I like saving teeth, which is why I’ve always found endodontics fascinating; it’s challenging but interesting. It’s something that I’ve always liked to take more time over, do well and try to develop my skills.

In the communities I work in, the patients I see are happy to spend their money wisely to retain the teeth they have, and they are always grateful when we can do this for them. There isn’t a big a push for the ‘Hollywood look’ so smile makeovers aren’t in high demand.

I also realised that endo is an area of dentistry that tends to be of low standard in general practice. However, for me, once I started getting good results it became really rewarding work to do, which made me want to take on more cases and get better and better at it.

When I decided to further my skills, I joined a Facebook group for dentists who wanted to gain a special interest in endo. There were various threads discussing the routes to go down and a lot of people recommended simplyendo. Some colleagues had also mentioned the same course, so it appeared that this was one of the best ones to go for, and I’m really pleased I did!

Confidence boost

I enjoyed learning lots of new techniques; while they might seem like little things on their own, when they’re all added together they really make a big difference. This has helped me to gain enough confidence to tackle more of the difficult cases. In fact, there are now very few cases that I wouldn’t take on, the course has really helped me to realise my abilities in endo.

Thanks to my newly enhanced skills, I now have associate colleagues and local practices who have started to refer some of their trickier cases to me. For example, where teeth need re-treatment, or where a post needs to be removed first. Essentially, the cases they wouldn’t have the confidence to do themselves they have started to send on to me.

While this is of great benefit to our patients, there is also a financial advantage for our practice. We are using more expensive materials and equipment to take on these difficult cases and therefore we can charge private fees accordingly.

Go for it!

I would highly recommend the simplyendo course, the teaching was fantastic. I had Lee and Rob for all my learning, they were both excellent and very clear. It was extremely well taught, and I felt very prepared for the exams; there wasn’t anything that came up that I felt hadn’t been covered.

Although I didn’t intend to when I started, I ended doing all 16 days remotely from home. I felt really involved, even though it was fully online, because I had all the equipment required and there was plenty of opportunity to ask questions.

I don’t feel that there was anything that I missed out on by doing the course online. The only thing that I think I would like to catch up on next year in person would be the use of thermal obturation equipment.

If you are considering enrolling on the course I would say, go for it! Perhaps do the 10-day course and decide from there how far you want to take it; you can decide as you go. Halfway through the certificate I knew that I wanted to go on and do the diploma, I’m currently considering whether I want to take it a step further and do the dissertation for my masters.