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Friday 26 March 2010

Back to the realities of work.

Just reached the end of a pretty busy week in work. Dentistry has been enjoyable, it has been great repairing, restoring and building new smiles for my patients. I've managed to fit some high quality laboratory work and I've been pleased with the results I've achieved.


My biggest gripe is the end of year chase for UDA's. Three years ago a new contract was introduced into NHS dentistry, we agreed to provide a certain number of UDAs each year for twelve equal payments from our NHS masters. Working with this contract for three years now I can see that it is pretty much unworkable, with all the advantages being given to the government, fortunately we tend to see only children under the NHS but the impact of the contract is still significant. Unfortunately due to various factors that have occurred over the year it appears that I will fall short on my performance target again. Its not that I have done anything different in terms of treatment planning, I possibly have missed more work-time this year due to the cancellations of my operation, I think in all this has equated to 3.5 weeks. Also the turn of the year was affected by adverse weather and we probably had a higher number of cancellations and failures due to the weather. My shortfall is equivalent to just under a month of work, I wonder when our annual review occurs whether our local PCT will make any allowances for these factors. To be honest probably not.


On a more positive note, I have several interesting cases  in the pipeline, I will try to document these both in words and pictures and if the patients are willing, to display the results here.


So roll on the weekend, hopefully the weather will improve.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

The weekend gone and the week ahead!

I enjoyed a restful weekend after a busy week in work. Sunday brought us a stunning day and I spent the day with Rebecca, Barney and the family on a long walk from Budleigh to Otterton Mill and back. It was the first truly spring like day of the year, the sun was out and it was pleasantly warm.We had lunch at Otterton Mill , lunch was brilliant the menu was good and the food was filling and just what we needed after a three mile walk.


By the time we walked back to the cars we had almost walked six miles, I was impressed Barney made it around the circuit, he enjoyed himself out in the sun but he knackered by the time we got home. He hasn't even woken me up the last two mornings!


For all of Barney's fans out there here is a picture of him with his Mummy and our niece.









The week back at Spicer Road has been busy, seeing my patients has been a pleasure and some patients have presented with some complex problems that need repairing. I'm looking forward to solving these problems and repairing the smiles for these patients. I also had the chance to review one of my smile makeover cases today and my patient was still overjoyed with the results that we achieved. Two years in and the result still looks great. I really enjoy this kind of dental work, I just wish I could do it more often. It is really satisfying when you can get great results like this.



Tuesday 16 March 2010

Rugby and Birthdays

Last weekend I visited my family in Wales. I had an excellent drive to Cardiff, the roads were quiet and traffic reasonably light. It was the first time I'd visited my family back home in about a month.

Saturday afternoon, Dad and I settled down to watch the 6 Nations rugby. Unfortunately Wales lost to Ireland. A foolish sin binning in the first half left Wales without Lee Byrne for 10 minutes gifting Ireland the chance to open up an unassailable lead. Once again I felt the game lacked excitement, with territorial kicking dominating. This is my one great criticism of rugby this season, the amount of kicking bores me, and large passages of play pass with both teams playing aerial tennis. I don't remember rugby being like this in the past, the 6 Nations used to be a big event in my Winter Sport's calendar, it may be dropping down my list of must watch sports.

The main reason though for the trip to Wales was to celebrate my Dad's 75th birthday and my niece Zoe's forth birthday. Our family went out for a meal and they both celebrated with a joint party. We all had a wonderful evening! Many happy returns to both my Dad and Zoe!!


Monday 8 March 2010

A weekend walk.

Another weekend gone. Anyway, yesterday I took advantage of a glorious day and went for a long walk in Topsham with Barney our puppy. The sun was out, it was beautifully clear if a little cold. So I thought I'd take a chance and publish some photos I took. It was a great chance to take some photos with my digital SLR and do a little bit of editing with aperture.


Hope you like these.









Spring has so far been beautiful if a little cold!

Newer pictures of Barney!

Took these a couple of weeks ago. Our puppy is growing up!



Thursday 4 March 2010

Another week, another month.

March has arrived already, the year is flying past? I must stop and take chance to catch up on things soon or everything is going to pass me by!


Dentistry at Spicer Road has been busy but rewarding this week. After a busy start on Monday, Tuesday was a bit slack caused by some late cancellations but as the week progressed work got busier. I have some interesting work scheduled for the next few weeks and am looking forward to creating some great smiles for my patients.


I must sing the praises of a couple of products that I use regularly. First up my Carl Zeiss loupes and vorascope lights.  I purchased my loupes about four years ago from Nuview, initially I appreciated the magnification I got using loupes but occasionally my vision was worsened by lack of light. As magnification increases you need to get additional light. Two years ago I bought a voroscope light, this has transformed the experience of using loupes for me. The light is directed along my line of vision and the level of detail I can see using the loupes is amazing. Second, my experience when carrying out endodontics or root canal treatment has been transformed by using the protaper system, this system supplied by Dentsply has transformed the way I carry out endodontic treatment, and is a simple and logical system to use.


Tomorrow I'm away on a course with the Devon Independent Practitioners Group, looking forward to spending the day learning and networking with like minded colleagues.


Final though, just thought I'd post a picture of some beautiful Devon Scenery.