The portfolio dentists bucket list

So, you’ve been qualified for some years, and either never really managed the commitment to the speciality closest to your heart or the mere thought of scaling or cleaning canals for the rest of your 40 odd year career has driven you to seek opportunities further afield.

You’re the type of dentist who has to try different things out, explore the landscape, go with the flow and are hard to pin down. You like variation and are adaptable with chameleon like qualities with several practice and community / hospital employers posts in your back pocket. You’ve done VT, Max fax, restorative, ortho, paedo, prostho, oral surgery and special care and may be on several EDS lists- even considering a career in medicine , the next steps are the cosmetic route including implants, ‘facial rejuvination’ and ortho related procedures.

But what next? If you’re fortunate enough to have a sympathetic principle (or are a practice owner), you may consider doing a sabbatical – travel the world to see its delights and have your adventure away from drilling, filling, pulling and poking.

Alternatively you may consider the charitable clinical teacher/trainer route where one can grace students of the under and post graduate world with the wise eye of experience or merely to have a break from the routine of the week.

A quick flick through the BDJ jobs section may reveal a brief sight of an opportunity in the prison, military services or abroad. However, no dental career would be complete without offering ones services to the voluntary sector – be it hands-on clinical home or away or merely fund raising for #youroralcharity.

In this age of ‘diplomatitis’, academic opportunities will never cease to exist and at some point in your portfolio career you will succumb to the professions obsession with a series of vowels and consonants after your name. Then there is the faculty professional, who dons the cape and makes very important decisions that most of the profession are unaware of, which then leads you in to the dysfunctional world of politics and possibly a peek in to public health – but with all those epidemiology studies and stats, most of us like to keep away.

So whats next ? We look to the world of protection and legality and realise that all those older dentists are selling up and moving in to big fancy offices trying to ‘protect’ the profession. For those younger professionals who embrace the risk of challenge , innovation will happen. I am sure there are several other avenues the portfolio career dentist has yet to discover , all will be unravelled in good time.