them that answer. Or they would ask me how long would a restoration last? And I would give them kind of the story answer, the, you know, the party line answer of, you know, it'll last, you know, anywhere from five to seven years. I couldn't really give them that confidence as to, yes, it's going to last closer to five years or seven years or maybe the last 15 years. I didn't feel like I had that foundation. And that's where, again, education for me played such a critical role and really learning. how to understand the materials we work with and the procedures we do and why we do them a certain way versus just regurgitating, this is how we do it. You know, really understanding at a deeper level why we do things a certain way, why we need things to be isolated and, you know, dry or why we use this material versus that material. But all of that for me really came from after dental school. I remember everyone hating biomaterials in dental school and now it's one of my favorite. kind of topics that I read IFUs for myself when I have packages come in. It's been quite interesting talking to dentists over the years. Some are not interested at all in reading the IFUs, and they're not really super excited about learning the intricacies of the physical properties of dental materials. It just doesn't interest them. They just want to use the products that... know have a good track record from companies they respect and they try them. They like the handling. They like the results. But getting into the weeds with the science, they're like, oh, no, I'm not interested in doing that. When I went to college, before I went to dental school, I was a material science engineer. So I did a lot of that. Really? Yeah, I found it pretty fascinating. But I don't remember many things. So please don't quiz me, especially on this show. So let me ask you this. What advice would you give dental students? And we have a large dental student audience listening to the show. What advice would you give them so that they get the most out of dental school and are best prepared for the real world when they graduate? I always tell them. work with the faculty that nobody wants to work with. And the reason is very specific is usually they're difficult to work with because they know their stuff. They know, and they're not going to let you slack. Like I remember there was a faculty who always had openings for, you know, removable and nobody wanted to work with her because. you had to sit and literally plan out your whole case. Like I remember coming in on Christmas break to sit and plan out so that I can make sure that this denture was done by the end of the year. And we sat and we went through everything. But I learned so much by sitting and talking through each step, figuring out, okay, well, how do we time this out? How many appointments do we need? What am I supposed to be doing at each appointment? How can I better prepare? Or we had a faculty who made students rubber dam everything. you know, restorative, including sealants. And he always had openings, but again, he wasn't going to let you slack. He wasn't going to let you slide. He was going to, you know, make you do every little step. And that's where you're going to get the most powerful knowledge because those are, you know, the fun faculty are fun. Don't get me wrong. I love my fun faculty that are laid back Friday afternoon appointments. You just want to get in and get out. Okay. But if you really, really want to learn. learn from the people who aren't going to let you slide, that are going to hold you accountable and are going to kind of force you to do things the right way. So you understand not just how to do things, but why we do things a certain way. I think that's a great piece of advice there. And I also think just based on the enthusiasm you're exuding in this conversation, I could see how teachers, mentors, educators that come in contact with you, honestly, see your enthusiasm and say, hey, you know, I just want to share all my goodies with you to help you improve your career. And I think that's what it's about. I think the actual individual dentist has to make the effort. Things just don't land on your doorstep on a silver platter. You have to go for it. You have to get out and getting outside and doing CE stuff. Now, we offer a ton of CE on Viva Learning, but it's a webinar. It's necessary. It's used when we do thousands and thousands of views per week. But you still need to get out and talk to people. It's a different experience when you do that. So in your opinion, what are some of the best systems you've incorporated in your everyday routine practice of dentistry? Yeah, I mean, for me, systems are so key. And as a new practice owner, figuring out my systems, I'm still figuring them out. And I think that's the biggest thing is when you're developing systems for your everyday practice, let them be flexible, figure out what's going to work, what's not going to work for me. I'm a big restorative dentist. My practice is pretty limited, so I just do restorative perio. I refer out surgery. I am not a talented endodontist, and I do not attempt even. There have been a couple single-rooted teeth that I've thought about, but I work with some excellent specialists, so I prefer to refer out those procedures. Doing really good, long-lasting, restorative work is really critical for me. Developing systems so that way I make sure when I place a restoration, it's not a guess of five to seven years. I tell my patients point blank, this is what average is. I like to think I do everything a little bit above average, including using things like rubber dams, figuring out good protocols of when do I place the rubber dam? How do I place it? Am I going to use just a stock dam with a single hole? relatively straightforward or do I need absolute isolation? You know, I like to cement all my crowns and veneers under rubber dam isolation. So then, you know, training my staff too, about how to place rubber dam, you know, finding ways where you're maximizing your efficiency and the efficiency of your team, you know, but it comes from developing that system and really understanding. how again the materials work so that way you can get the best best outcome and that's what I always tell my patients you know I do everything a little bit crazy and I tell them like we're gonna put the big Rubber balloon in your mouth is going to feel really weird, but you know, you're never going to want to do another filling without it again, because I won't be waterboarding you the whole time. We're going to get a really good seal. I don't have to worry about any saliva or blood contaminating the site. So that way I know when I put that filling in, that filling is still going to be there in seven, eight, nine years. Like we're doing everything we can to get the best out of the materials we use so that you get the best service. So you're not coming back here constantly, get this tooth done over and over and over and over again. So when it comes to choosing your adhesive material, you mentioned you're a restorative dentist primarily, so adhesion is a big part of what you're doing with direct restorative work. How do you determine the best company to work with and the best products? I mean, do you try a lot? Do you do research on this stuff by reading peer-reviewed literature? Do you talk to other dentists? What's your formula for determining the best products to use? All of the above. But I definitely think getting your hands on products, that is without a doubt the best way to really understand products. Because ultimately, it doesn't matter what works best in my hands. It matters what works best in your hands. And I've been very fortunate with the mentors I have. They've been KOLs for a lot of different companies. So I've gotten to play with a lot of materials. I've attended a lot of CE courses that will specifically not. use just one material or from one company they'll use materials from a bunch of different companies so that way again participants can play with the composite from this from this company or that company. And also work with mentors who have been working with these materials for 10, 15 years already and have had almost zero sensitivity and, you know, failures. So personally, I'm a Bisco girl when it comes to adhesives. I love their All Bond Universal. And the thing I personally love about it the most is that it's a single bond or a single bottle. So I don't have to worry about mixing two bottles or doing a primer and then an adhesive. And I've just had... really good results with that. I mean, I also am a big fan of their etch because it's very, again, viscous. And this comes down to that handling ability where it stays where I put it. So I don't have to worry about it running into the dentin and then, again, causing some sensitivity that way. So these are products that I have found tried and true to really produce some really nice results aesthetically. but mostly, more importantly, functionally for my patients. They have a phone that you can call and you'll immediately, immediately talk to them. Yeah, that's a big thing. So if you have a question really quick where you're unsure of, do I do the adhesive? Do I cure it? Do I not cure it? Do I add the primer? Do I not add a primer? You know, when I'm cementing a crown, they'll get to get you right away. And that kind of support is just critical. Yeah, especially for a young dentist who's starting and experimenting with different. products and different procedures. You want to work with a company that has good support, good technical support. I know they always have a dentist on staff that can answer questions and they are, you know, they've been around a long time and their products speak for themselves. And you mentioned post-operative sensitivity, which is a very important issue, but the technique involved is probably just as important as the material, not to mitigate the importance of a particular product. But if that technique isn't spot on and the things you do prior to placing that restorative is also very important for minimizing post-operative sensitivity, is it not? Absolutely. No, without a doubt. And that's, again, when you go to these... higher quality, in my opinion, continuing education courses. When you look into these, you know, different webinars for different products and, you know, you try out some of these different products and you read the peer -reviewed research, a lot of it is very similar in terms of how you avoid certain, you know, post-operative sensitivity if you follow certain techniques. But at the same time, you know, materials vary little by little and it's important to understand. And again, go back to this, I have used talk to the reps for the different companies to figure out how to. I get the best out of this material? If you have adhesive X, but I use adhesive Y, and I'm telling you the best way that I have found to use adhesive Y, it might not be the best technique for adhesive X. It might be very similar. It might be maybe you do two coats of each, but you air thin between two coats or you air thin after one, both coats. You know, there are subtle differences, kind of, you know, making sure you understand how are you going to get the optimal for my patients. Dr. McClintock, I really appreciate your time. You've certainly enlightened us on the importance of a mentor, the importance of continuing education, and that we don't know everything when we get out of dental school. I think everybody knows that. Nobody wants to admit it. Yeah. They might think they know more than they actually do, but the more you're out there, the more you realize you don't know. And that applies to all parts of life, not just dentistry. But anyway, very good conversation. I really appreciate your time and look forward to having you on future programs with Viva Learning. All right. Thank you so much, Phil. If you're enjoying this podcast please leave a review or follow us on your favorite podcast platform. It's a great way to support our program and spread the word to others. Thanks so much for listening. See you in the next episode.