Category Archives: Health

…and I thought self control was always a good thing.

Sometimes you have to admit that everything you thought was wrong was (possibly) right. Could it be that all those good habits, all that resisting temptation and weeks of denial were for nothing? Is it possible that beating myself up after the third chocolate digestive and saying “no” to things that would have been funContinue reading “…and I thought self control was always a good thing.”

You don’t have to do this…”Things They Didn’t Teach You at Dental School”

An excerpt from the forthcoming book, “101 Things They Didn’t Teach You at Dental School” “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Polonius. Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Is Dentistry really what you want to do? YouContinue reading “You don’t have to do this…”Things They Didn’t Teach You at Dental School””

Do dental patients know what they want?

Do (Dental) patients know what they want? A recent article in the British Medical Journal discussed the instruction from Health Education England that patients and public should be consulted on ‘What they need from 21st century medical graduates’. I’m reminded of Henry Ford: ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told meContinue reading “Do dental patients know what they want?”

The more things change…

From the editorial in the current BDJ “Each generation believes that it discovers everything for the first time and suffers each difficulty anew. Is it that a certain personality type was (and is still) attracted to dentistry? If so, does this partly explain today’s burnout statistics as much as it did then? ‘In 1913, DormerContinue reading “The more things change…”

Sleep isn’t for Wimps.

I had a nickname in my first year at university – “The Midnight Rambler” – I didn’t sleep very well and used to wander around the halls of residence looking for people with their lights on to share a coffee and have a chat. (I suppose the coffee was a clue…) I finally got aroundContinue reading “Sleep isn’t for Wimps.”

Why wouldn’t you?

I have a hoard of unpublished blogposts, some half written, some one line ideas, they are the result of experiences, ideas, conversations, things read, seen or thought. This one came about after talking to a client about his team routinely recording their patients’ blood pressure and pulse. Increasingly dentists ought to be seen as OralContinue reading “Why wouldn’t you?”

Just say no….

It’s easy isn’t it? To say “No”. Really? I would love to say that having been close to and through burnout on a few occasion as both an employed dentist, a practice owner and (even) as a coach – yeah, yeah I know, I should know better – saying “no” is still one of theContinue reading “Just say no….”

Burnout – Physicians

From The Lancet 13 July 2019. Hui Wang, a 32-year-old Chinese ophthalmologist, experienced sudden cardiac death on June 30, after working with fever for 6 days in Beijing. Hui was the father of a 1-year-old girl, and married to a doctor, who donated Hui’s corneas to two patients after his death… According to a viewpoint published inContinue reading “Burnout – Physicians”

The Weekend Read – Stand out of our light by James Williams

Full Title: “Stand out of our light : Freedom and resistance in the attention economy.” This relatively short, but very important, book takes a good, hard look at “The Attention Economy” and the insidious effect it is having on our lives. The author, winner of the intriguingly named Nine Dots Prize, worked at Google as aContinue reading “The Weekend Read – Stand out of our light by James Williams”