It’s been a little while since I managed a Sunday blog post, over a year to be honest! I used to like doing them and it was great to keep my subscribers up to date with the goings-on at the practice. Both of them have kindly asked me to start again so here goes.
My main stumbling block at the minute is the time commitment on a Sunday. Our kids are all at the parent = taxi driver age now so Raashi and I are constantly shuffling back and forward to all the clubs. I’m looking forward to the tables turning on that, when they become our taxi drivers in a few (8) years.
Although I think back to the times when this handover happened for my mum and those were stressful times for the both of us: “slow down, don’t break so hard, slow down, you’re really close to that kerb, slow down” . I used to tell her she could only continue to be a passenger if she closed her eyes when I was driving. I’ve got 8 years to figure out if I’ll need to borrow her blindfold or not. Surely the cars will all be driving themselves by then anyway?
It’s actually crazy how fast technology is going atm. As a kid, driverless cars were something I thought I would only ever see on ‘The Jetsons’ (what a programme btw, shout out to all the late 80’s kids). But here we are and Mr Musk & co are working on that becoming the norm, taking away yet another job (sorry, taxi drivers). If it’s any consolation, I don’t think you’re alone – there doesn’t seem to be anything AI can’t do atm. The thought of my mum in a driverless car does tickle me right enough…I can just imagine the AI pulling over, getting out and saying “no chance love, you may get a human driver”.
The tech we have at the practice now too is insane. I’ve always been keen to invest in new tech, as it makes our job easier and more enjoyable, but it’s also proving to be much more comfortable and accurate, providing a better result for our patients. We now have the facility to make crowns, bridges, retainers, whitening trays, implant crowns & more; all in house on 3d printers and milling machines. Not only that, all of this can be done on the same day, normally within an hour or 2, while our patients wait. This used to take 2 weeks and involve temporary teeth and multiple appointments.
Thankfully, the machines haven’t made our dental technician colleagues redundant just yet either. We still rely on their skills and expertise massively. If anything, the digital tech has changed how we work together and opened up even more possibilities for what we can achieve.
But who knows, the speed at which it’s all going, maybe these machines will be able to do everything themselves and us dentists, nurses & dental technicians will just have to join the taxi drivers on the dole. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, we could spend our days going for nice walks (like the one we managed this morning up Conic hill with the kids) while cursing the Ai that stole our jobs:
It dawned on me today that at 6, 7 & 9 years old, my kids have all overtaken me in both fitness and stamina. I genuinely couldn’t keep up with any of them climbing up that hill today. I doubt that pendulum will ever swing back in my favour now! Surely chat gpt can make me some abs?
Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!
Take care and thanks for reading
Joe
BDS MFDS RCPS MSc (Implantology)
Tiwari Watson Dental Care
