Dentaltown September 2017 - 68

Women

in Dentistry

Seek out brutal
honesty (maybe
minus the "brutal").

Apply today
to become a
Dentaltown
mentor!
Dentaltown's mentorship
program is designed to
strengthen relationships
within the Townie community
while providing individualized
attention to new dentists.
Discover more and apply at
dentaltown.com/be-a-mentor.

Constructive criticism is vital for growth.
I know that being told that you can do better
is hard; this constant push permeated my
three years in residency in Chicago, where
it seemed the faculty would challenge us
at every opportunity. (Picture the movie
Unbreakable-except, well, I broke, then
stood up, then broke again, then stood up
again, on repeat.)
It was difficult to see at the time, but I
now understand how this coaching shaped
me into the surgeon I am today. My main
sculptor was program director Dr. Saba
Khan, who pushed me every day to do better
and work harder. No matter how precise I
felt an implant placement or sinus lift was,
Khan challenged me to do better, pointing
out that the angulation of an implant was off
by 5 degrees, or that I could have finished
faster. These things didn't affect the patient's
final treatment outcome, but she was helping
me develop and hone my surgical skills,
teaching me to strive for perfection and
never accept "good enough."
Do you have a Dr. K han in your
life-someone who doesn't let you settle
and constantly challenges you to improve?
If not, I implore you to find one, because
thanks to her (and to my mother, Dr. Wendy
Dunn), "good enough" isn't an acceptable
outcome in my eyes.

See one, do one,
teach one.
This was the foundation of my clinical
education: Student becomes teacher. As
Steven Spielberg said, "The delicate balance
of mentoring someone is not creating them
in your own image, but giving them the
opportunity to create themselves." Great

68

SEPTEMBER 2017 // dentaltown.com

mentors will help you become the best version
of you, not a carbon copy of themselves.
Have you had a great mentor who's taught
you priceless skills that you now can pass on
to a future mentee? Pay it forward.

"Wax on, wax off."
Don't be dismissive if, early on, your
mentor gives you tasks that you consider
a waste of your time. You'll be shocked at
how many people in your life will "Miyagi"
you-teaching you something new at that
very moment. During my residency, we were
required to do our own scaling and root
planning ... which I thought was a waste of
time. I was there to become a surgeon, not to
scale teeth! I'd complain and try to farm out
these cases, but what I didn't realize was that
I wasn't just "cleaning teeth," I was learning
about soft-tissue health and healing times,
about the importance of maintenance and
optimal oral hygiene, and about how risk
factors like smoking and diabetes contribute
to overall outcome.
(A special thank-you to Drs. David
Gaston, Daniel Greenberg and Michael
Schmerman for putting up with three years
of my disdain for nonsurgical therapy and
"Miyagi-ing" me, teaching the foundations
of "Perio 101" with each root surface that I
scaled, despite my protests.)

Trust no one ...
more than yourself,
that is.
Any healthy relationship is based on
trust ... and haven't we all been burned at
least once? Such as trusting a colleague to
support us, who instead violates confidentiality, or worse, trusting in someone's word,
only to have the person renege and hang
you out to dry. I've been there-more than
once. When seeking mentor relationships,
Continued on p. 70
http://www.dentaltown.com/be-a-mentor http://www.dentaltown.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown September 2017
