DentaltownUK October 2017 - 31

A ndrew Wallace: Obviously, you
qualified in Belfast and you worked in
general practice for 7 years, did you own
your practice?
Paul McLornan: Yes, I became a partner
in the practice at a young age, maybe a little
too young actually in hindsight!
AW: Was it all general practice or did
you have any particular interests while you
were there?
PM: It was a general dental practice but
because it was a practice situated on the border
we got exposure to a substantial NHS practice
base as well as a pretty substantial private
patient base coming from the Republic of
Ireland. Not so much people travelling from
Dublin or anything like that but because we
were on the border we were as close as any
dental practice for the people there, to be
honest. In that respect, we got to practice a
lot more private dentistry than the average
practice.
AW: In that point in time that was fairly
prevalent wasn't it?
PM: It was yes. There was a lot of patients
travelling from the Republic to Northern
Ireland, really for cost reasons, but typically
we found that we weren't one of those practices
getting coming up on the train from Cork
for therapy. Mostly our patients were coming
from counties Louth and Monaghan and
many times we were as close to them as their
local dentist, so it was kind of a different
practice in that way.
AW: When did you move to the US?
PM: I moved and started my prosthodontic
residency in 2004 in San Antonio.
AW: What prompted the move?
PM: The short answer to that question
is that I met a girl from Texas, I met her in
Belfast but I ultimately followed her back to
Texas. But I think it was one of those 'stars
aligning' situations, I'd really reached a point
in my general dental career where I was really
wanting to expand my knowledge base, I'd
started realizing what I didn't know over
what I did know. More cases were coming
to me that needed more complex restorative
options and I didn't feel confident delivering
them, the need for dental implants was
starting to grow and the patient's demand
for them had too.
So, I'd really reached a point where I

could do a programme and try and keep my
practice going at the same time or but what
happened was, when I met Sarah, who's now
my wife, from Texas and I started to look at
moving to the United States and what that
would involve. What I found out was that
I'd either need to go back to medical school
and do another 2 years or you could do a
three-year special lead programme and I really
wanted to do the special lead programme
I didn't want to go back to dental school.
Prosthodontics was really the obvious one
for me because what I was really interested
in was learning more extensive restorative
treatment and getting an education in implant
dentistry, so prosthodontics was the right fit.
AW: Was that typical to walk into the
special lead programme as a non-US graduate?
PM: Going into any residency in the
US, you're going to be competing against
US dental students and that makes it pretty
difficult because there's a system where they
have a GPA and they get scored on everything
they do in school, just as they do in university.
AW: So they have a track record up until
that point?
PM: Exactly and really what was
surprising was when they wanted to see my
transcripts from Queens, they wanted to see
every exam result. All it was, was a list that
has multiple passes, with maybe a fail, a repeat
and a pass and ultimately at Queens what
you got was a pass degree and that made it
hard for these directors who are trying to get
a feel for your educational background. That
made it a little trickier. Really what helped
me, when I look back on it, was that there
had been three other Irish dentists who had
done the residency over the 15 years before
I went and all of them had done well in the
programme so I had no illusions that I got
in on their coattails. The only thing I can
say in my own credit is that, since I left there
have been a further three Irish residents that
have been accepted so I cant have damaged
the reputation too much.
AW: Your training is implants and
restorative dentistry, so how did you get
into the sleep end of things?
PM: As part of the prosthodontic
residency, you have to do a special research
project, present it, get it published and
then you get your masters and at the time

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