The slang Dr. Ali Afshar uses to describe his dental repertoire is "tacklebox", and his tacklebox includes implant surgery, restoration, and treatment planning. He uses both free-hand and guided surgeries, which is a skill he thinks many lose in dental schools that promote only guided surgeries. If you only learn guided surgery, you may be missing out on the technical knowledge needed to help your patients plan out their treatment and healing processes.
Dental students are graduating school and immediately want to become implant dentists without fully understanding the precision that goes into this practice and the healing that is necessary after implant surgery, and Dr. Afshar sees a lot of rehabs and complicated cases of implants that need to be repaired or completely taken out and redone. For him, the biggest weakness in our industry is diagnostics and treatment planning.
This is where his tacklebox comes in handy. Knowing how to perform surgery is one thing but understanding the human body and its ability to heal can help you better understand your role as a dentist in this healing process. Every patient is different, and sometimes they aren't all going to fit neatly into your guided procedure or surgery.
That's why Dr. Afshar created Peer Education In Dentistry. It is a program that provides professional mentorship to fellow dentists in Canada looking for hands-on training to build their own tackle boxes of skills. Dr. Afshar runs a referral-only dental practice in Alberta, Canada, which has different marketing laws than in the US. This makes referrals the best-case scenario when it comes to promoting his practice. He relies on implant surgery and focuses on chair-side efficiency to attract new patients through word-of-mouth referrals.
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