Endodontic treatment will always be one of dentistry’s most challenging procedures. But my mission, with cases that aren’t too complex, is to help colleagues feel confident to carry out root canal treatment themselves. With this in mind, I helped develop Dentsply’s WaveOne and more recently WaveOne Gold single file systems for use in reciprocation. The file system allows nearly 80% of cases to be treated with just one shaping file. That’s real simplicity and I am proud to say that my goal has been achieved.
Now all that’s needed is to train potential users.
One of the benefits of being a developer is that to promote a new file system like WaveOne Gold, I get to travel around the world. For instance, I recently had the pleasure of travelling through Asia to give lectures and hands-on demonstrations at universities and conferences in Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand. It was an amazing trip.
Over the course of 10 days, I gave 9 lectures and 9 hands-on sessions, including sessions called ‘Train the Trainers’. The aim of these sessions was to pass the baton onto leading professionals in each country, so that they could then provide WaveOne Gold training to their colleagues. It was an honour to work with some highly competent dentists and endodontists, and I was most humbled by the fact that there wasn’t a single occasion where a translator was needed or provided. I could deliver every single lecture and training session in English. What a way to make me feel welcome!
Another thing I found incredibly striking was the delegates’ desire for learning and their keen interest in everything I had to tell them about the development of endodontic technology. The standard of endodontics in Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea is of a very high standard and none of the students, dentists or endodontists I met during my trip, failed to impress me. Speaking of high standards, the film crew that was with me throughout my tour caught a brilliant scene on camera – a little girl in Taiwan being taught by her endodontist mother how to use WaveOne Gold. It really was video gold!