Dentist reveals how you can earn up to £150k - and what he's really thinking when he's looking in your mouth
Dentist reveals how you can earn up to £150k - and what he's really thinking when he's looking in your mouth
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Each Monday, our Money team speaks to someone from a different profession to discover what it's really like. This week we chat to James Davies, a specialist orthodontist at Quayside Orthodontics in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire... People think my job is... something they would not want to do. Looking in people's mouths all day!.
What I'd say to them is... it's better than working with smelly feet. One thing I'd change about the industry is... the NHS contract. Dentists used to be paid for what they did, now they are paid per course of treatment. In short, if you do one filling or 20 you get paid the same. This discourages the treatment of those in high need unless the dentist becomes a charity. What we have seen over the past 20 years is privatisation by stealth. Make the NHS contract so difficult to undertake profitably that dentists vote with their feet - then the government can blame the "greedy dentist".
Being able to build a quick rapport is vital... Working in people's mouths is an intrusive process, so being able to reduce anxieties and tensions over difficult, potentially painful procedures is key. Communication is the most important skill - manual dexterity is a close second to this.
Every dentist will have a small number of patients...who they would gladly pay to go elsewhere. The biggest mistake I made with a patient was... is miscommunication. A larger lady entered the practice and I asked her "when she was due". To my embarrassment, she replied "I had the baby 12 weeks ago." Cringe!.
