Dental Core Trainee (Residency) vs Associate – which is right for me? – GF003

Jaz’s Introduction: Hi guys, if you’ve ever wondered about doing a residency post or a senior house officer or just a year in hospital, then this episode is to help you whether you’re newly qualified and you’re looking for that next step, or like the question that was sent in for this group function if you’re a couple years qualified and you’re still considering having that year in hospital, is it worth it for you? But as you may gather this was done live on Instagram so do excuse the live shoutouts but I’m still hoping there’s a lot of value in you listening today. So thank you Protruserati, hope you enjoy. So guys, I’m not gonna waste time because this is a group function is another one the arms of the protrusive dental podcast and someone has sent in a question and would answer it in the best person I have to answer it is Prateek Biyani, aka the dental notebook. He makes some fantastic content around this very topic. Hello, dental bro. Thanks so much for joining. Hi, Andy. I’m going to speak to you in about 45 minutes, I think what meeting? Hello, Chris. Nice to see you, buddy. So yeah, thanks for for joining me guys. This is mostly for someone who is stuck as an associate and they’re considering further training. Hello, amen. Hey, guys, Alex. Hey, everyone. So the question that was sent in I’m gonna get Prateek in a moment is a question that was sent in was “Hi, Jaz, have been an NHS associate for three years, it’s been an associate for three years, I was wondering if DCT training is worth it? Or is it better to keep up with private courses to improve skills?” So basically, three years qualified, NHS associate full time I imagine. Should I do DCT now, or private courses? So let’s get. Hi Haley. Hey, everyone. Let’s get Prateek.

Main Interview:

[Jaz]
Hey, buddy. How you doing, man? I’m good. How are you? I’m good. Do I look fat now? Like, you know the camera adds 10 pounds, right? You have a little bit, that’s how much it’s fine. The camera really does add 10 pounds. Look at that. So at the bottom, I’m reading the comments, Ali. Oh, man, Ali, I love your work. Manual photography, your flow is awesome. And you said you love DCT. I also had a very positive well, mostly positive DCT experience. One of my posts was phenomenal in Sheffield, the other one in Guys was a bit, half and half. But we can we can touch on that in this episode. But listen, this is a group function. So it has to be time efficient, right? So I’m not going to make it a full one hour long. It’s going to be a 10 minute 15 Minute. So Prateek, I’m going to say the question again, for those who just joined us and for you again. “Hi, Jaz I’m an NHS associate. I’ve been qualified three years. I was wondering Should I do DCT? Is it worth it now? Or should I continue to invest in private courses to improve my skills?” So the first thing I’m thinking Prateek before you jump in is like why do anything? What’s the purpose? Right? And I think the very end of her question is to improve my skills. So let’s go on that basis first. So I’m gonna pass it over to you, Prateek. What do you think? Ultimately, I guess the bottom line is, what do you want to do a bit longer term.

[Jaz]
Improve skills. Yes, let’s go with that.

[Prateek]
So DCT is an excellent way to improve skills and the opportunities you’re likely to get, as you will have seen at Sheffield and teaching hospitals, the opportunities you’re going to get in those types of environments are far greater than you’re probably going to get. At this point in your career. In practice, you’re going to be exposed to a lot of different things whether depending on which specialty you choose, and these days, we’ve got dental core training PERS, where you can do multiple specialties. So in that short burst of a year, you can cover a lot more and enhance a greater number of skills, as well as going on courses included in study budgets to get the most from a year that potentially, you know, investing yourself privately is going to be far far more than you’re getting from core training.

[Jaz]
Buddy, I’m gonna agree and I’m gonna disagree with you. I think you mentioned some good points that I think you said Yeah, fine. The exposure that you get is awesome. Like Firstly, if you’re someone who wants to improve your skills, because you want to have a registrar post or something like a specialty pathway, then for sure that there’s no point having a 10 minute video on this right like it’s a yes, no brainer. Do it even if you’re three years qualified. But if it’s purely to improve skills, I didn’t know, I’m gonna just on the whim say that 70% of all DCT posts in the country. Just me I made it up. Okay. Are you much of a pen pusher? You’re not going to do much? Yes. Maybe you get to watch and I think there are a lot of posts that will let people down especially once you’ve been in and associate, your an associate pay and to take that massive pay cut. And then to be in a role where you think oh, I’m gonna upskill I’m gonna do wisdom teeth. I’m gonna do rehabs and suddenly you’re just making complete dentures and you’re doing sush in someone’s face. Then you know that leave a bitter taste. Hi, everyone. Hi, Nina. Currently, what do you think about that?

[Prateek]
So I think one thing too that I did this recently one of my videos completely agree, the pick, what you’re going to take is something that especially if you’re three years into your career, life also is going on to how you have to factor that into the decision you’re making. For me from the person that I did, I guess I did a bit of research before choosing those posts, and I had quite good feedback from those locations. And I knew that when I was going to go there, I was going to get the opportunities to do what I wanted to get from that year. And I had very specific things from the two years that I did, of what I wanted to achieve. So there is a degree of and I completely agreed, some of my colleagues have been to other places and done DCT post and not got anything out of them. But I think if you’ve got a mindset of what skills you want to improve, if you do some research beforehand, do you think actually some well, is going to match the criteria, we can never guarantee anything. But if you think someone’s going to match that criteria, then I’d say it’s a very good opportunity to at least apply for you got nothing to lose by applying.

[Jaz]
And then even after three years of practice?

[Jaz]
I know.

[Prateek]
I know quite a few people I know of one person who was five years associate work and then just got bored, and wanted something different to challenge their skills. So they came back into DCT. And they just did one year and then went back to practice. But it’s something that they took something, you know, they got stuff from it. And they went back refreshed and took on new challenges, because they hadn’t some new skills. But a lot of it. I know he said improving skills, but it ultimately is which skills do you want to improve? And where do you want those skills to take you as well? Like you mentioned, do you want to be a consultant? Do you want to just be really good at doing private composites? Yeah, that would also impact I guess your decision.

[Jaz]
If I had to really push you and say, yes, you have to tell this dentist Yes or no? Like, yes. Do it. No, don’t do it without any sort of beating around the bush. What’s your final answer? And why? I would say yes. Three years, three years full time NHS dentist wants to improve skills?

[Prateek]
Yeah, I would say yes. Again, depending on which skills? I personally would say yes. Because my experience has been very good. I’ve taken a lot from that core training year. Yes, salary may go down a little bit. But I guess if you do on calls, things like that, you may get a similar ish salary, depending on what you’re earning. So I would say yeah, if you’re thinking about it, no harm in applying and seeing what you get, and going for it.

[Jaz]
Okay, so I’m going to say no, so it’s totally cool that we disagree. But that’s the beauty of it. Right? So I’m gonna say no, and I’m gonna say to this dentist, because you should be watching this later. Or maybe she’s like, now I’m not gonna say I promise it’ll be anonymous. I’m gonna say, here’s how I would do it. Now, if I was three years qualified, and I hadn’t done DCT, right? And I was in NHS practice. I think the reason she wants to do something different, and she’s identified that she needs to improve her skills. And maybe I’m just maybe assuming here that she wants to move away from NHS practice and goes private, I’m just assuming, okay, so maybe she’s got bored like you said, like other person five years, or maybe she’s frustrated, or maybe she’s fine. Like, she’s, there’s no career development happening. Right? So if I was her, here’s what I would do. The average associate, okay, do you know how much the average associate earns? So that the mass dollar figures, the mass dollar figures suggests 67,000? Okay, let’s go with that. Okay, Hi Shabana. So, let’s go 6 7000. Right. So I would do this, I would, obviously, you’re paying tax on that stuff. But I would, I would live like your DCT salary. I would literally live like a DCT salary, and the extra 15 grand, whatever you are, after tax, I will just pump it into courses, I will do all the courses that I want to do. It’s like a sack of freebies, like just do everything that’s relevant to you that you can apply the next day. And that becomes your DCT, your private DCT. That’s how I would do it.

[Prateek]
Now, yeah, it comes down to what skills do you want to improve the ultimately, like I said, you know, if you, like you said, if you’re just wanting to improve your private composites, or you’re wanting to do some clear aligner therapy, something like that, then that’s very specific course that you can get done relatively easily on a lower budget without taking a hit financially. So yeah, then that would be potentially a far better way of doing and a far quicker way of doing it

[Jaz]
Which skill do you think would need DCT and that cannot be fulfilled by private? I think it’s more, a more general kind of overview.

[Prateek]
I don’t know. Obviously, I haven’t done restorative, I’ve only done maxfacts as my DCT job. So you’ve done the restorative side so you know what that’s like. But a more general overview of everything I’d like to say as part of your because it’s an academic position you’re in, you’ve got a study budget, you’ve got the opportunity of doing courses on top of that year that you’re also gaining experience from so you’re getting it from two sources essentially, unit dependent, etc. But I think you just get a broader overview rather than picking just one specific course. You know if like say if you want to be specific, then fine. But if you’re wanting a bit of everything or trying to get a bit exposure to a bit of this thing, then a DCT post may be better, depending on the use, they can offer you.

[Jaz]
I think Angie has made a great point said home into exactly what skills you want to develop. And I think once this young dentist identifies exactly which skills, I think the answer will just come from that because she left it very generic, I want to improve my skills and improve myself. And that could be done both routes. So you would say yes, to DCT, I would say do it private way. But like Angela said, it really depends on exactly what she wants to improve. So that’s that I mean, even nowadays, Oral Surgery. I think Oral Surgery is one of those things that you want, like over the shoulder training, you want your consultant or someone there over the shoulder. Whereas if it’s private composites, then there’s nothing better than you doing a composite, taking photos and having that in the court. So everything’s different, or if you’re in a practice and you have and you’ve got a great mentor who’s awesome at Oral Surgery, do the joint cases together, then I’d say you know who needs DCT then? But who? Who, you know, how can you make time for that in a busy practicing moment, right? It just doesn’t work. So I’m hoping that will help some people. So that’s group function done. I hope that helps you to who asked that question. Right. Final things in particular is I just want to tell you one about your book, because I think it’s amazing. We’ve done just tell people what you’ve just done in terms of the book and how long it took you, man, I’m just taking so long.

[Prateek]
Yeah, so it’s been going on for, I think, a year and a half, nearly two years now. So single best answer questions for dentistry, which is basically 280 ish, single best answer questions targeted at undergraduate dental students, anyone sitting there mfds, MDF ore exams, over 10 topics in dentistry and just with explanations, good radiographs, images, everything to kind of give a more holistic revision resource basically. So a lot of work has gone into it and it will be on sale next month. You can preorder it now on the website or on Amazon or anywhere basically.

[Jaz]
Check out dental noble guys follow them, follow Prateek even, but Boston has asked a good question. So what about if you want to do an MSC or a diploma? Would a DCT be worth it? I’m going to say maybe? Depends on what post like I look at the Guys hospital post I did the six months restorative, it is rubbish. The oral surgeon was okay. in Sheffield, the restorative was phenomenal. So I just think man depends on your posts. Whereas an MSC of taught postgraduate MSC program? Yes, there’s a lot of research. There’s a lot of critiquing papers and stuff. But if you actually in clinics and getting hands on or you’re able to apply that in practice, then it’s good. You don’t necessarily need DCT, What do you think?

[Prateek]
Yeah, I think I agree. There’s so many variables of play. And yet like say the environment is different. What you ultimately wanting to gain from it is so different for everyone. And I think, a couple of people as Drew’s mentioned that as well. You’ve got to decide yourself what you want to gain from it. And do you think that one year or however many years decide to do is actually going to contribute to your journey if you’ve decided, ultimately you want to go and do an MSC and you met the criteria to get on do it then is that extra year going to add anything? Or do you want to just skip and crack on with the rest of it?

[Jaz]
So it’s a rush me you can just crack on and go for an MSC? If you want. You don’t have to do this. See, I think you’re in df One moment, I hope it’s going well. I know you’re very reflective practitioner, which is awesome. So I think we’re gonna wrap up that for a group function. I’m gonna say to everyone, I think tonight or tomorrow, the next episode of the podcast coming out, it’s going to be six signs that you are a comprehensive dentist or the six struggles of a comprehensive dentist, which I really enjoy making a 15 minute video. Hi Jake. Hope you doing well, buddy.

Jaz’s Outro: So I hope you guys enjoy that if you haven’t already go on protrusive.co.uk sign up for our newsletter. So when the episodes come out, you can get them and I think you have a newsletter function as well on your website. So yeah, yeah, exactly the same. Yeah. Thanks so much. No problem. Thanks for having me. Bye, everyone.