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Impressing the Perfect Smile W/ Dr. Rupert Monkhouse
24 Plays10 months ago
In this episode, Tanya Sue interviews Rupert Monkhouse, a general dentist with a passion for removable prosthodontics. Rupert shares his journey in dentistry, from his education in London to his current practice in Reading. He discusses the unique aspects of dental education in the UK, including the mandatory foundation year in the National Health Service (NHS). Rupert also highlights the importance of mentorship and continuous learning in his field. He explains how he has honed his skills in removable prosthodontics through social media, online resources, and collaborations with other dental professionals. The conversation delves into the intricacies of denture impressions and the key factors that contribute to successful denture retention. Rupert also provides insights into his upcoming plans to specialize in prosthodontics and expand his expertise in implant dentistry.
About the Guest:
Rupert is a general dentist based in London, UK. He has a particular interest in removable prosthodontics and shares his cases on Instagram @dentistRupert on this platform he also hosts the ImpressionClub Live podcast and edits a monthly newsletter available through his website. Rupert has a passion for education and runs a primary impression course in the UK with more launching soon. He also sits on committees for both the International Team for Implantology and The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
Key Takeaways:
- Dental education in the UK allows students to enter dental school straight from high school, with a five-year undergraduate program.
- The foundation year in the NHS provides structured training and mentorship for new dentists, allowing them to gain experience in different areas of dentistry.
- Rupert emphasizes the importance of mentorship and continuous learning in dentistry, particularly in niche areas like removable prosthodontics.
- Social media platforms, such as Instagram, have played a significant role in Rupert's professional development, allowing him to connect with other dental professionals and learn from their experiences.
- Successful denture retention relies on capturing accurate impressions, understanding the functional prosthetic envelope, and considering the muscle action on the flanges.
Connect with Rupert Monkhouse on IG: @dentistrupert
Check out his website: ImpressionClub
Connect with New Dentists on the Block: @newdentistsontheblock
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Full video on Youtube
Swing by Peyruis | https://soundcloud.com/peyruis Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to New Dentists on the Block, a podcast featuring new dentists sharing their experiences in the world of dentistry. Successes, challenges, and life in between, navigating dentistry together one experience at a time. We are back with another guest, Dr. Rupert Munkhouse. Rupert is a general dentist based in London.
00:00:23
Speaker
and has a particular interest in removable prosthodontics and shares his cases on Instagram at Dentist Rupert. He also hosts the Impression Club live podcast on Instagram.
Comparing Dental Education: UK vs. US
00:00:35
Speaker
In this episode, we compare dental education in the UK and United States and how he has honed his skills in removable prost. Rupert has a ton of knowledge and has a passion in sharing that knowledge. Let's tune in. Rupert Moncows, welcome to New Dennis on the Block. How are you doing today?
00:00:52
Speaker
Good, thank you. Thank you for inviting me on. Excited to have a bit of a chat today. Yes, me too. I'm so excited to have you on as a guest and to meet you in person. I'm obviously a fan. I follow you on Instagram and all the cool things are doing, which is how we all meet, I guess now. Absolutely. But Rupert, I would love if you would tell me and our listeners a little bit more about yourself and what you do in the realm of dentistry.
00:01:16
Speaker
Sure thing. So yeah, my name's Rupert, Rupert Munk, as you said, or if you're following online, social media and things, dentist Rupert. I'm a general dentist, living in London, and I work in a place called Reading, which is about half hour, 45 minutes away from London, in a private practice, which is mostly a sort of specialist referral practice. But we have sort of four or five of us generalists as well. And we will have our little
00:01:42
Speaker
little niches and the bit that I enjoy the most is removable prosthodontics, as you'll see and know if you follow me online. I do a lot of general dentistry, but I'm lucky in the place that we're at that I don't have to do endo anymore, I don't have to do perio, so I can just sort of niche in on the bits that I like doing, which is mostly the removable stuff and a bit more of wider pros as well.
Journey Through UK Dental Education
00:02:10
Speaker
Rupert, I would love if you would tell us a little bit about what the education looks like in London to get into dental school and what dental school looks like moving forward. Sure. Obviously, I think the biggest difference for us compared to you guys is we can go straight in as an undergraduate at 18, where you guys have got to do four years before, three years before. Yes. Sort of, yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, our younger dentists are younger than your younger dentists, because we start a little bit early. And we have to do, we can do five years straight from the age of 18 after leaving school or college or whatever you guys call it. So we can go straight in at that point. So we generally can come out at 23. So we're actually a fair bit younger. I think the new guys would be, what, 27 or something? Probably the other 6.7, give or take. Yep.
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, people still do another degree before and do a shorter course, but I think that's going to be the main difference. Maybe you guys have got a bit more perspective and things when you start start out here a bit further down the line than we are. But we do five years at university, and then we have something in the NHS, the National Health Service, a foundation year, a training year, essentially, where you get sort of allocated somewhere around the country to do your year of sort of mentored training, sort of structured, you have
00:03:28
Speaker
people in your area. I got shipped up to the northeast to a lovely place called Hull, which has a not so nice reputation, but I'm absolutely fantastic time up there. I wouldn't change it for the world. But you know, for me, it was great. We had a laboratory on site. So I was
00:03:45
Speaker
hanging out with a clinical technician all the time. And we had a sedation contract as well. So people in the area, all of the Northeast of Yorkshire who needed sedation because they're anxious, they got referred there. And then if they didn't have immediate dentures, I'd make some. So I think in the year I made about 60 pairs or something. So I got a lot of experience there. So that helped me to really push on my passion for removable, which came from
00:04:12
Speaker
third year of undergrad when we started I just had a really good teacher and you know you're one of those teachers that's just really enthusiastic and you just get sort of dragged along with it and you can't help but enjoy the subject so went from there and then yeah the practice I'm in now I work with a phenomenal prosthodontist implant prosthodontist and yeah it just it's just sort of fell into the right places to keep working with that with that passion.
00:04:37
Speaker
With the NHS, is this kind of like service in an underserved area?
NHS Foundation Year Experience
00:04:41
Speaker
Is it more of a residency type kind of thing or what would you say that is like really?
00:04:49
Speaker
So you have to do that initial year if you want to work in the NHS in any capacity. So if you want to just have a contract here, it's probably a little bit crazy for you guys. You have a contract here to do a certain amount of units of treatment. A checkup is a unit. If you do a filling, it's three units. If you do 20 fillings in a root canal and perio, it's still three units.
00:05:15
Speaker
So you just pay for the most expensive thing and you get paid for the most expensive thing. So if you want to work in that clearly very appetizing system that I've just sold to you there, you have to go and do this training. But it's a nice structured year. You've got by sort of the whole program, you've got a mentor in the practice all the time to help you and do tutorials and you meet up with 20 of the local other ones in the 50 mile radius every week and do a
00:05:44
Speaker
a study day kind of thing. So it's a really nice way to do that very first year as a proper new dentist to sort of get your feet under the table a little bit. All graduates go through that.
00:05:57
Speaker
pretty much unless you go straight into private practice which unless mummy and daddy own it probably isn't gonna probably isn't gonna happen realistically i mean i started in my all private practice that i'm in now about two months after finishing that one year period um but that was literally like alternate saturday's
00:06:18
Speaker
kind of thing. And my five and a half other days a week, I was working in a fully NHS practice in London. So, you know, it takes that time to develop your skills, develop your soft skills and clinical skills to get into that environment. So, yeah, it's quite a different system to you guys, which is essentially all sort of private or sort of hospital based, I guess.
00:06:38
Speaker
Yeah, you have a kind of your say of where you want to go and what you want to go into. But it sounds like they place you in a program. You don't have a whole lot of say of the area you'll be in.
00:06:49
Speaker
you do you do a when you're in your final year, I think it's about the November time of the final year with the term finishing in sort of May, June, you do a sort of interview with situational judgment tests, you know, ranking the most appropriate, most inappropriate, and then you get a national rank, and then you rank
00:07:11
Speaker
all of the areas, the 50 areas of the country. And if you're number one, you get your first choice. And if you're number two, you get your first choice unless someone else has taken it and so forth. I didn't do very well. I ranked about 70 and 50th out of 900. So that's why I got shipped up to the Northeast where no one else wanted to go, apparently.
00:07:30
Speaker
But, you know, it sort of pushed me out of my comfort zone a bit and say, I fell into a perfect scenario for me and I made some great friends I still talk to and yeah, I wouldn't change it, wouldn't change it at all. What a cool experience. I think that, you know, like you said, it pushed you out of your comfort zone and I mean, anyone can do anything for a year. So that's pretty cool. I think that's a unique setup that you all have.
00:07:54
Speaker
pop away for a bit, but we're a lot smaller country than you guys. If you guys got shipped halfway across your country, a bit more upheaval.
00:08:03
Speaker
It was two hours on a train steal from London, so it wasn't that bad. Oh, yeah, that's not bad
Mentorship and Influencers in Dentistry
00:08:07
Speaker
at all. Oh, that's not bad. I want to backtrack to what you were saying about having a mentor in dental school who was passionate and good at removable and how they instilled that to you to kind of pick up those skills. What was that like for you in dental school to kind of learn about removable and continue to learn that after, you know, you graduated dental school?
00:08:29
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, I just love dentistry over. I know I said earlier, I haven't done a root canal and I'm happy about it. But in third year, I had that great tutor in removable and loved it. And he, I think, taught me very well whether it is because we have similar communication styles or whatever. So it sort of goes in better or what. But then in fourth year, I didn't like my removable teacher as much. And it sort of went down the pecking order. But then I had a great perio tutor. And then I love perio. And I thought I was going to do perio kind of thing.
00:08:58
Speaker
So I'm very much one of those. I like deep dive into like one thing and sort of go down the rabbit hole. And then fifth year, it was sort of more wider restorative and Endo came into it and that kind of thing. And in my early years in practice, I really enjoyed Endo as well. But it always came back round to the pros and particularly the removal, which is obviously seen as more of a niche thing. It's the dark art or whatever it is. The dark art.
00:09:28
Speaker
I think, you know, just with this tutor, he was just really, I think he just taught it in a really good way, the basics. And I say it with when I teach my courses, or in the posts that I do, or videos that I do, or whatever it is.
00:09:45
Speaker
I think actually it's not that difficult. I think maybe we over stress it to ourselves. But I think if you can really knuckle into the real core little basics of it, at least for me, I feel I can then work out the more complicated cases and just always sort of strip away all the extra stuff that you're stressing about, which is probably true with a lot of dentistry.
00:10:05
Speaker
just narrowing or nailing the basics and then actually you can work out the rest of it. And I think that's what he really taught me to sort of see the bigger picture of it.
00:10:17
Speaker
Very cool, I'm a removable fan so I work in public health and obviously I do a lot of removable, lots of extractions, lots of removable and I agree I think that there are a lot of basics that kind of carry through a lot of different cases and it's those complicated cases that take a little bit more work but the basics, the foundation kind of can carry you through those complicated cases at least at first. But what I really love that you share and something that I continue to learn is you have a lot of like pearls and tidbits
00:10:46
Speaker
that you've picked up probably from your practice that really, I mean, can really, really make a difference. And I think, you know, not having somebody here, I think if you don't have that mentor, it's hard to pick up those pearls. So I would love to know how you've picked up a lot of those removable pearls along the way and what has helped you.
Social Media as a Learning Tool
00:11:04
Speaker
I mean, a big one is social media, and that's obviously how we've connected here. I think we're so fortunate as young dentists, as new dentists,
00:11:18
Speaker
I still count as your new dentist category. I'm six years old, so that's good. I forgot to say that I graduated in 2017. I think for us at the start of our career, when we're very social media savvy as well and things like that, it's just commonplace that you're going to learn stuff from it. I think so much of it is from that and you just see something
00:11:43
Speaker
and give it a try and see something else and try and reverse engineer it and impression technique or whatever. So a lot of it's come from social media and I think if we utilize that correctly as a new dentist, I think it's a really powerful tool. I talk about it a fair bit on my channel with various guests as well that it's a double edged sword and we've got to be a bit careful with it. And then just, yeah, lots of YouTube, lots of
00:12:07
Speaker
random articles and things like that. I'm not the best like, I'm the worst quota of papers and things like that. Don't ever ask me for a reference. It's in there somewhere. I sort of read it somewhere and I gave it a go and it worked and I've been doing it for two years now and it still works, but I couldn't tell you where I first read it two years ago kind of thing.
00:12:25
Speaker
So I just take a little bit from everywhere, and I've been fortunate with the contacts I've made with my podcast and things like that, particularly in the UK at least. I've got really good connections now with some of the best removable guys out there, and a few guys over in the States as well, and a few in Australia and things. And then it's just messaging people that's sending a picture and saying, what do you think of this, and discussing it.
00:12:54
Speaker
So we're running a primary impression course here in the UK. And we've got a group with all the delegates that have been on. And it's 60-odd people in that group now. And every day, someone's sending a message in. And we're all sort of going in and saying, we'll try this next time. We'll try that. And I think just having that wider network really, really helps with it, even if you're not literally going in every day trying to get something out of it. You don't necessarily realize how much you're taking in from just seeing these bits around wherever it is.
00:13:24
Speaker
Did you ever have an interest of maybe going back to school and studying to specialise in PROS?
Future Specialization Plans
00:13:29
Speaker
I am in September, yeah. You are? Oh, that's wonderful. Look at that. That's cool. What got you there, obviously, other than being passionate about removable? So I applied last year as well. I wanted to do it for a little while. I just love the subject and want to learn a bit more.
00:13:50
Speaker
Because of how I have learned the subject so far of, like we said, just sort of picking up little bits here and there, you learn a lot but then you've not necessarily got the breadth of the knowledge.
00:14:04
Speaker
And I think it's true as well with our postgraduate education that we do, you go and do that composite course and then maybe you do that occlusion bit and that veneer bit and then an endo course or whatever it is. And you look at a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit here, but then you don't get that full comprehensive bit because you're just picking and choosing. So I think the idea of getting that forced
00:14:29
Speaker
teaching of everything was the main driver. But also in the practice that I'm at, I say my boss and mentor there is an implant prosthodontist and he wants to be doing more and more surgery and less and less restoring. So it's the next step doing
00:14:47
Speaker
from removable is doing, you know, for large implant prosthesis. So the plan, I wanted to get that get that basis. He's done the Mclindent as we have it here. I'm not sure what you guys have in terms of the specialist. The Mclindent, he did it 20 years ago. And it just seemed like the next progression to be able to then step up to that to that level.
00:15:11
Speaker
Well, to answer your question, we don't, we don't technically have a specialty in implant dentistry. We have, um, you know, peri, peri, yeah. Prost and perio is pretty much all we really have. We don't, we don't hear either. Oh, okay. Uh, what does, uh, prost residency look like for you all?
00:15:26
Speaker
So it's a or the bit I'm doing is a four year four year course three days a week in the hospital and the university. You can do it three days a week, three, sorry, for three years, five days a week, so full time. But that's generally just for international students to get to get it done quicker. So yeah, so from September, I'll be doing two days in the practice, three days in the hospital.
00:15:53
Speaker
And you do. That's pretty cool. It allows you that flexibility to still work and to learn at the same time. Is it only only full-time option in the States? Yeah, pretty much. Yes, pretty much. It's a full-time option. I think it's I think it's three years full-time. And that was it for me. It just wasn't feasible to be able to do a full-time one. Yeah, it's hard. Absolutely. So I'm looking forward to that in September time.
00:16:19
Speaker
Ooh, I look forward to seeing the content that you produce based on kind of your experiences and stuff. Take us along on the journey. Behind the scenes in the lab for hours and hours on end. Yes, of course.
Evolution of 'Impression Club' Podcast
00:16:33
Speaker
Speaking of producing content, I would love if you talk a little bit about your podcast and Impression Club and the lives that you do on Instagram, which are really great with the different guests that you have. Yeah, sure.
00:16:47
Speaker
The whole thing's a complete accident that worked out well and just kept it going. I mean, the impression club start is a bit of a joke hashtag between like,
00:16:58
Speaker
two or three of people that I studied with and someone just put our hashtag impression club. We sort of tag each other in stories and someone put impression club and I was like, I'm stealing that, that's really good. So shout out to Sana, thanks Sana Sadiq. Yeah, so I nicked that offer and just sort of went with it and sort of Instagram for me and you really started in sort of 2020, just sort of after COVID lockdown kind of thing. Before that I was just doing it
00:17:27
Speaker
just to look at people's work. I made a separate account because I realised when I was in my NHS practice, seeing 40 patients a day, not feeling like I was doing anything. I was like, I don't want to see these really good Instagram dentists doing beautiful dentistry that I can't do because I'm only two years graduated, but also because I'm not in the place that facilitates me doing that. So
00:17:51
Speaker
I made my dentist Rupert account to be able to just switch it off. If I want to go look at some teeth, I will. If I don't, I like photography and stuff. I'll go and look at all my landscape photographer friends from around the world or whatever. So that's why I started the social media and then
00:18:07
Speaker
I never, I didn't post anything for about two years on it, I don't think, and just slowly start showing stuff and then impression club happened. And then it all went a bit nuts with like one video that was a suction fit lower denture. And it got like 75,000 different people saw it or something crazy. For me at the time when I had like 800 followers, it was pretty nuts. And then within two months of that, it was like 5,000, 6,000. It was just going sort of up and up. And then
00:18:35
Speaker
The reason the podcast started was, again, by accident, because I was then getting lots and lots of messages all the time about pros, which is great. I love interacting with people like that. It's cool you meet some cool people, but it very quickly dawned on me that I was getting asked the same like four questions.
00:18:52
Speaker
over and over and over again. And I was like, as much as I'm enjoying this, it's getting a little bit tedious now. So I spoke to my technician at the time, Ricardo, who was in the very first episode. And I said, let's just pick like five of our patients. And let's just do a video at a time.
00:19:10
Speaker
where we will just discuss the whole case, start to finish. And we'll pick them so that it's got a complete denture, a partial denture, a chrome denture, a bilateral free and saddle, and a fibrous ridge, or an immediate denture, or something like that. And then I can just be like, hi, yeah, thanks. Go and watch video number three. That's right, yeah. Refer to. Refer to 12 minutes and 48 seconds into this video. So that was the plan. And then the very first one on
00:19:39
Speaker
on sort of communication, actually, like dentists, clinician, dentist, technician, communication, and then a bunch of people, and it was awful, please, anyone listen to this, do not go back and watch it, because it's just horrendous. I think I'm on like episode like 107 or something now, and it's a lot more polished than the first few, it was dreadful. So don't go and watch that episode, it was good though.
00:20:02
Speaker
But a few people wrote back and thought, oh, that was really good. You should do it something else. And there was a British dentist that you guys saw check out called Allen Bergen, the Cornish dentist from Cornwall. And he was like, oh, that was really good. You should do it on something else. And I was like, okay, do you want to do one then? Because he was like a much bigger accountant than me at this time. And he was like, yeah, right. That'd be really fun. I was like, oh, okay.
00:20:25
Speaker
And then that was it and then I had it we did on gothic arch tracing and it just sort of went from there and then it went from me trying to get out of sending dms to Yeah, a hundred hundred plus episodes people from all over the uk and i've had from america and holland and australia and new zealand and all sorts of stuff india um, so yeah, so it's just it just sort of came out of
00:20:51
Speaker
out of nowhere, really. But I love doing it. And yeah, it's the same as yourself. It's great to just have these conversations, meet these people. You get so much more out of it than you realize, I think, as well. Oh, for sure. Just a happy mistake, really.
00:21:06
Speaker
I got to say they have become more polished. I don't think I saw the first one, but I saw some of the earlier ones because they're around this time, which is great because it's lunchtime for me here. I've tuned in on a few and I saw a few recently that were on your page and they're really nice. I mean, they're very different than where you first started. I feel like it's more polished, like you said, more refined, which is really, really cool.
00:21:38
Speaker
I had a guy on the other the other week who had been on I don't know episode like 20 or something and he said it within like five minutes like
00:21:47
Speaker
just on the thing. It's just so much, so much thicker than it was before. I've done like 100 since my last old man. It does. You've put your 10,000 hours in. I've done that. I nearly have to be fair. I reckon it wasn't far off. Surely, surely. You mentioned something, and I think I saw the video, but and I've seen other videos as well, but that section on that lower denture.
Deep Dive into Removable Prosthodontics
00:22:09
Speaker
Tell us about that technique.
00:22:12
Speaker
It's a bit of luck, to be fair. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. But I think the key thing with lower suction is, yeah, a bit of luck, but then just trying to get that functional impression right. So I think the main thing I said, we've run a primary impression course just a whole day on primary impressions. And when we first put it together, we're like, this is absolutely nuts. There's no way we can do
00:22:41
Speaker
a one day course on primary impressions. And yet every time we do it, it gets to 530 and people have still got loads to do and they want to keep going. And we're like, no, you've got to, you've got to go home because I want to go home. And, you know, it's amazing how, how actually like new ones, even just that it is. But, you know, we go on at that appointment or that course about really overextending that impression.
00:23:04
Speaker
and making it far bigger than your denture will actually be to find all of the right landmarks. So I say on the course, I say, well, the primary impression is like your picture frame. All you care about is that outside border. Don't worry about any of the detail in the middle. You're going to paint your picture with your secondary impression. That's the detail. That's the important bit. But I think the issue then comes is that people talk about rolled borders and all of this.
00:23:32
Speaker
and the big fat borders, and then they think that's what they need in their secondary impression, which isn't the case. If you're replicating your primary impression, big roll borders in your secondary, it's going to be overextended. It's going to be outside that functional, so-called space.
00:23:50
Speaker
and you're not gonna get any suction or if you do it will last for about two seconds until the patient says oh and then they'll push it out so it's appreciating what you're looking for in the primary impression versus the secondary but if you get that good first impression so that you can see all the landmarks or your technician can.
00:24:06
Speaker
one that the good ones that you want to get for the lowers you know we want to get into that lingual space we want to make sure we get right back to the retromolar pads that you can compress onto and get a nice broad base as well over the buckle shelves like the stabilizers on a bike if you can capture all those things and then find the bad stuff as well where the tongue is where the renal attachments are then your technician can make sure your tray is away from that
00:24:31
Speaker
and then getting a nice thin-bordered secondary impression that's then accurate is not overextended because then it's going to exist within the functional space that there is.
00:24:45
Speaker
There's a post on my page really, really, really far down of like an inverted lower ridge. There's literally no height at all. But that had suction because it was operating within this functional prosthetic envelope. So if you sort of play by those rules and then have a little bit of luck on the side and a good technician that finishes it all up properly, then you're absolutely fine. I've lost you like an old school VCR. That was exciting. Yes. Throwing it back. Throwing it back.
00:25:14
Speaker
It's just existing in that correct space.
00:25:19
Speaker
Uh, I, you know, I love dentistry because it's such an art, but the way that you just explained dentures, you made them look, you made them sound phenomenal, but it is really, I mean, it's more than just, it's the accent. Yes, absolutely. But it's more than just, you know, slabbing material and taking an impression. It's kind of looking for those landmarks and treating the tissue appropriately to capture what you need, uh, to allow your technician to kind of.
00:25:47
Speaker
help you build a product that is successful for your patient. Yeah, absolutely. And it's when, you know, it's, I was, I made the joke on the course of, I remember back in third year and that great tutor Andreas was coming over and, you know, you can check your impression. I'm staring, I'm like, I haven't got a clue what I'm looking at here. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's any good. And actually, that's some of the biggest feedback from our courses. People go, actually, I know what I'm actually looking at and looking for now.
00:26:11
Speaker
And even if I was capturing it before, I didn't even know that I was capturing it before. And if I wasn't, I wasn't aware that I wasn't capturing it. So it's knowing what to look for and nailing that anatomy. And I've got I've got posts about that. And then when you get to the secondary is make sure you capture it. But then I think the biggest thing is looking at the outside of the impression tray.
00:26:29
Speaker
because we obsess with the fitting surface, right? But actually those flanges and the outer surface of the tray wrapping around is actually technically an impression of what your flange should be like. And that's why it's got to be nice and thin and skinny. If essentially you look, you hold your impression upwards like my pictures and then tilt it away from you.
00:26:49
Speaker
you should be able to look at that, and it should look like the top of the denture. If it doesn't, then it's too big, it's too thick, and then your technician's guessing where that cheek is going to be. So I think that's the really underrated bit, is we always focus on that fitting surface, but we forget the flange. And we always get told about the way we get retention of tuberostes and whatever, but we always forget about the muscle action on the flanges. And actually, I think that's the biggest thing, really.
00:27:17
Speaker
If it's decent, it's going to hold in there. But the real successful denture wearers are those that are able to control it with their cheeks and their tongue and things like that. That's how you actually get the success. So don't ever forget about that part. And of course, that's where saying that experienced denture wearers
00:27:38
Speaker
that's a bit we overlook as well, actually, is that sometimes I've had patients come in and I go, Oh, this is going to be a home run, because they're lower dentures, this tiny thing, it's literally floating around and the patient's like, Oh, no, I just want you to fix my top one. Yeah, they love it. And you're like, how? But they're, you know, they're, they're an expert, they're an expert denture wearer. And sometimes we forget about that side of it as well.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. I think that patients getting accustomed to it and really, you know, shaping it to be their own, um, goes a long way as well to patient selection. I would say is also part of it. Um, at least from, from my experiences, but muscles are very strong, you know, muscles can dislodge a denture very easily. So you got to incorporate them, bringing, bring them into your workflow when you're building a denture, because they can make or break you in my opinion as well. Absolutely. Well, Rupert, when are you going to drop that online course?
00:28:33
Speaker
We get asked about it all the time. I don't know, it's difficult because the impression course that we do, it's a whole day, but we probably spend no more than an hour of that day actually with a keynote on the screen.
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's talk for a bit straight into the clinic, and we're doing impressions on each other, have a coffee, come back, talk for a little bit more, go and do another type of impression on each other. And then the afternoon, it's his 10 scenarios of edentulous and partials on your models. This is how we would do it. This is how we do it. If you're doing it with compound, off you go for two hours kind of thing. Yeah, there's very little sort of context. I think how can we give that same if we can give the same value that we give with the in person course online, then
00:29:22
Speaker
I don't think you can, but if we can get something that's not awful, then you'll be the first to know, don't worry. Oh, I will for sure be there. I will be part of that course for sure. Well, before we wrap up, I would love to know what you do for fun in London and what life is like out there.
Life Beyond Dentistry: Hobbies and Socializing
00:29:41
Speaker
It's a bit expensive at the moment. The UK is all over the place. But I like doing a bit of photography. That's my sort of hobby. I've been a bit lazy with it lately because I've been doing too much photography of plastic teeth instead. But yeah, that's a bit of photography and just sort of, I mean, London's are just a great city just to be sort of hanging out in and
00:30:08
Speaker
weirdly hanging out with just a lot of dentists. That's the thing with social media dentists, you just find loads of you around and you just hang out with them all the time.
00:30:14
Speaker
Which is great fun. It's not a bad thing at all. Again, you're learning so much there. But yeah, when I'm not taking pictures of teeth, I like to be taking pictures of some landmarks or some landscapes, or trying to get a bit of travel in and off to South Korea in September, just before I start the course for a little break. I'll try and tie in with an America trip just to run a course, maybe. That could be the... Yes, please do. Maybe that'll be... I've been... Yes.
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah. I've been, I've been speaking to a couple of people about it. So maybe, maybe it's the thing, maybe it's okay. All right. Well, we'll have to tune in and hopefully it won't be too far and I can pay a visit or something that would, that would be really cool. That'd be great. Rupert. Well, I appreciate you so much for taking time out of your day to speak with me and our listeners. And if our listeners would like to connect with you, what's the best way?
Connecting on Social Media and Podcasts
00:31:04
Speaker
Best way, social media, Instagram. I had threads for about three minutes and got bored of it, so just go for Instagram. At Dentist Rupert is the best way. If you want to check out the podcasts, they're available on, I think, every major podcast platform, the Impression Club Live podcast.
00:31:22
Speaker
and my website impressionclub.co.uk as well. It's got information about courses and things. And if we do an online course, that's where you would find it. But it's also got links to some of the older episodes as well. But yeah, drop me a DM, slide them to those DMs. I'd love to chat to some of you.
00:31:40
Speaker
Instagram University is so real and your pages, in my opinion, one that I gain true value from. I highly encourage our listeners to go check it out, especially if you're interested in removable dentures and getting better in that skill. It's a lot of fun, I would say.
00:31:56
Speaker
If you're not interested in removable dentures, well done for hanging around for 30 minutes and don't go on my page because it's only dentures apart from the podcast episodes. That's right. If you don't mind dentures, stick to the middle column with everyone else's faces on that isn't mine and they're probably not talking about dentures there. Oh, very good. That's great. I love that. Rupert, thank you so much for your time today. Pleasure. Enjoy the rest of your day. Hope you enjoy the rest of your lunch. Thank you.
00:32:22
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into this episode of New Dentists on the Block. If you'd like to connect with Dr. Rupert Monckhouse, you can find him on Instagram, at Dentist Rupert. Be sure to tune into his podcast, Impression Club Live, and check out his newsletter on his website, impressionclub.co.uk. If you would like to connect with New Dentists on the Block, you can find us on Instagram, at New Dentists on the Block.
00:32:44
Speaker
If you have a new dentist that you would like to recommend for the podcast, be sure to send an Instagram message to at-new-dentists-on-the-block. And don't forget, you can connect with me on Instagram at tsmyestas.dds. We'll catch you next time.