Advice centre

When I graduated from Birmingham in 2003 the dental career route was simple.

Andrew Fieldhouse makes a very positive statement in changing from an unsatisfying career path to achieving his dream of becoming a dentist.

Although new techniques and new materials are creating new opportunities, and new challenges for clinicians to meet and overcome - not to mention new dentolegal risks to deal with - there are still plenty of familiar 'old chestnuts' that crop up with monotonous frequency in claims and complaints against dentists.

At first sight, respect for patients might seem to be just common sense behaviour, rather than one of the basic ethical principles by which the dental profession is bound.

Neil Morrison gives advice on making the change from salaried employment to self employment. Neil is a partner with Campbell Dallas LLP, Chartered Accountants - specialists in the Healthcare market.

Feedback may be either positive or negative but, either way, we can learn important lessons about our dentistry that are equally important.

Lauren's project won her 2nd prize in the Postgraduate category of the 2011 Dental Protection and Schülke Premier Awards.

Exploring the unseen risks of providing dental care in times of economic turmoil.

Fiona McDonnell (BDS Ncl) writes about her voluntary dentistry in the Cook Islands which she discovered was an extremely worthwhile experience.