The Secret Dentist – we are unique, you are unique

This month the Secret Dentist reflects on the events of 2023 and asks whether you're ready to be a positive influence in 2023.

This month The Secret Dentist reflects on the events of 2023 and asks whether you’re ready to be a positive influence in 2023.

As we come to the end of another year, it is perhaps time to reflect on the past, the present and the future.

The last few years have exposed the whole world to events that the majority of us have never experienced before and never imagined they would experience.

Covid-19 has turned the world upside down and it will take a lifetime for it to fade from memory. Its effects will be with us for that lifetime.

Evil is out there

There is a continuing belief that the pursuit of wealth/money, at any cost, is acceptable. Just because somebody is wealthy, it doesn’t make their thought processes, ideas, views or actions correct.

Social media ‘influence’ appears, at times, to have a very negative impact on human nature. This impact appears to be rising exponentially.

War in Europe. Perhaps we in the UK have been living a too cushy life recently!

Wars/conflicts were always ‘somewhere else’, mainly far away and didn’t really affect us. The war in Ukraine is different, much closer to home and has had a major impact on our lives.

Wars in general serve to highlight evil in the animal kingdom, of which we humans are part. Evil, and evil people, is out there. As has been said before, evil will flourish if good is silent.

In the UK we are facing massive fiscal/monetary pressures that seemed unreal and unimaginable just a few years ago.

What will 2023 bring?

That’s the past… and here we are coming to the end of 2022. What will 2023, the future, bring for you, your family, your friends and your colleagues?

I would like you to reflect for a moment about your/our influence in general.

I have always said that healthcare is a unique business and dentistry, within healthcare, is even more unique. If you work within any aspect of clinical dentistry, you can and will influence, on average, over 1,000 people next year.

As a rule, our regular visitors/patients respect who we are and our opinions. They put trust in us. We calm their fears (or try to).

Remember that there probably isn’t a person alive on this planet who doesn’t at some point – and however briefly – have a slight feeling of dread when they are about to have an appointment with us.

Our whole attitude, demeanour, welcome and conversation can have a positive influence on those 1,000+ patients.

If we multiply that by the number of us working in patient-facing dentistry, our positive presence and attitude can influence millions upon millions.

Be a positive influence

So, I would ask you to look at yourself and those around you and ask you to ask the question of yourself: ‘Am I ready, willing and able to be a positive influence next year?”. This is not for your own financial or personal gain, but for the world in general.

If you are not ready, then perhaps those around you are the wrong people or are influencing you in the wrong direction.

No matter how low some of us think we are regarded out there in the big bad world, just remember your influence on your 1,000+ patients.

We are unique, you are unique. Use it positively for 2023.

Catch up on the Secret Dentist’s previous columns

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