DentaltownUK August 2017 - 79

Making the Most of DFT and
Opportunities That Lie Ahead
Reject the rotary
This will be the most painful piece of
advice in this article: If you have the time-
and even if you have rotary endodontic
equipment available-I suggest that you
avoid using it for as long as possible. Ask
any endodontic specialist, who'll tell you
that to perform RCT's well, you need good
hand-filing technique.

Become a member of
the MJDF or the MFDS
It's expensive, but if you're pursuing a
year in dental core training or any sort of
postgraduate training, then this is a must.
Which one exactly doesn't really matter; while
there are two sitting, go for the first one! This
year, one of my DCT applications awarded
points for having Part 1 completed, and if I
had waited for the second sitting, I probably
wouldn't have gotten a good job there.

You're a dentist-
now you can teach
You've sat through five years of lectures
(or five lectures, so why not share your
knowledge? You don't need to be registered
anywhere to provide verifiable continuing
professional development (CPD), but make
sure you're following General Dental Council
guidelines on this area. Providing CPD to
the dentists and nurses at my practice was
a double hit: They refreshed their skills
and received CPD credit, and by doing the
research for my presentations, I reinforced my
knowledge and added something to my CV.

Get out of the practice
The experience you get isn't limited to
your dental practice; you have a large study
day programme led by many experienced
colleagues. Why not ask one or two of them
to grant you the chance to shadow them
for the day? A lot of trainers won't mind

by Vedaant Patel

giving you the day off for this reason, and
you'll be surprised how much you can learn
observing people-even if sometimes it's doing
procedures you already know how to do.

you don't like the alternative is not a wise
decision. It may be dentistry and the real
would you don't like-in which case you're
still not going to like DCT.

Audit, audit and then
audit your audits

How does it go?

OK, don't audit your audits, but it's always
good to be a part of this process. While you
may have to take part in one of these for your
DFT training, why not do additional ones?
The more you do, the more you'll understand,
and the more it will help you in applying
for DCT. I helped do two regular practice
audits on record-keeping and radiographic
quality, as well as doing another joint audit
with some friends in other practices. While
it was sometimes time-consuming, I don't
regret any of it.

Is university really over?
DFT is, in my opinion, a sixth year of
university: You're are a professional but you're
still allowed to have fun. (I think that's still
permitted.) Your scheme is your tutor group,
essentially, and you meet once a week, so
be social and make plans. Some schemes
get residentials sorted and sometimes these
are paid for, but they're a lucky minority.
Worcester didn't have this facility, but it
didn't stop me from organising a weekend
trip to Belfast for all of us early in the year!

Less money?!
So why should I do it?
Dentistry isn't solely about money; it's
about providing better care to your patients.
A DCT year is a structured post that will
aid in increasing your academic knowledge
and technical ability, as well as being a
platform to start specialising (if this is
something you'd like to do). Do not apply
for it just because you don't like your DFT
year. Applying for something just because

The following is based on my application
this year, and if the change to national
recruitment occurs, then not all of this
will apply:
Regional applications open at the end of
January, and you have a month to complete
the initial forms. While you have a month,
applications like London and South West
shortlist based on when you apply, not what's
in your applications, so finish them on the
first day ideally. (I did London in the first
hour.) It's important to realise that some
people will sail through DCT, but only a
fool would bank on this.

Interview time!
When you get an interview or two, you
need to prepare for them. Think about the
material you covered for DFT and improve
on this, focusing more on audit, research and
reflection, as well as max-fax-type questions.
Interestingly, London released the questions
for the interviews 10 days in advance this
year to make it fairer.
It's also worth mentioning that some of
the places ask for a portfolio-think audit
and publications, not clinical cases-so you
may want to start developing this. Interviews
take place in April, so you have ample time
to prepare! ■
Vedaant Patel graduated from King's
College London in July 2015, completed dental
foundation training on the Worcester scheme
(West Midlands), and successfully acquired
four competitive dental core training (DCT1)
posts. Patel now works part time as an associate
dentist in Northwest London.
dentaltownuk.com \\ AUGUST 2017

79
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