Young Dentist winner Sorabh Patel shares his story of self-reflection, mentorship and the importance of staying on the right path – both figuratively and literally.
How did you get into dentistry?
I’ve wanted to be a dentist since I was 16 years old. I didn’t get into dentistry the first time around, so I ended up doing a three-year degree in dental materials at Queen Mary. I hated it at the time – now, I look back and it was probably the best thing I ever did in my life!
After I graduated from that, I got into King’s and did my BDS. I graduated in 2018, completed my vocational training in 2019, worked as an associate for just over a year, and then I had the opportunity to partner with Dental Beauty and take on two practices in 2021.
You won the Best Young Dentist London category at the Dentistry Awards last year. How has that impacted your career?
It’s always nice to be recognised, and it was crazy to know that I’d won. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the ceremony, but halfway through the night, I started getting messages from people congratulating me. I looked at the notifications and realised I’d won!
The biggest reason for entering was to inspire my associates. I see the work they do, and I see how they are with my patients. They are nothing short of incredible, and I think every single one has it within them to win multiple awards. I also wanted to show people that it doesn’t matter where you’re practising.
We have a mixed practice in south east London and knew we were up against some of the big private practices – but if you’ve got good protocols, the right ethos, and you’re looking after your patients with honesty and transparency and doing good quality work, then you can win these things.
What advice would you give to other young dentists looking to progress in their careers?
There are three things that are non-negotiable for me, which I think every foundation training (FT) dentist should do. Within the first three years of graduating, buy a camera, buy loupes and enrol in a year-long postgraduate course.
A longer course will teach you a comprehensive way of doing dentistry. You have time to implement what you’ve learned and get advice and mentoring on the way. Some might argue you’re meant to get that in your FT year, but not all FT practices are the same. (Not all educational supervisors should be educational supervisors, to be honest!)
Your FT year is for you to focus on the basics and get them right, but it’s not going to allow you to grow and excel. You need loupes – if you can’t see what you’re doing, how are you ever going to get better? And you need a camera. The biggest reason for my success was because I reflected critically on all my work when I looked back at my photos. I took photos of everything – exams, fillings, preps, lab work, all of it.
Self-reflection
At one point, I was comparing my work and got really down in the dumps. I kept asking myself why my preps didn’t look like the ones I was seeing on Instagram. Eventually, I reframed the question. Instead of asking why my work didn’t look as good as everyone else’s, I started asking what they were doing, and how I could make my work look like that. I took a day off, bought £500 worth of fake teeth (which was interesting for my accountant) and sat in the clinic and prepped.
I prepped 10 teeth, then photographed and scanned them all to see what I needed to improve. Then I prepped the next set of 10 to see if I’d made those improvements. It was a long, laborious process, but now I’m quite good at prepping.
Self-reflection is going to be the thing that separates you from the pack. Everyone talks about it, but very few people actually do it. Most people just want to jump straight to the big stuff – but instead, get so good at the foundations that you’re unshakeable. Then stack your skills on top of that.
What role does mentorship play in that self-reflection?
I can only reflect on my own experiences, but I never had a singular mentor. I talked about this with one of my personal tutors, and he said to me: ‘You know what you’re looking for and what it is that you want mentorship in. So why don’t you take little bits from every single person?’
And I agree: you don’t have to find one person that has it all. Having a mentor is useful, but finding the right mentor is not easy. Take the best parts of lots of people – you can learn something from everyone. I’ve learned more dentistry from dental nurses and locums than some of my clinical tutors.
I’ve also learned a lot from Instagram, though when I say ‘learned’, it’s not a case of seeing a post and then trying it out. Rather, I’ve connected with the dentist to ask: ‘Hey, what was your thought process? What was your planning? What was your workflow? Do you have any evidence for this?’ Then I’ve gone and researched it for myself. Don’t just copy and paste what you see. That’s dangerous: it means you haven’t understood the concept, and you haven’t understood what to do if things go wrong.
What is the biggest challenge that you’ve had to overcome?
When I told people I was going to become a partner with Dental Beauty and become a principal with two practices, everyone said the same thing: ‘You’re too young, you don’t know what you’re doing.’ However, I knew I was going to have incredible mentorship from the other partners; that I would have someone to teach me how to be a principal, a good leader, and a problem solver.
Overcoming impostor syndrome was a big challenge – but when I really reflected on things, I realised I am meant to be here. I’m aware of where I need to grow and what my weaknesses are, so being self-aware has helped me overcome that.
You recently went on quite the adventure – the Himalayan Rickshaw Run. Can you share more about this trip?
It’s something that my friends from Queen Mary and I have always wanted to do. I haven’t been to India since I was eight years old, and whenever I did, we’d always go to the villages where my parents were born. I wanted to see the ‘real’ India – not the tourist spots – and get back in touch with my heritage. Life is for living. You can’t spend your whole life surrounded by the same four walls: there’s a whole world out there to explore.
We were very lucky we didn’t have any major issues. There was a scary moment for us – we needed to get out of the mountains within four days because of monsoon and landslides, but when you’re 5,000 metres up in the in the Himalayas, rickshaws aren’t exactly the most reliable vehicles!
We were driving up a mountain pass when we met a huge truck coming the other way and had to veer off the road to let it through. There was a giant glacier on one side and a thousand-foot sheer drop on the other, and the back wheel of our rickshaw was hanging off the cliff – we had to jump out and pull the rickshaw back before it could dip. That was quite a moment!
What comes next?
I tend to reset my goals every five years. I’m now starting a journey in implant restoration and being mentored through that, which is fantastic.
One of my goals is to teach: I’m working on a communication course at the moment. There are a few out there, but they don’t necessarily address all the challenges that young dentists face. I think there’s a gap in the market for that, so I want to fill that role to help empower and educate young associates. The course I’m planning is called Resonate, because it allows you to resonate with your patients and connect with them, but also to resonate with your peers and to learn from a collective experience.
I’m very fortunate that I’ve managed to achieve most of the goals that I wanted to achieve to this point, and now I get to do things because I enjoy them, not because I need to make a living. I’m very blessed – and very grateful.
This article first appeared in Dentistry magazine.
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