The Dental Technician Magazine December 2021 by The Dental Technician Magazine

VO L 74 N O. 1 2 I D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 I B Y S U B S C R I P T I O N

ME? AN EXECUTIVE?

BY NICKI ROWLAND PAGE 34-36

5 things I cannot work without! By Luke Dowle, Equipment Sales Advisor at Bracon Ltd PAGE 10

Back with a Buzz The Yorkshire Dental Study Group PAGE 20

THIS MONTH... l

DENTAL NEWS: STEVEN CAMPBELL, DLA PRESIDENT I UPDATE P. 6

DENTAL TECHNOLOGY: A BASIC INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODONTICS I MATT EVERATT P. 14-17

FOCUS: 2021 - WHAT A YEAR! I ANDREA JOHNSON P. 22

VERIFIABLE ECPD FOR THE WHOLE DENTAL TEAM

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CONTENTS

DECEMBER 2021 Editor: Matt Everatt F.O.T.A. E: editor@dentaltechnician.org.uk Designer: Sharon (Bazzie) Larder E: inthedoghousedesign@gmail.com Advertising Manager: Chris Trowbridge E: sales@dentaltechnician.org.uk T: 07399 403602

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Andrea Johnson Ashley Byrne Ross Chapman Sharaz Mir Sir Paul Beresford

PUBLISHED BY THE DENTAL TECHNICIAN MAGAZINE, PO BOX 2279, PULBOROUGH, RH20 9BR. T: 01372 897463 The Dental Technician Magazine is an independent publication and is not associated with any professional body or commercial establishment other than the publishers. Views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or the editorial advisory board. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are welcome, though no liability can be accepted for any loss or damage, howsoever caused. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the editor or the publisher.

Welcome Welcome from the editor

Insight From the archives Nicki Rowland: An Executive Role

Steven Campbell, DLA President update Exocad announces participation at the Greater New York Dental Meeting (Gnydm) 2021

6 8

Technicians Insight 5 things I cannot work without! By Luke Dowle, Equipment Sales Advisor at Bracon Ltd Christmas in The Ol’ Lab Days. By Andy Sanson

10 30-32

Dental Technology Clarke Twin Block Construction Technique. By David Baldry, Atomic Dental Lab A basic introduction to Orthodontics. By Matt Everatt, F.O.T.A, Editor and Author

12-13 14-17

Study Group Back with a Buzz - Yorkshire Dental Study Group

Focus 2021 - What a year! By Andrea Johnson 2021 - My year in summary. By Ashley Byrne

22 23

DTS 2022

ECPD

The Dental Technician, Select Publisher Services Ltd, PO Box 6337, Bournemouth BH1 9EH

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There is a major change in CPD coming soon. The Dental Technician Magazine is a must read. Tell your colleagues to subscribe and if they do so we will extend your subscription for 3 months.

5 34-36

Dental News

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Extend your subscription by recommending a colleague

26-27

Marketplace Carestream Dental - only the best for your clients Zirkonzahn Zirconia from the Dolomites – Prettau® 2 Dispersive® The Straumann Group presents Crealock Solutions

37 38 38

Classifieds

The only condition is that they have not subscribed to the magazine for more than 12 months. Just ask them to call the Subscriptions Hotline. With four colleagues registered that means your subscription would be extended for a year free of charge. At only £39.95 per year, for UK residents, this must be the cheapest way of keeping up to date. Help your colleagues to keep up to date as well. Ask them to call the subscriptions Hotline on 01202 586 848 now.

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BAR HEADER WELCOME

From the

Editor Matt Everatt F.O.T.A

Welcome to your December edition and last of 2021

What another interesting year it has been. We saw the year come in during another lockdown. The good news on the horizon was that we had a vaccine and it was about to be rolled out. Yet it would be until March at the earliest before we began to get our freedom back. Fortunately, our labs were allowed to remain open and we were able to try and save our businesses and jobs. Sadly, the 'pingdemic' then took its toll on many businesses. Ours was a victim to this and at one point over half of our staff were isolating because their NHS app had told them to stay at home. This was crippling and almost led to a temporary closure of our lab, we managed, just! The spring brought us all new hope. The vaccine program seemed to be flying and mostly it was well received and continues to have a high uptake. Our labs seemed to be getting busier and discussions amongst my peers was highlighting a different problem! Last year we were all wondering if our labs would be financially able to continue, in 2021 we were beginning to worry about coping with the volumes of work and not having enough staff on hand to cope with it. The 'pingdemic' was also still causing some issues, isolations essentially stealing 2 weeks of working

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hours from each team member and its pretty difficult to work from home when you manufacture dental devices. That said, our amazingly resourceful team managed to get through those difficult times. Some of the technicians were able to work on digital cases from home too. Heading into summer, we seemed to be getting back on track. Travel was opening back up again and normality was on the horizon. Our family was then hit with Covid, well, myself and my oldest daughter got it whilst the rest of the family had to sit back and spend 10 days in isolation, cancelling all of our family holiday plans. Covid itself wasn’t too bad, a bit of a lingering cold. Worse followed, I was hospitalised almost 2 weeks later due to food poisoning. I’m not sure I can trust a chicken kebab every again, 4 days in hospital was not something I would like to repeat anytime soon. Safe to say, summer was a bit of a write off from a personal point of view. However, the wheels of dentistry continued to turn and labs were getting busier and busier. We faced new challenges! Recruitment was still a huge issue! We simply could not fill vacancies fast enough. This was a common theme, I saw so many job adverts on social media and online, loads of dental laboratories were seeking new recruits and really struggling. This sparked debates about the future of dental technology and how we face a shortage of dental technicians. The issue still exists. We all seem to be finding it difficult to recruit and vacancies remain open. As we headed into Autumn we shared some information from the Kingsholm group about the GDC and their response to questions relating to the Illegal Manufacturing

of Custom Made Medical Devices. There are a number of questions still remain unanswered and discussions are ongoing. We hope to report on further developments in the coming issues in the new year. Winter is now upon us, as I sit writing I look out over frosty fields with the most beautiful sunrise on the horizon. This pretty much sums up my thoughts of the year gone and the year ahead. We have experienced some frosty moments, what lies ahead are new horizons. I am so optimistic about our future as Dental Technicians and Dental Technology. I looked at the recent Dental Awards Ceremonies and see some amazing laboratories win awards. They are innovative and have exciting new products and services to offer. My hope for everyone is that we develop and grow together as a professional community, we raise standards in general and in turn attract more newcomers to join the profession. I hope you have enjoyed some of the new features this year. My particular favourites still are ‘5 Things I Cannot Work Without’ and ‘A Month With My New…’. We are always wanting new writers and we really want to encourage you all to contribute to the magazine to keep it fresh and more importantly, make it YOUR magazine! I wish you all the very best for the lead up to Christmas, no doubt this will mean we all become crazy busy. I do hope you all get to spend time with your nearest and dearest during the festivities and head into the New Year with fresh optimism and have a very prosperous 2022! Best Wishes Matt Everatt FOTA

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INSIGHT

From the

Archives By Matt Everatt F.O.T.A I Editor and Author

FEBRUARY 1961 READERS FORUM – REGISTRATION l I was looking through our journal archives and stumbled across this ‘Readers Forum’ section on registration of Dental Technicians. It is interesting how we are still having similar conversations even now we are registered. It does seem like we have similar opinions as our forefathers 60 years ago, both for and against registration.

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DENTAL NEWS

UPDATE Steven Campbell, DLA President updates its members on its ongoing work with the Shadow Minister of Health and Social Care on the lack of support labs received during the closure of the Dental Profession

“

Dear DLA Member, Following the DLA’s on going work with Alex Norris MP, the Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care, an amendment to the Health and Social Care Act was put forward to represent the interests of Dental Laboratories following the lack of funding and support made available to the sector both in the initial stages of Covid lockdown and the subsequent tiered reopening of dental practices. The amendment focused on both investment in training and development for individuals wishing to become registered dental technicians, as well as the need to promote Buy British, ensuring regulatory and commercial conditions were right for dental laboratories to be able to still provide NHS and Private custom made dental appliances. As with many amendments, it was not carried forward with the Bill, however the Minister for Health has now committed to meeting with the Shadow Minister for Health and the DLA to further look at what the UK Government can provide and facilitate to meet the requests and address the concerns outlined in the debate this morning. Obviously, the DLA would have preferred for the legislation to have been amended to directly name dental laboratories in their commitment to provide dental services, but based in initial feedback from parliamentarians we do believe that this is a significant step forward in that the Government have on record acknowledged the lack of specific support for dental laboratories and that the Minister themselves will be holding a meeting with the DLA to try and develop a more appropriate pathway forward. When the transcript from the debate is made public, we will share this with the membership, equally we will keep members up to date with the progress of our meeting and the proposals we shall table with the Minister for Health in due course. The DLA would like to put on record their thanks to Alex Norris MP and his team for all their work and support in preparing and tabling the amendment for todays debate. Thank you for your continued support. Steven Campbell. DLA President.

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”

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DENTAL NEWS

EXOCAD ANNOUNCES PARTICIPATION AT THE GREATER NEW YORK DENTAL MEETING (GNYDM) 2021 exocad to present latest software advances at one of the largest U.S. in-person dental trade shows with interactive demonstrations and guest speakers WOBURN, USA/ DARMSTADT, Germany – November 15, 2021 exocad, an Align Technology, Inc. company and a leading dental CAD software provider, today announced its participation at the 97th annual Greater New York Dental Meeting (GNYDM) from November 28 to December 1, 2021, in New York, New York, USA. exocad will showcase its newest software releases for dentists and dental technicians at booth 2003 with live demo stations, smile makeover workflow showcases and guest speaker presentations. “We want to give everyone the opportunity for an up-close look at exocad’s workflow-streamlining technology,” said Larry Bodony, president of exocad America. “Participants can experience exocad’s variety of software solutions, including

DentalCAD, ChairsideCAD and exoplan while connecting with colleagues and learning from dental industry trailblazers.” At this year’s GNYDM, exocad plans a varied educational program for on-site attendees. The Smile Creator Experience will showcase a fully digital workflow from start to finish and demonstrate how an individual mock-up can be designed and created in a single session. Attendees can learn more about exocad’s newly launched CAD Configurator, an online portal designed to help customers, partners and resellers create individualized CAD software packages. exocad will also provide educational seminars, that offer CE credits, with the following guest presenters:

• Prosthodontist Dr. Michael Scherer, an assistant clinical professor at Loma Linda University and clinical instructor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will discuss the ways exocad software can be used in daily clinical and lab practice. • Cosmetic dentist Dr. Diana Tadros will teach practical approaches to designing cosmetic cases in the digital world. • Dr. Richard L. Zimmermann, assistant professor of Comprehensive Dentistry at UT Health San Antonio, will demonstrate how to reach new levels of implant planning with open-architecture CAD software. Additional information is available at exocad.com/gnydm

exocad will showcase its newest software releases for dentists and dental technicians at the 97th annual Greater New York Dental Meeting (GNYDM) with live demo stations, smile makeover workflows and guest speaker presentations. (Source: exocad)

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INSIGHT TECHNICIANS INSIGHT

5 THINGS I CANNOT WORK WITHOUT! By Luke Dowle I Equipment Sales Advisor at Bracon Ltd 1 EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION

From the customers initial enquiry, through to talking with suppliers and my colleagues at Bracon. Enabling me to assist many varied and loyal customers in the early stages of enquiries through to supply, installation, training and servicing.

2. EQUIPMENT KNOWLEDGE

Identifying each customer’s unique requirements and then being able to offer a range of appropriate options, that meet those requirements or exceed them. Having visited many laboratories across the country, I have learned that where one equipment may be perfectly suitable for one customer, to another,

it’s not the right item at all. The requirements of a Dental School or University, Hospital or MOD, are considerably different to a small laboratory. Therefore, equipment manufacturer and model are very customer specific.

3. DEDICATED EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS Here at Bracon we work with suppliers from around the globe and having a close working relationship with our manufacturers, suppliers and logistics companies is essential. Without these related areas, that initial enquiry cannot be dealt with effectively, particularly in these times where global logistics, material resources and manufacturing lead times have altered considerably as well as increased material costs

and longer lead times in the supply chain. We have continued to work with long standing suppliers, but we have also adapted to overcome where lead times trans globally have been unworkable or too costly with alternative solutions.

4. AFTER SALES, SERVICING AND MAINTENANCE

As important as it is to meet our customers’ needs, often at the point of purchase they forget to ask about servicing and maintenance. Bracon have always had an engineering department and we always try to assist our customers with servicing or repairs, be that on site or here at Bracon. Many of our customers over the years have benefitted from making that initial purchase through Bracon and then having that backup and support that some companies cannot offer. That scenario when a casting machine or boil out machine decides to go down at the worst possible moment. Our engineers are ready to save the day!

5. NEW INNOVATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY

We keep up to date with changes in legislation, everything from LEV exhaust regulations to health and safety standards, etc. We monitor and calibrate all equipment as part of our quality controls before despatching any item to our customers. Understanding the equipment inside out and being able to offer first line technical support and second line support through our manufacturers, we have a wealth of knowledge. We know which manufacturers make the best items in terms of reliability and always try to offer high end, middle and the budget range of a wide and varied range of equipment. If something is unreliable, we won’t sell our customers short by supplying it. By constantly seeking and investigating new technologies, we at Bracon are constantly seeking and investigating new technologies, from manufacturers around the world and bringing the best of the best to the UK. If you would like to participate in our ‘5 Things I Cannot Work Without’ feature please email: editor@dentaltechnician.org.uk

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DENTAL TECHNOLOGY

CLARKE TWIN BLOCK

CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE By David Baldry I Atomic Dental Lab The following detailed procedure is the technique that I use to manufacture Clarke Twin Block appliances in the most efficient way possible, whilst maintaining consistency and quality. Some steps that are obvious or not adding value have been skipped.

l Follow the prescription for construction of the retention components. In this case its Adams cribs on the upper and lower 6’s & 4’s with ball ended clasps on the lower anteriors. Wax the components into place and wax out the interdental wires so that the cribs can be adjusted by the clinician if required.

l To manufacture a Twin Block appliance, a prescription, upper & lower impressions and protrusive bite are required. The procedure starts after the Lab infection control measures have been followed and after the models have been cast, passed QC and articulated.

l Remove the wax bite and if the bite is excessively open or closed, then adjust the articulator so the space between the posterior teeth is approximately 4-5mm.

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l Using a sheet of pink wax, create angled shuttering and attach to the lower model. The posterior angle of the wax should be approximately 60 degrees (although the prescription for this case says 45 degrees!). Line the posterior section of the wax with the mesial interdental wire of the crib on the 6’s (this will make trimming easier at a later stage). Extend the wax so this it is extends just higher than the tips of the teeth on the opposing model.

l Block out the undercut areas of the wax support and repeat for the other side.

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DENTAL TECHNOLOGY

Using cold cure acrylic and the salt & pepper technique, create the lower baseplate and twin block pillars. The wax supports that were created help to guide the build up of acrylic. Use the 60 degree angles to create square faced blocks that are approximately 1cm x 1cm and parallel. Cure using the normal method.

l Create the upper baseplate and add the screw as required. Build the upper blocks with acrylic and when they are at full height, close the articulator and the lower blocks will cut into the un-cured upper blocks and transfer the 60 degree angle into the upper blocks. Unsure that the upper blocks are nice and square and then add a small layer of acrylic to the face of the blocks to allow for trimming back later. Cure the upper blocks.

l Boil off the wax, and trim the lower appliance taking particular care around the blocks so the the 60 degree angle is maintained. Trim the height of the blocks until the is no contact from the opposing model. Smear a small amount of Vaseline on the surface of the blocks – this will help to avoid the blocks bonding or sticking in the following stages.

l Using a variety of burs, finishing trimming the appliances until they are smooth. Polish on a lathe as per normal procedure. Remove the plastic tab from the screw, and steam clean to remove pumice / residue.

THE FINISHED APPLIANCE

Boil off the wax and using articulating paper as a guide, trim the upper baseplate and blocks until the articulator closes to its pre-set position. Slowly and carefully trim the blocks of the upper and lower so that there is good contact on both sides.

l After basic trimming, it is easy to see that the 60 degree angle has been transferred to the upper appliance.

l Using pink wax, create more shuttering/ acrylic supports on the upper model. The shuttering should be slightly oversized to make manufacturing easier later. The lower blocks will be used to cut into the un- cured acrylic on the upper model when dripping on.

Mark the midline and cut a straight line through the upper appliance. l

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David Baldry, Atomic Dental Lab E: David@Atomic-Dental.com T: 07810 673831

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DENTAL TECHNOLOGY

A BASIC INTRODUCTION TO dontics

o th r O By Matt Everatt F.O.T.A I Editor and Author

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DENTAL TECHNOLOGY

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DENTAL TECHNOLOGY

O rthodontics and Orthodontic Technology is a specialism with Dentistry that deals with Dentofacial irregularities. The term orthodontics, derives from greek/latin origin meaning to straighten teeth. Whilst the majority of cases focus on aesthetic improvements of patient’s teeth and usually undertaken in primary care environments, more complex Orthodontic treatment is part of a multidisciplinary team approach and will used treat issues such as; l

Misaligned teeth

Crowded or spacing of teeth

Misaligned Jaws

Facial and skeletal discrepancies

ORTHODONTIC TERMINOLOGY

Orthodontists and Orthodontic Technicians will regularly discuss cases to ensure the patient gets the best results. It is important for Technicians to understand some of the basic terminology. Below are some examples of some terms and phrases;

l Incisor relationship – position of the lower incisal edge and the upper incisors cingulum in occlusion. l Angles Classification Class 1 – Lower edge occludes ON or immediately below cingulum.

Class 2 – Lower edge occludes BEHIND cingulum: Div I – upper incisors are proclined Div II – upper incisors are retroclined usually presenting with a deep overbite Class 3– lower incisal edge occludes IN FRONT of cingulum.

The British Orthodontic Society’s (BOS) definition of orthodontics is; “Orthodontics is the movement of the teeth within the jaw bones to straighten them and help them to bite more evenly together; it’s about improving the harmony of your mouth and jaws.”

l Overjet - Amount by which the upper anterior teeth protrude from the lower anterior teeth in a horizontal plane. l Overbite - Amount that the upper anterior teeth overlap the lower anterior teeth in a vertical plane. l Crossbites

Anterior crossbite – usually relating to a reverse overjet Posterior crossbite – these can be unilateral (one side) or bilateral (both sides) where the buccal cusp of the upper posterior tooth occludes in the central fissure of the lower posterior teeth.

IDEAL OCCLUSION

An ideal occlusion is a hypothetical position where the maxilla and mandible are correct size in relation to each other and the teeth show all of the ideal characteristics: l Coincident

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mid-line.

l No

crowding.

l No

overlapping.

l No

rotations or spacing.

l Correct l Molar

crown angulation and inclination.

relationship is class 1.

l Incisor relationship is class 1 with overjet of about 2-4mm. l Canine l Flat

relationship is class 1.

or slightly upwards curve of spee.

HOW DO TEETH MOVE?

Teeth move throughout our lives, during the early development stages external factors such as thumb sucking or use of a dummies can influence where and how teeth and the dental arches develop. Mastication has an influence on how and where teeth develop. Trauma can effect how teeth move, for example, where a tooth is lost the adjacent and antagonist teeth can drift and migrate into the spaces caused by the trauma. In Orthodontics we tend to spend a lot of time focussing on the early stages of development in the primary and mixed dentitions (Pre-teen and teens). There are many schools of thought on when and where orthodontic treatment should be started, some clinicians like to intercept cases early on and may use Functional Appliance Therapy to aid skeletal growth patterns. Many clinicians would begin treatment when the adult dentition is all present. The most common types of treatment now offered are fixed appliances, brackets bonded directly onto the labial surfaces of the patient’s teeth, with preformed archwires ligatured in place into the brackets. Removable appliances often used prior to fixed appliance therapy or as an adjunct to treatment, they can also be used in less complex cases where small amounts of movement are required to achieve a good aesthetic result.

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DENTAL TECHNOLOGY

Functional appliances, used more so in Specialist Orthodontic settings, are used in the treatment of skeletal discrepancies, more commonly Class II (increased Overjet) and Class II div 2 cases (Increased Overjet and Overbite). They can also be used for correction of mild Class III (Reverse Overjet). More recent developments in orthodontic technology has given rise to more aesthetically pleasing forms of treatment, patients can now choose clear or tooth coloured brackets as opposed to the traditional stainless steel ones. The introduction of clear aligner treatments has also become very popular and has seen the rise in adult orthodontic cases being undertaken by both orthodontic specialists and GDPs.

BIOMECHANICS AND FORCES

All Orthodontic treatments involve biomechanics and forces to help move teeth and develop the dental arches. Applying a sustained and continuous light force on teeth results in movement. It requires a minimum amount of force, if the forces are too light , they are dissipated and no movement takes place. Unsurprisingly, different teeth need different forces to move them. Factors such as the number of roots and surface area have to be considered, for example incisors need less force than canines. The forces transmit through the periodontal ligaments (PDL), which may detach, reattach and movement occurs due to bone resorption and bone deposition. Lighter forces cause frontal bone resorption, which is favourable, it is argued that heavy forces can cause necrosis in the PDL, undermining bone resorption. BELOW: The orthodontic forces applied to the tooth will cause compression of the periodontal ligament in the labial aspect (a) and osteoclasts will resorb the bone, whilst the ligaments in the lingual area (b) are stretched pulling the bone resulting in osteoblasts laying down new bone.

TYPES OF ORTHODONTIC TOOTH MOVEMENT

EXTRUSION

Similar to intrusion movements in terms of the axial movement along the long axis of the tooth. The movement however is towards the coronal aspect of the tooth, the forces required to achieve these movements would be approximately 30-75g.

There are six main types of movements of teeth being; Tipping, Torqueing, Rotation, Intrusion, Extrusion and Bodily movements. These movements can all be achieved with fixed appliances, some of the more complex movements such as Torqueing and Extrusions may be more difficult with removable appliances or aligner treatments.

TIPPING

Tipping movements are often the easiest to achieve and can be done with all types of orthodontic appliances. Tipping is when the crown moves more than the root in any given direction. The crown and root move in opposite directions and forces of approximately 30-75g are required.

BODILY MOVEMENTS

A bodily movement of a tooth means both the crown and root move by the same amount of distance and in the same direction. Approximately 60150g of force is required to move the teeth bodily. These movements are better achieved and controlled with fixed appliances. Aligner therapy has also developed techniques using composite attachments on tooth surfaces to help control these movements.

ROTATION

Rotations are where a tooth is turned on its own long axis. Forces of approximately 50100g are required to achieve such movements. Rotational movements can be complex to achieve and require coupling forces to prevent the tooth tipping rather than rotating.

TORQUEING

Torqueing movements require similar forces to tipping, however the fulcrum or pivot of the movement is usually toward the incisal or occlusal portion of the tooth. The root is moved more than the crown of the tooth and forces of 50-125g are required. These movements are complex in nature and typically take longer to achieve. The preferred method of achieving these movements is with fixed appliances and rectangular archwire.

INTRUSION

Intrusion of teeth is the axial movement along the long axis of the tooth towards the apex of the root. Although these movements require lower forces (10-25g), they can be difficult to achieve with removable appliance due to adjacent teeth and the application of the forces, typically these movements can easily be achieved with fixed appliances.

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Ceroplast Digital Dental Laboratory are looking for qualified technicians in all departments. We are a full service laboratory mainly private with a small NHS element of work. Due to the fantastic staff at Ceroplast Digital we now have clients waiting to join us. We only take on new work from clients we are happy to work with and only if we have enough staff to cope with the work. If you are looking for a change and a different working environment we have vacancies in: Digital, Cons metal work, Ceramist, Prosthetics, Ortho and Chrome. We would also be happy to work with partially trained technicians too as we have mentors here to help you develop your career. Salary to be decided between us as usual, depending on what you can do and the skills you have.

Interested? Fancy a change? Then call Andy George on 01905 425151 or email your CV to: andy@ceroplast.uk

www.ceroplast.co.uk

Devonshire House Dental Laboratory is an expanding full-service lab providing technical support to dentists throughout the UK. Our multi-disciplined team of technicians is highly skilled in making conventional restorative prosthodontic appliances and complex implant retained oral prosthetics. Our custom-built state of the art laboratory uses the latest milling machines and 3D printers to digitally produce ceramic crowns and models allowing us to deliver products of the highest quality. This facility helps our highly skilled dental technicians apply the best practice principles to all aspects of our technological support from a basic study cast to a full arch implant supported bridge. We have positions available for an experienced crown and bridge team leader and an experienced prosthetics technician to join our expanding team as part of our dental laboratory attached to our bespoke dental practice in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. Both are full time positions, working one in eight Saturdays; with excellent rates of pay depending on experience. We are compliant with DAMAS auditing scheme, and all our technicians are GDC registered. Spoken English and UK based candidate required and ideally with a minimum 2 years’ experience preferred.

If you are interested in joining our growing team then please contact our Laboratory Manager Nick Clarke via email Nicholas.Clarke@dh-dental.co.uk or by calling 01223 837212.

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STUDY GROUP

buzz

BACK WITH A

Lisa & Lucy - admin and catering team

YORKSHIRE DENTAL STUDY GROUP

full house for the brand-new season of Yorkshire Dental Study Group! It had been such a long time since the last study group, hosts Prestige Dental were delighted that November’s event was quickly a sell-out. After so many months of online connections, it was great to hear the buzz of conversation as industry colleagues finally got together in person for a jam-packed evening providing 3 very different insights into the world of Dental Technicians.

Andy Fairbanks

Mr Alloy & Mr Attachment

Introduced by Mr Alloy - Darren Shorrocks, and Mr Attachment – Paul Martin, their decades of experience and continued interest in the dental industry, have made them much sought-after authorities in each of their specialised areas and earnt them these titles. They both share a desire to support colleagues and share their knowledge, hence their dedication to training and education in the industry. They were followed by Scott Hippey, continuing the theme of ‘from the industry – for the industry’. A highly skilled Exocad trainer, he has always strived to educate himself with the latest techniques, continually pushing boundaries. The hints and tips he shared with the study group provided some fascinating insights in the world of Exocad/digital software. Andy Fairbanks rounded off the evening with his unique experiences gained as a lab owner. After graduating Andy put in years of hard graft at the bench, building up one of the leading dental labs in the UK before joining Ceramet UK as Technical Director. A great advocate of ‘smart working’, Andy is passionate about bringing ‘some fire back into the dental world!’

Scott Hippey

YDSG has an impressive calendar of events planned for 2022, starting on 27th January 6-9pm, with Blueprint Dental providing an introduction to the world of Medit, Intra-oral Scanning. For more details and booking email: info@ydsg.uk

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FOCUS

2021WHAT A YEAR! By Andrea Johnson I Editorial Board Member

021 started just like any other year... oh wait... no it didn’t because we were still in the midst of the covid crisis!

2020 had been the year of the worst of the crisis. I had been redeployed early on, onto the fit testing team, then back into dental later to get things moving again, in and out of meetings with the CDO and others trying to make sense of it all and, of course get the plight of the labs noticed – mixed bag of results on that one. I, as many others also had a quiet Christmas with no family allowed to visit as well as so many more ups and downs over the year. Weird year for us all overall. So, I can be forgiven for thinking that 2021 would be the year when things get better right? Well, it started off reasonably OK, I had been making a nuisance of myself on Twitter and elsewhere as I do, trying to get more inclusive opportunities for the entire dental team, especially techs. How many leadership/ fellowship schemes are out there which are targeted at clinicians only? How is that fair? And who said that just because you are a dentist or doctor you are automatically suited to being in charge or being a leader as opposed to another member of the team?

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These were and still are my points, I have been ignored, I have had snotty responses and I have had those that pay lip service but don’t actually do anything to make the change and invite us in and I have finally found some that are willing to put their money where their mouth is. The first of these is the Healthcare Leadership Academy (HLA). Those that know me will have seen my posts about these already, but I had looked on their website after seeing them advertise a leadership scholarship which was using all the wrong (in my humble opinion) language as it was only geared up to attract clinicians. I of course found someone high up to pester about this and challenged them to defend their position as I saw it based on the language they were using, as to why they were just advertising for clinicians, why could this not be available to non-clinical team members too? To their credit they immediately apologised for what they saw as a grievous error, went onto their site and changed a load of their terminology and assured me that they were open to all prospective leaders with the right qualities, that it absolutely was not just for clinical staff at all. I of course called their bluff applied and yes, I got accepted! I will tell you more about this in another article soon because you all really need to know about it. However, back to my year. March 2021, my world was about to get turned upside down for a good few months, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Totally unexpected, found a lump whilst showering, it was quite large and I knew it wasn’t supposed to be there so I called the docs and got the diagnosis process going. Everything seem to take so long, especially in those early stages, waiting for appointments – which are delayed due to Covid, having biopsies, various scans, blood tests etc. Waiting for the results and wondering and worrying about how bad it is, what the treatment options are and so on. However, during this time I decided, for me, it would be business as usual, I see no point at all dwelling on things you cannot control. In the grand scale of things, it didn’t

take as long as it could have done and I got the treatment I needed. I won’t go into gory detail (check out my Youtube channel if you want to know more) but I had 6 rounds of chemo, lost all my hair, had an operation to remove the lump and my lymph nodes and then had 9 rounds of radiotherapy. I am now back at work, hair growing back and it seems like we got rid of it. So, great news. I did of course have to postpone some activities such as my open water diving course, my skydive, 2 x tough mudders and a trek up mount Toubkal in Morocco. But I continued to go to the gym every day, to work on my Masters as best I could – neither easy whilst having chemo. I applied to be a HLA scholar, continued my work with on the various strategy groups, advisory groups, general consulting etc with the GDC, CGDent & HEEM. I wrote articles for various dental press agencies as well as The Dental Technician of course and I carried on running Den-Tech. I am still working on all the items above as well as various other projects, I am now a proud HLA Leadership scholar and am chairing their first ever Women in Healthcare Leadership Summit in 2022, working on a project to help improve aspects of their HLA Ideas charity programme and, as the only dental technician on the programme, tasked with helping them open this up and encourage even more of us and the rest of the dental team to get involved. This year has not been great, but you know what? It could have been so much worse, I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given, I am grateful for the immense support I have received from my family, friends and of course the amazing dental tech community. I know there have been so many others that have had it far worse than me and I know that 2023 will be the year when things get better! So on that note, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and an incredibly happy new year!

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FOCUS

2021MY YEAR IN SUMMARY By Ashley Byrne I Editorial Board Member

ome the 23rd of December I’m going to sit down, have a stiff drink and then most likely sleep for two weeks solid. I think thats the best way to summarise my 2021. One minute it’s January and now in a heart beat it’s December, where did that year go?? Whilst it’s been hard, harder than any other year of my life, it’s been a remarkable one on many levels. The lab grew beyond belief, I finished an eco house I was building (thanks to the bank of Mum and Dad for loaning us that through a global pandemic!!) and I have a boxer dog that is crazier than a box of frogs that this week learnt to open door handles, the carnage just went up to a whole new level. Work wise, the year started incredibly well, busy and a buzz at the lab of normality to a certain extent, which after 2020 was a breath of fresh air. Work was flooding in and yet I’d predicted a tough start and possibly even a year making a loss but thankfully I certainly got that prediction wrong. We had several record months and continued and reliable growth, the lab has seen more change in its quality and processes this year than any other year on record. The team at Byrnes has grown, we stand strong at 40 people now and yet as a work family we are closer than ever. We took on new employees in nearly every department and whilst I grew fearful of losing that family feeling through growth, the team seem to have embraced that more than ever. As the owner and I suppose directional leader (we don’t have a management structure at Byrnes, you are all as important as each other) I stand here proud as punch of what Team Byrnes has achieved in 2021.

It’s been a hard year for all my team, they have excelled in their quality beyond belief and despite the stress of high volume and not enough technicians, they have innovated to streamline processes so we could increase sales and yet not increase working hours. We take our work life balance seriously and the use of digital technology has allowed us to manage that growth and yet not increase the hours we work. The challenges range this year have certainly been the lack of dental technicians available and I’m worried this is only going to get worse. We have taken trainees on this year like Aaisha who despite leaving all her family in Bolton, has risen to the challenge and clearly demonstrating the value that degree level students can bring to a modern dental manufacturing business. We also have Tia who is working part time whilst she studies for her degree at BMet and Worcester Uni. They both join the list of newly qualified technicians at Byrnes that never cease to amaze me with their skills and ability to learn as well as adapt into an ever changing dental technology business. If this is the future of dental technology in these young educated people, it is indeed in very safe hands and we need plenty more like them.

So as we draw 2021 to a close, my number one company core values states, ‘have fun and be curious’ and I think 2022 is certainly going to the year that dental technicians get the recognition and reward that we all deserve and we can have a lot of fun doing it. But for now, let’s all enjoy a nice break over Christmas and raise a toast to the awesome dental technicians and operations teams that make this industry the incredible profession that it is. Cheers!

So now we look to 2022, increased growth, more digitisation and the year of the digital denture awaits us is

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my prediction. I hope you will join me at the ADI congress in May as my final year as the ADI technical rep comes to a close. The speakers I think will really sum up the year ahead with a technical treat of ground breaking innovation from Zirconia to digital dentures.

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DTS 2022

Enhance your

Network

NETWORKING CAN BUILD PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND PROVIDE NEW OPPORTUNITIES l The Dental Technology Showcase 2022 is here for you with over 80 exhibitors, including some of the trade’s biggest names such as 3Shape, Cendres + Métaux, GC UK, Schottlander, Straumann and WHW Plastics Ltd who will be eager to meet you and share their latest products.

You will also have the opportunity to meet our colleagues from across the nation with over 2,500 visitors. Visit the Dental Technology Showcase 2022 and benefit from getting to know your colleagues!

As well as this, there will be over fifty expert speakers ready to explore what the expectations are for the future of dental labs. If there’s anything one may want to share with their colleagues, an opinion on the future of the profession is sure to be one of them.

Technology:

Catch up on the latest l The dental industry is constantly evolving as innovative working strategies are ever welcome. There’s absolutely nothing more thrilling than a new gadget that will make your life easier. To prepare the UK dental lab market for any growth in the foreseeable future, the Dental Technology Showcase 2022 aims to accelerate dental labs into the future by fully embracing new technology. Some of the biggest names in the industry, including Andrea Johnson, Ashley Byrne, Ed Attenborough and more will be keen to share their latest products, techniques, and experiences with you. Worried about how you would use something brand new? You don’t need to be. The Dental Technology Showcase 2022 will have over fifty speakers available to share optimum methods in using the latest technology. Ensure you don’t fall behind and register your interest today!

The next Dental Technology Showcase will be held on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th May 2022, Birmingham NEC, co-located with British Dental Conference & Dentistry Show Birmingham. For more information, visit www.the-dts.co.uk, or email dentistry@closerstillmedia.com

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Payment by cheque to: The Dental Technician Magazine Limited. NatWest Sort Code 516135 A/C No 79790852 MAXILLARY CLARKE TWIN BLOCK CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE BY DAVID BALDRY - ATOMIC DENTAL LAB Q1. To manufacture a Twin Block appliance what is first required?

A - A prescription B - Hospital order C - PDF D - Invoice

Q9. To attach to the lower model what wax is used? A - Pink wax B - Blue wax C- Red Wax D- Green wax

Q10. The posterior angle of the wax should be approximately?

Q2. What type of impressions is required? A - Negative B - Postive C - OBT D - Upper and Lower

A - 50 degrees B - 55 degrees C- 60 degrees D- 65 degrees

Q3. The procedure starts after what?

Q11. What technique is used to create the lower baseplate and twin block pillars?

A - Lab infection control measures B - A consultation C - Scan D - Waxing

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Q6. For construction of the retention components what must you follow? A - Order Form B - Handbook C - Programme D - Prescription

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TECHNICIANS INSIGHT

Christmas in the The Ol’ Lab Days

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TECHNICIANS INSIGHT

By Andy Sanson like the one at Harrods can be excepted because you don’t have to go in there, but you do have to eat. For Tesco and their ilk to subject everyone, regardless, to wall-to-wall Ding Dong Merrily… from October the fourth demonstrates an arrogance that has no business inflicting itself on people.

Andy takes a satirical trip down memory lane, to Christmas time when he was a lad in the lab, often referred to as ‘one of the buggers’.

hristmas – that two day festival that begins at the end of September and carries on through until the sixth of January. The six weeks from Bonfire Night until about 1 pm on Christmas Eve, when everyone trundled off to the staff do, was always a period of intense activity at The Lab as panicking patients clamoured at the portals of the local dentists reasoning that they simply had to have their new ‘pair of teeth’ in time for Christmas so that the whole thing wouldn’t be ruined. I imagine most of them would have spent the early weeks of January rubbing Bonjella on to blistered and swollen gums due to eating hundredweights of turkey and sprouts and endeavouring to splinter almond shells with dentures not given chance to settle in.

A “joke” that pops up around this time every year is “I’m just beginning to enjoy Christmas then some pillock has to spoil it by dragging religion into it”. Many a true word… Don’t get me wrong; despite the fact that if I were to offer up a prayer, The Lord’s Receptionist would probably tell me they had no record of me and would I like to fill out a registration form, I like Christmas. I just don’t want excruciating advertising people telling me about it, as if I were ignorant of its existence, upwards of eight weeks before it happens. TV and radio bombarding us with Status Quo’s Whatever You Want, in an attempt to induce us and our credit cards into Argos, five times an hour for two months is unacceptable. Even (or especially?) if you are Francis Rossi I imagine you would tire of it before the first week was up. And doesn’t it just go on, and on, and on...? It’s a sobering thought that a sixth of our lives is spent either preparing, or being told we should be preparing, for Christmas and the other five sixths paying, at an APR of around 25%, for the Christmases we had anything between one and five years ago.

By the time you surface for air, around December the second, amidst the finishes, try-ins, and bite blocks, you’re likely to have been subjected to at least four or five weeks of poor quality background Christmas music in just about every supermarket, service area and Mc flippin’ Donald’s which you’ve had the misfortune to set foot. Every year, the same tired old sacrilegious garbage is trundled out by managements to show the public just how jolly and festive and full of giving they are.

From the middle of August, every pub or hotel with a function room has been urging you to book your Christmas party with it for “only” seventy or so quid a head. For that you’ll get a slice of Bernard Matthews turkey curling up around the edges, two uncooked sprouts, five frozen carrot sticks, four peas, a burnt chipolata, a roast potato with a skin like an armadillo, a briquette of Paxo, a teaspoonful of Bisto and, if you’re lucky, a splot of flavoured jelly purporting to be cranberry sauce. You’ll be provided with a cheap cracker which goes “pfft”, containing a paper hat designed for a small monkey, that shreds itself the minute you try to put it on, and a joke that Tony Blackburn would have been embarrassed to tell on his Radio One morning show in the seventies. There will also be an unidentifiable thing made of plastic or rubber. A pint of Carling will be six quid and if you order house wine it’ll likely be warm Hirondelle in glasses almost, but not quite, made of Pyrex.

I believe it should be a hanging offence to even mention Christmas in a commercial environment until at least the twelfth of December. Dedicated Christmas departments

Paradoxically, any establishment that’s still advertising spaces left for Christmas meals after the beginning of October should be left well alone!

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You’ll have so much work right up until Christmas Eve that by the time the big day comes around you’ll be knackered enough to sleep most of the day and fail to enjoy the magnificent lunch that someone’s spent twenty four hours preparing. Sometime around the middle of November, most of the papers publish basically erroneous details of what’s going to be on TV over the festering season. I don’t know what TBA’s about but it must be good ‘coz, it’s on thirty times a day for over a fortnight. There’ll be the usual soap “specials”. Somebody will die at midnight on New Year’s Eve, somebody with discover their partner in bed with the neighbour’s alsatian and the token joke character will get ratted and knock over the tree. The African Queen and Raiders of the Lost Ark will be on and there’ll be a twenty hour hoolie from Inverness that nobody will watch due to rolling about the street outside some pub in a nameless city that’s charged them a week’s wages for the privilege of standing six deep at the bar for most of the evening trying to be heard above the screams and howls of party goers in school uniforms and the young swains who are attempting to induce them under the canal bridge to ‘see in’ the New Year. It will consist of Stephen Hendry in a kilt and re-runs of Stanley Baxter shows and will be hosted by Lorraine Kelly and some unknown Scottish actor from the Isle of Oronsay because Ewan McGregor told them to sod off. Lulu will turn up and sing Auld Lang Syne and I won’t win the Lottery or get picked for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Having just got over the expense of Trick or Treat and Quite A Lot More Than A Penny For The Guy you will now be subjected to the scourge of the Carol Singers. I suppose the little buggers were able to buy enough glue to last a week or two, but now they’re back. Were I to get a tuneful, angelic rendition of Silent Night or In The Deep Midwinter sung by a band of cherubs and a beaming vicar with lanterns on sticks that conjured up visions of heavenly multitudes in full voice and peace and goodwill descending like rain from above I would happily shell out and feel good about it. I do not have the same benevolent attitude to three snotty-nosed oiks who hammer on the door and croak “wwshyewamerriKizmuss wwshyewamerri KizmusswwshyewamerriKizmussnnappy nyooyeer” and shove a stained and broken coffee mug at me with an expression that says “Pay up, Knob ‘ead”. Go away! But it is the Season of Goodwill when all’s said and done and I will join in with the best of them to celebrate something which I can’t quite remember the meaning of.

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TECHNICIANS INSIGHT

Oh, and it should also be a hanging offence to call it Xmas. I’ve mentioned it in passing; the Staff Do, for instance, which was always conducted in a kind of festive setting, though the sentiments that accompanied it weren’t always that charitable. It does come round every year with monotonous regularity, though, does Christmas so why shouldn’t I keep on about it? In fact, I’m not going to start on about Christmas this time. Not as such. It’s more the run up to it and the effect it had upon daily life in The Lab for anything up to a month beforehand. You could tell when it was about to kick off. The script was the same every year; The Boss, having just finished moaning about the spent fireworks he kept finding in his garden and being sure that the ‘young buggers’ a couple of doors down aimed them there deliberately, oozed up the back drive one morning and stood there with his chin in his fingers regarding the rear of the building with a look that prompted a thought-balloon fest of “Oh dear. Watch out, Folks” “It all looks a bit drab out there.” He sipped his freshly made coffee and burnt his lip. Several minutes later, after he’d blamed everyone from Hitler to the bloke who oversaw car parking at the hotel where he attended his Rotary Club meetings, his attention turned again to the matter that had been on his mind before The Great Scalding. “It’s nearly Christmas. ‘We’ should brighten the place up a bit”. The knell of doom. “Get the stuff out, someone.” The ‘Stuff’ was a battered old cardboard box, which I swear had once contained a delivery of ARP hats, full of broken baubles, tree lights and tinsel and miles of those awful paper decorations, layered with years of dust, that people used to hang from one corner of the ceiling to another before the Rolling Stones came along and ruined everything. Let’s face it, he thought Bing Crosby was a beatnik. There was an old chap down the road; a bit of what would these days be called a ‘traveller’, although he’d lived there as long as anyone

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could recall, who, every year, took delivery of a Canadian forest and hawked the individual trees off at a couple of quid each. Naturally, one of The Buggers – usually me – got the job of going and fetching one. At least the lumberjacks had a river to float it down. I had to carry the blithering thing. Staggering up the road in a side wind with a giant sequoia over my shoulder, being hooted at by irascible motorists and beaten about the ankles by old ladies who thought I was trying to mug them with an ill-chosen weapon, I found myself wishing I’d taken the advice of my elders in 1969 and stayed on at school. We’d abandon our flasking, waxing-up, casting, polishing, breathing in pumice and monomer and setting-up to set about making the place look like Harrod’s Christmas Department – after an earthquake. It usually carried on like this for a couple of days when the phone would start ringing; the Gentlemen wishing to know why their work hadn’t arrived back at the surgery. Then we would have to fire up the Bunsens and attempt to go about the business of dental prostheses as various of our number scrabbled about with drawing pins and the old step ladder vainly trying to render the ramshackle old dump more festive than festering. You might expect that when it was all done it would have looked splendid; it ought to have cheered the souls of we minions as we walked through the portals of a morning and raised our spirits to the point where we got about our work in the manner of Santa’s merry elves toiling away to Jingle Bells and laughing heartily with no thought of recompense or profit. It didn’t. Rather, it gave the impression we were approaching the end of nine months of industrial action by refuse collectors. One Friday, I think it was the week before Christmas we were, to a man and woman, ferreting away in order to clear the interminable backlog that inevitably mounted up as the holiday loomed, a situation that, every year, culminated in frenzied activity right up until one pm Christmas Eve when we all downed tools and cleared off to the pub to take advantage of the ‘generous’ gesture by The Management of a plate of chips and a beer or two. Everyone was so knackered from the previous three or four weeks that we

would spend most of Christmas and Boxing Day fast asleep in front of the telly while the Morecambe and Wise Special ran its course and Top Of The Pops boomed out at anyone who cared to watch. There was a sudden wail from The Boss who, having thought he smelt burning, had risen from his crossword in The Office to come into The Lab and investigate. “Are you buggers blind?” he boomed, dashing to the sink and dousing himself in freezing cold water from turning the taps on too high. In the meantime, the paper decoration which, unseen by anyone due to intense concentration on the tasks in hand, had fallen on to the bench and caught fire in a Bunsen flame. It was now combusting with a rapidity that would have put many a forest fire to shame, the conflagration climbing its paper ladder to where all six strands met at ceiling height. The Boss’s bowl of water proved useless – all it did was soak everyone in the place and cause blue sparks to dance across the bench as it got into the electric sockets and soaked all the work tickets so they became unreadable. Then the lights went out and someone stood up and knocked the tree over, breaking at least half of the ancient baubles and scaring the cat, which had thus far been unaware of the maelstrom due to being asleep, so much that it sprang from its resting place and tried to climb up Old Stan by digging every one of its sabre-like claws deep into his back. Everyone did their best to lighten the mood, Iestyn even suggesting we all sing carols and roast chestnuts in The Senior Partner’s porcelain oven but, as he found out to the cost of his rather sheltered and ecclesiastical upbringing, the Festive Spirit was at a premium that year so he held his peace and got on with his work. The fact that the whole debacle had been cause by The Boss insisting that we use the same drawing pins year after year to save money so that the pins would be wobbling in the heads and had been bent and straightened out with pliers so many times that a slight breeze would snap them carried no weight. “Why don’t people do things properly? Bah!” Merry Christmas, Everybody. I’ll be handing round the humbugs later.

www.dentaltechnician.org.uk 07/12/2021 19:33

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INSIGHT

ME? AN

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INSIGHT

EXECUTIVE? By Nicki Rowland

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INSIGHT

AN EXECUTIVE ROLE

I have been banging on for years about working in an ‘executive capacity’. However, there has never been a better time to embrace this concept. The role of managing a business has evolved from a straightforward leadership and management function into a complex, executive position. So, what does that mean to us exactly? Well, as Covid-19 has deflected us away from our everyday work, other activities within business have become a focus area. On a daily basis, posts on my Facebook group, Leadership in Dentistry, flag up issues with demotivated team members who are turning to dysfunctional behaviour in response to the pressures that Covid has brought in its wake. Great leadership has never been more vital.

Don’t we know that our ‘Covid World’ has taken its toll on all of us in some way? The impact on dentistry has been immeasurable. The one thing that is certain though is that we all need to adopt a growth mindset to adapt and thrive. In a series of 12 articles in 2022, Nicki Rowland, Director of The Exceptional Leadership Academy, will explore what it takes to be a ‘new-world’ business leader and ensure that your company stands out in the marketplace. In this article, she introduces us to the concept of being an ‘Executive Leader’.

However, ‘leading’ is only one of the ‘activities’ that sits under the executive umbrella. Alongside, stand ‘managing’, ‘strategic thinking’, ‘accountability’ and ‘representation’ of our businesses. This might sound quite profound, but read on and it will all make sense. In essence, the Covid crisis has enhanced the aspects of business that we should be laser-focused on to survive.

LEADING AND MANAGING

Have you heard of the leadership versus management debate? This implies that leaders and managers fit neatly within two separate categories. Leading is about aligning your team to your purpose, vision, achieving staff ‘buy in’ and communicating, motivating and inspiring your staff to reach their full potential. Your vision as a leader essentially expresses the optimal goal of your Laboratory and what you want to happen in the future. Managing is a set of processes that keep your Laboratory functioning, for example, strategy, planning, budgeting, staffing, measuring performance and problem-solving. Your mission as a manager is to take your team on a journey to fulfil your business’s purpose and achieve its vision. The bottom line is that leading and managing must go hand in hand and be synergistic with one another to achieve an essential blend that is key to the success of any Laboratory.

REPRESENTING

As an executive, you are representing your Laboratory whenever or wherever you are. Therefore, it is essential to bear a few key points in mind:1. Be careful of the words you use. 2. Be mindful of what you wear. 3. Your behaviour and actions can say a lot about who you are too. 4. The places you visit could be damaging as well.

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By taking these points into account, and by being on your best behavior, it means that you do not need to worry about who is looking. You will be representing your Laboratory in a professional manner at all times and your business name will always precede you.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The main difference between responsibility and accountability is that responsibility can be shared while accountability cannot. Being accountable not only means being responsible for something but also ultimately being answerable for your actions. Also, accountability is something you hold a person to only after a task is done or not done. Responsibility can be before and/or after a task. For example, you may be responsible for stock control but become accountable (answerable) if supplies run out. Accountability in your business has to be created. It is a culture that has to be cultivated. Fortunately, there’s a simple acronym for doing so, SIMPLE. • Set expectations • Invite commitment • Measure progress • Provide feedback • Link to consequences • Evaluate effectiveness

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING

A strategic plan is a road map that describes how your Laboratory is going to get from A to B. It assists you in navigating your chosen route to success and keeps you heading in the right direction. Strategic planning is a management tool that focuses your team’s energy and attention on achieving the specific business objectives. It also helps to: • Grow your competitive advantage. • Communicate your strategy to your team. • Prioritise and direct your financial resources. • Provides motivation and direction to transpose your plan into action

STEER YOUR SHIP IN 2022

So, moving forwards into 2022, I will be exploring the evolving role of ‘The Executive Leader’ but most importantly, the value of great leadership. Leadership is crucial. It is the leader who steers the ship in any business. If the captain goes down, more often than not, the crew will as well!

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The Dental Technician Magazine December 2021

Articles inside

Classifieds

DTS 2022

Nicki Rowland: An Executive Role

Carestream Dental - only the best for your clients

Christmas in The Ol’ Lab Days. By Andy Sanson

2021 - My year in summary. By Ashley Byrne

Clarke Twin Block Construction Technique. By David Baldry, Atomic Dental Lab

From the archives

Exocad announces participation at the Greater New York Dental Meeting (Gnydm) 2021

2021 - What a year! By Andrea Johnson

Back with a Buzz - Yorkshire Dental Study Group

5 things I cannot work without! By Luke Dowle, Equipment Sales Advisor at Bracon Ltd

Steven Campbell, DLA President update

Welcome from the editor