Let’s start off with some context. I’m a dentist by trade, but not for much longer. At the tail-end of 2020, I managed to get shortlisted for an interview for a healthcare management internship. The interview consisted of a comprehension test and two group interview tasks followed by an individual interview: all online.

I’d never done a group interview. Most dental interviews were the same: a few questions on how you’d deal with a patient or adverse situation with some basic dental knowledge questions thrown in, such as how to manage a patient on blood-thinning medication. …

Let’s rewind six months, to June 2020. Well, not even six months: just under four months ago, since it adds further weight to the argument. Remember reading news stories like these?

Need to make your next marketing session pop? A stressful situation causing your mind to draw a blank? By turning to acronyms you can use words as your weapon to remember a process with efficiency.

Creating new phrases with existing words is known as a bacronym. Here’s an example by Ralph Johnson for ACRONYM: abbreviated coded rendition of name yielding meaning. Neat, eh?

I’ve included just over 40 bite-sized nuggets so you can become a Jedi Master of communications, but be warned: you’ll get ideas across so quickly your audience might get whiplash.

ABC

Always Be Closing. A traditional marketing concept conveying the marketer should always be moving the customer to action. (It took me a while to shake the basic life support one: airway, breathing, circulation.) …

I’m going to be the first to admit that, at least since my teens (and probably before), I’ve developed some unhealthy thinking patterns borne out of the desire to succeed or get ahead in life.

Did it make me happy? Of course not.

I was an idiot thinking being harsh on myself and supposedly being disciplined with myself would be helpful. But that’s what most of us do, right?

We associate drive, ambition, and ticking off boxes on our goal list with happiness. …

I was taught that if it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen. Call it defensive dentistry from an increasingly litigious society but I’m thankful for the fear it put in me for note-keeping purposes and more generally, emails.

I’m all for picking up the phone and having a conversation. I think we should be doing this more instead of being keyboard warriors. However, people are busy and are prone to information overload from every angle, as devices and people compete for our most precious resource: our attention.

An email is like a receipt. Proof of a transaction of words or an exchange of ideas that took place. …

Working In a Pandemic

As a dentist with over 8 years of experience working everywhere from the National Health Service, hospitals, various private practices, and most recently, in community dentistry — I thought I’d seen it all.

Then, I suddenly became a dentist working in a global pandemic.

Melbourne, Australia, has had some of the world’s toughest restrictions imposed upon its residents and its fair share of political drama circulating the Coronavirus pandemic. Dentistry was considered one of the highest risk occupations for contracting and spreading the virus.

Despite many referring to Dentistry as a “recession-proof” career, the COVID-19 pandemic has proved this to be a false assertion, and it’s fast-tracked my desire to change careers. …

Dear Dentistry, as I embark on the next stage of my career, here are the things I want you to know that I still value, and am grateful for having the opportunity to learn, practice, and apply.

The Satisfaction of Relieving Someone’s Pain

I know for sure I’ll miss digging out the roots of a tooth so badly decayed, that there was nothing to hold on to but mulch, but after half an hour of using every instrument in the practice, I finally rid someone of the cause of agonizing sleepless nights’ worth of pain.

I love taking out teeth. That’s one of the reasons I went into public dentistry. A lot more teeth need taking out than restoring compared to private practice, which is a sad fact, but more of this type of work pleases me. It is one of the most satisfying parts of my job, and one that patients are usually most grateful for. Being finally rid of a tooth that has caused sleepless nights, lost days of work, and general hell is something people tend to be relieved about. …

In less than two months I’ll be hanging up my gloves and ditching the dentistry. Here’s what I won’t miss…and it ain’t the Ferraris and Versace handbags. 😆

1. Selective hearing from patients

This is a major source of stress for healthcare professionals. Often, we throw a lot of information at our patients and try to use effective communication techniques such as repetition, reinforcing verbal information with written information, and asking a patient to repeat back to us the key points.

Despite this, patients (and people in general) only hear what they want to hear. They may anchor on the low end of a price range. They may walk out and do the exact opposite of what you have told them (e.g. …