Yes when someone shows that they have certain level of education in an area it is normally a good indication of knowledge but not necessarily experience or ability to the job well. Many post graduate degrees are more of an exercise in writing essays in critical appraisal of research rather than valuable clinical skills. At the end of the day it's that actually skill and being able to deliver the result I want that I am more interested in.
So as I interview for other dentists and specialists (ie endodontist, periodontist, orthodontist etc) to work along us, I am more interested in their ability to communicate with patients, their ability to work in a team and examples of their work.
For example the photo attached to this blog shows a patient who attended one of the highest rated Invisalign providers in Oxfordshire. Now the patient originally seeing that dentist may think that because they are seeing someone that has a title because they do a lot of cases means that they are going to get a quality result. Nope! High volume normally equates to some decrease in quality in dentistry.
You can see on removal of the attachments the provider has cut away and scarred the enamel of the patients teeth. Once damaged you can never get this enamel back! Also it leads to more staining and sensitivity. The only thing I could do for this patient is provide a microscopic polishing which the patient was really happy with.
Now I am not here to name and shame other clinicians as we all have cases we are not the proudest of or could have done better with. My only aim of this article is to advise people to really look carefully into the experience and previous result of the dentist they are considering and not be enticed by fancy titles or a low price.
I don't care what anyone says... quality takes time and skill and those things do not often come at the lowest price.
Thomas