Recently, I have had the pleasure of participating in more lecturing and teaching. Below are 5 pieces of advice I find myself repeating over and over again to those wanting to improve not only their skill set but also their full-arch confidence.
1. Grow slow.
I’ve noticed a recurring desire in virtually every new provider to master this surgery “yesterday.”
Slow down. Grow slow.
Envision this as an art, not simply a procedure. There are so many aspects to this surgery to understand and perfect. Attempting to learn them all at once usually ends in frustration.
Focus on a solid surgical foundation and build up slowly from there. 1000 arches should be your goal before you truly feel confident in most any situation. That takes time.
2. Experts do the foundational things exceptionally well.
While learning advanced techniques is a part of progressing in this procedure, learning them too early typically creates more problems than it solves.
Worse, it can prevent you from developing well-rounded surgical skills and mastering a surgical problem-solving mindset.
If you want to become great at this procedure, more important than any one advanced technique, is learning to do the foundational parts of this procedure exceptionally well.
3. Learn both surgical and prosthetic principles.
If you perform both the restorative and surgical side, this is a no-brainer.
However, if you only perform the surgical side (like I do), learning to understand how your surgery impacts the prosthetic and how to improve the prosthetic outcome will do as much for your surgical skill set and outcomes as anything else.
The same is true for restorative-only providers. Learning how your prosthetic affects the surgery and what you can do to positively influence and affect surgical outcomes will elevate your prosthetic success beyond what you can imagine.
4. Treat your patient, not your ego.
Help as many patients as possible.
But, remember that not every patient is a surgical candidate or is in need of an arch. Sometimes the answer is “no”.
5. Have a mentor.
You can’t master this surgery alone. You need someone to look up to. Someone to learn from.
I have cut ~3000 arches to date, and I still have multiple mentors in this space that I touch base with regarding cases.
This not only pushes me as a surgeon, but it also ensures I’m not becoming too focused on “my way” as the only way.
“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”
Chinese Proverb