DentaltownUK October 2017 - 62

DentaltownUK Honorary
Associate Editor Kishan Sheth
Dear fellow colleagues, friends, ladies
and gentlemen: I was deeply and truly
honoured when I was appointed
as the student honorary associate editor
for the DentaltownUK publication,
back in January 2017.
The entire concept of Dentaltown
in the USA has empowered dentists
all around the world and has been an
extremely beneficial learning tool for
students, including myself, and I was
very excited to hear that the movement
was being brought to the UK.
It is indeed a cha nce a nd a n
opportunity to discuss important
matters and trends in dentistry and
share ideas, which lead to the spreading of
knowledge and generation of discussion
and debate.
The primary goal of the student
section is to empower undergraduate
dental students to write about topics
they are passionate about, and share
their experiences with all their fellow
dental students in the UK. Is there an
area within dentistry that you have been
reading about?
Would you like to put together a
brief article summarising your findings?
Have you read a book recently that you
think has changed the way you view
something? Would like to write up a
book review?
Whatever empowers the profession
and begins discussion should be shared for
all to benefit from, and we all encourage
the discussion of ideas which will help us
to raise our standards and become more

62

OCTOBER 2017 // dentaltownuk.com

effective providers of patient-centred,
evidence-based, minimally invasive and
holistic dentistry.
It has been exciting to witness the
great explosion in discussion which
DentaltownUK has sparked, and it has
been empowering to see that students all
around the UK have so much positive
feedback, and that so many wish to get
involved. In this edition we take a look
at a day in the life of Dr Amit Patel,
Periodontal Specialist and Clinical
Lecturer at the University of Birmingham
Dental School.
We also take a closer look at some of
the tips and tricks to use when seeing your
first patient as a dental student by Sagar
Patel, BDS5 dental student at King's
College London. I must congratulate
both the authors of these articles for
doing such a fantastic job. I also write
a short article on my journey through
public speaking as a dental student, and
offer some advise on students wanting
to get into the craft.
I am confident that DentaltownUK
will continue to deliver an unrivalled
service to the profession, and will
continuously play a pivotal role in the
way in which students and professionals
come together. Enjoy this edition of
DentaltownUK !

You don't run before you
can walk. You don't walk
before you can crawl.
(Birks, McKendree & Watt 2009).
Dental school is all about stages, all
about phases. An experience in itself. You
enter not knowing a lot about dentistry. You
graduate expected to be a 'safe beginner'
according to GDC guidelines (Bateman
et al., 2016; GDC, 2016).
It's all about the milestones along the
way. Your first extraction. Your first filling.
Maybe even your first denture. But what
comes before that? Let's start at the basics.
Let's discuss at the beginning... the very
beginning: Your first patient!
Depending on which dental school
you are attending, you might have recently
started seeing your first patient in clinical
practice.
You might be about to see your first
patient fairly soon. This article is a short
guide, from the point of view of a final
year student, designed to provide tips and
tricks of the trade based on personal and
peer experience.
When asking colleagues how they
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK October 2017
