‘We all feel connected’ – Global Dental Collective brought the dental profession together to discuss and debate important topics in dentistry at its end of summer boat party.
Hackney Wick played host to the inaugural Global Dental Collective in September.
The event gathered an audience to debate wide-ranging topics impacting those working in the profession.
Delegates in attendance were able to put forward their questions to panellists who gave their take on current dental affairs.
‘Myself, Mehy and Bruno, we met up and they had visions of doing something much better within the dental community,’ Joe Lovett, co-founder of the Global Dental Collective, said.
‘I do a programme every year called Fast Tracking Your Future, and there were a lot of reoccurring topics that kept creeping back up that we didn’t feel were being addressed and talked about.
‘Dental media does a great job covering these topics, but we wanted to do something completely different, get people together and discussing.
‘But also to have an interactive element from the audience. Hence why we have the voting element and where they can ask the audience as well.
‘We want to create a little more community and discussion with each other. I think we all need to do more as a community to get together and do a little more lobbying.
‘One of the interesting elements raised was, we don’t talk about a lot of aspects in university, why aren’t we talking about it?’
Shedding the light
Panellists were carefully selected due to their backgrounds in the different topics discussed during the evening.
Topics covered included:
- Mental health in dentistry
- The use of social media in dentistry
- Sustainable environmental measures.
The audience was asked to vote on various different questions throughout the night to give their take, too.
‘It’s been really interesting,’ Inderjit Singh, Cathedral Dental practice owner, said. ‘It’s a totally different concept to what normal courses are like.
‘And it’s interesting hearing different points of view, there’s different topics – it’s really useful stuff. They’re topics that should be addressed more.
‘We’re shedding light on things that are really important.’
Connecting the profession
Shaz Memon, Dentistry’s Marketing Expert, was an attendee at the event. He said: ‘The room has an electric vibe! We all feel connected – a safe place for a community of forward-thinking dental professionals.
‘Seeing so many young faces participating in deep and meaningful discussions is incredible. Everyone here can agree that we haven’t seen a gathering of this kind before.
‘The dental profession, especially the future leaders in dentistry, cares deeply about positive mental health and sustainability within dentistry.
‘There is an evident concern and desire for change, and I feel that after seeing the Global Dental Collective’s poll results in the evening, change is needed – and there will be change.’
Nina Farmer was on the panel for the evening, taking part in the environmental debate. ‘I’ve loved every minute of it,’ she said. ‘It’s really nice to see all different people in the profession.
‘I’m here flying the dental therapist flag. Just to see the level of support and the conversations has been really amazing.
‘I have actually just changed the way that I work just by going down the rabbit hole of being ready to talk about sustainability. If somebody who listened to me today changed the way that they work for the better, then my mission is complete.
‘The main thing I learned was how passionate people are about mental health and how needed these conversations are.’
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