Prakash Promod, the clinical director at Alban City Dental and Surgical Centre, opens up about his experience working within the NHS and his passion for tackling dental waiting lists.
My name is Prakash Promod. I started out as a dentist in India, qualifying in 2000, and came to the UK in 2003 to work in different maxillofacial surgery units around the country.
I also completed a medical degree at Barts as well and underwent surgical training in general surgery, orthopaedics and plastic surgery.
Now, I’ve come full circle and do mostly dental implants, a little bit of cosmetic dermatology as well as skin cancer reconstruction.
You spent 20 years in the NHS maxillofacial services. How was this?
In the NHS hospital services, which I was part of, I think there’s always been a lot of strain on the services. There’s always been a lot of referrals that we just can’t see on time.
That backlog got a lot worse with COVID-19. One of the things I do remember from when I was on the frontlines during the pandemic was that we were literally seeing people come in with toothache.
It was just really, really sad to see the impact of the pandemic on the dental profession and the country. But we’re in the aftermath now so hopefully it is a time to rebuild and do great things going forward.
Do you do NHS work now? What would you say to those feeling disheartened?
The new practices we’ve set up are basically surgical centres for doing dental implants, oral surgery, as well as dermatology.
We’re offering hospital level care to the heart of the community in St Albans. But we are also in talks with local teaching hospitals to help provide surgical services to help bring down the waiting lists they have.
I think with the backlogs they have, we’re hoping we’ll soon be able to help bring down the NHS waiting lists for surgical procedures, as well as scanning facilities. We’ve got one of the best CT scanners on the market, which is often only seen in some of the big teaching hospitals in central London.
This also means that some of the patients that have to go to central London to get the scans can actually come to our clinic.
What’s the story behind this passion for collaboration?
I think it’s the journey I’ve been on – I’ve trained with some amazing people. I’ve had some amazing opportunities to really expand my horizons and expand my abilities. It’s really great to have had those connections but also feels great to be able to give back.
I learned skin flaps from plastic surgeons and bone grafts from orthopaedic surgeons – the ability to be able to bring this back to dentistry and have had these collaborative experiences with those people, is something that really inspires me.
I’ve always felt it’d be fantastic if we had everything under one roof and didn’t have any compromises in terms of what equipment we have and what facilities we have.
How’s it been so far? What would your advice be for others wanting to pursue something similar?
That’s the million dollar question. As with everything, this is a journey. It’s probably been the better part of a year just setting up the place.
We’re now open and it’s excellent. It’s hopefully one of those things that will be a defining thing for us in years to come.
My advice would be to invest in yourself. Find out what you love doing and focus on that with all your heart. Spend your life, your energy, your career just focusing in getting further towards whatever goal you may have.
If you want to be a surgeon, work with the best surgeons. You don’t learn these things on a weekend course – you’ve got to work with good surgeons and you’ve got to get feedback. Do things again and again to the point where it becomes second nature.
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