U of T Mentors guide students in the business of dentistry

A new project sees DDS4 students visiting alumni private practices

By Diane Peters

Final year dental students have a lot on their plates, between finessing their clinical skills and passing board exams. But they also want to learn as much as they can about private practice before they finish school and start job hunting.

“Having a mentor is a good idea,” says Maneesh Gupta 0T0, a restorative dentistry instructor at the Faculty. “Fourth year students will be out in the workforce in just a few months, there’s a lot they need to know.”

A new project as part of the Practice Administration course is giving DDS4 students a mentorship experience that offers close look at how dentistry works on the ground.

James Posluns 9T1, 9T8 Dip Ortho, assistant professor, teaching stream and director of clinical affairs worked with the alumni office and others to develop and execute this new assignment over the past few months. It entails pairs of students being matched with 30 dentists working in the GTA, all of whom are U of T Dentistry alumni. Students visit the office for a few hours to see how things run and sit down with the dentist to ask them questions.

“Learning dentistry doesn’t prepare you to become a dentist,” says Shawn Monga 0T4, vice president of the Faculty of Dentistry Alumni Board and one of the mentors for the program. Managing employees, understanding finances, even dealing with leases is a part of private practice that it’s difficult to learn in school, he says.

Student Mark Asham visited Monga’s office in January with a classmate. He says the two learned a great deal, and that began by watching the team at work.

“We got to see the staff at the front desk interact with patients. They were very professional, very organized,” says Asham.

They observed Monga during a procedure and noted how he organized his day. “We got to see how important time management is,” he says. “He interacts so well with patients. He’s affable, but at the same time, he’s very concise.”

Monga carefully juggled patient time and communicating with staff, and everyone made sure there was good patient flow and information flow, too.

When the students had one-on-one time with Monga, they wanted to know if he recommended starting a practice, and if they needed further education via continuing education courses or a residency.

“It was good to ask someone these questions who is working in private practice right now,” says Asham.

For them, the experience was all about looking ahead, past university. “As dental students, we’re in a bubble. It’s up to us to fully translate everything we’ve learned.” The visit made them realize they’ll need to work faster in future and become more self-sufficient, says Asham, who hopes to work as an associate after graduation.

Monga has enjoyed being part of the project, which he thinks will support students in their transition from school to working dentists. “There’s a lot of gaps that need to be filled in an early dental career. The goal of the project is to put an emphasis on this and help students get their feet wet, so they know what’s coming up.”

Gupta says the project is “going great” and he’s personally hosted a number of student pairs in his office. “They’ve been really respectful of the process. They had some great questions.”

Almost all of them, he admits, asked if he was hiring.

Students are now doing presentations to their peers about what they’ve learned. As a result of this approach, everyone in the class will get a wide range of insights.

Gupta has found with himself and the other dentist-mentors more than willing to lend their expertise to the project. “Everyone wants to offer knowledge. We’ve gone through a lot of schooling and have a lot of experience. We want to be able to download some of what we’ve learned.”

Top photo by Jeff Comber