Standards travel further
when you teach them.
I teach dental photography, treatment planning and case presentation, and clinical communication, in person in the South West and London, and remotely to dentists around the world. I also mentor colleagues one to one.
The best argument against hoarding what you know
Teaching keeps you honest. You cannot stand in front of a room of sceptical clinicians and defend a decision unless you understand it properly yourself, and the questions delegates ask are routinely better than the ones I would have thought to ask. Every course I run makes me a slightly better dentist on the Monday afterwards.
There is a less abstract reason too. The standard of care a patient receives should not depend on which door they happen to walk through, and the fastest way to raise that standard across a region is to teach it rather than keep it. A dentist I spend a day with will treat several thousand patients over a career. That is a better return than anything I can do alone in one surgery.
And there is a personal one. I got where I am by finding people who were better than me and standing next to them until some of it transferred. Doing the same for someone else is simply how the debt gets paid.
What I teach
Programmes & platforms
Private Dental Mentor
Photography educatorI am on the clinical faculty of Private Dental Mentor, where I deliver the hands-on Dental Photography Training course at their Somerset training headquarters and on the programme's London teaching days. PDM is a twelve-month mentored pathway for associates moving into private practice, and the photography module runs both as part of that programme and as a standalone day.
RipeGlobal
EducatorI am an educator with RipeGlobal, the international virtual dental education platform built around simulation kits, live mentorship and case discussion rather than lecture theatres. Its students and educators span dozens of countries, which means the dentists I work with in a given week might be in Perth, Toronto or Lagos as easily as Bristol.
University of Bristol
Former examiner, MSc Dental ImplantologyFor three years I examined on the bone grafting and augmentation module of the University of Bristol's MSc in Dental Implantology, the same Master's I completed myself. Examining is an underrated education: you learn a great deal about how a technique is genuinely understood by marking a hundred people explaining it.
Protrusive Guidance
Remote mentoringRemote mentoring through Protrusive Guidance, Jaz Gulati's education platform and community. Useful for clinicians who want a considered second opinion on a plan, or ongoing support between courses, without needing to be in the same building as me.
In practice
One-to-one mentoringThe least visible and possibly most useful of the lot. I mentor dentists I work alongside, and take on colleagues elsewhere who want structured support as they move into implant or aesthetic work, planning their early cases with them, being on the end of the phone for the ones that get complicated, and reviewing outcomes honestly afterwards.
Where I teach
I have taught dental photography to foundation and general dentists every year since 2016, for Health Education England, Gensmile Academy and Private Dental Mentor, and by travelling to practices directly. I mentor on the international RipeGlobal platform, have examined on the bone grafting and augmentation module of the University of Bristol's MSc in Dental Implantology, and mentor colleagues one to one.
Earlier teaching includes hosting the British Dental Association South West Young Dentist Group conference twice, presenting a clinical case at the European Conservative Dentistry Conference, and running tutorials in photography, composites and case presentation for foundation dentists.
Writing
A Reflection on Communication, first published by Dental Protection. Read it here →
I wrote this at the point of qualifying, about a periodontal patient in my second year at King's who spoke little English, had a long history of failed attendances, and by every clinical measure should not have improved. He did. What changed was not the scaling, it was the conversation.
The piece sets out the practical habits that came out of that: introducing yourself properly, asking the patient to tell you why they are really there, summarising rather than repeating, checking understanding without sounding condescending, and closing an appointment by making sure the person in the chair actually leaves with what matters. More than a decade on, it is still how I run a consultation, and it is the foundation of what I teach about case presentation. Good communication is not a soft skill sitting alongside the clinical work. It is the part that decides whether the clinical work ever gets accepted, understood, or maintained.
Working with me one to one
Courses are useful. What changes a clinician's practice is usually what happens in the months afterwards, when the case in front of them does not look like the one on the slide.
Mentoring can be structured around whatever is actually holding you back, planning your first implant cases, building a photographic protocol that survives a full list, learning to present larger treatment plans without flinching, or simply having someone experienced look over a difficult case before you commit to it. It works in person in the South West and remotely elsewhere.
Study clubs, courses and conferences
If you run a study club, a training programme or a practice team that would benefit from a session on photography, planning or communication, I am happy to discuss it. Sessions can be built to the time you have, an evening, a half day, or a full hands-on day.