CATEGORY AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST111 Dr Shahana Abed is a reconstructive and aesthetic dentist, educator and Head of Mentorship at Smile On Clinics. Her Beyond Clinical column explores the neuroscience, psychology, communication and human factors behind the way we practice dentistry. Instead of “I’m terrible at presenting treatment”, try: “Treatment presentation is a skill I am actively developing.” Instead of “I’m not an implant dentist”, try: “I’m developing competence in implant dentistry case by case, with appropriate education, case selection and mentorship.” That isn’t pretending. It isn’t manifestation. And it isn’t positive thinking dressed up as neuroscience. It is simply leaving enough psychological room for new evidence to change your model of yourself. Stop outsourcing your confidence There is one final part of confidence that I think becomes increasingly important as we progress through our careers. At some point, we have to stop requiring the outside world to constantly tell us that we’re good enough. Patients will say no. Colleagues will disagree with us. Cases will fail. People will criticise us. Someone will always know more than we do. If our confidence depends entirely on external confirmation, it will remain incredibly fragile. That doesn’t mean becoming closed to feedback. Quite the opposite. The more secure your self-worth becomes, the easier feedback is to hear. You no longer need every piece of feedback to confirm that you’re good. You can simply ask: Is there something useful here? Take what improves you. Learn. Adjust. Continue. So where does confidence actually come from? Not from waiting. And not from repeatedly telling yourself that you’re confident. It comes from competence. Preparation. Repetition. Feedback. Keeping promises to yourself. Learning to tolerate discomfort. Recovering from things that don’t go perfectly. Challenging identities that are no longer supported by evidence. And gradually accumulating enough experiences that when your brain asks, “Can I handle this?”, there is a substantial body of evidence that answers: “I’ve handled difficult things before. I know how to prepare. I know when to ask for help. I know how to learn. And if something doesn’t go perfectly, I know what to do next.” That, to me, is confidence. Not certainty. Not arrogance. Not the absence of fear. Self-trust backed by evidence. So perhaps the question for clinicians isn’t, “How do I become more confident?” Perhaps it is: “What evidence am I giving myself every day about the clinician I am becoming?” Choose one thing. One case you’ve been avoiding. One skill you need to practise. One treatment plan that deserves more thought. One conversation you need to have. One promise you have made yourself professionally. And keep it. Then do it again. Because eventually, something quite extraordinary happens. The thing you once looked at and thought, “I don’t know if I can do that,” becomes the thing somebody else asks you to teach them. Confidence isn’t found. It’s built. u BEYOND CLINICAL Messe Reps. Pty. Ltd. · +61 427353536 · robert@messereps.com · english.ids-cologne.de LEADING DENTAL BUSINESS SUMMIT inclusive IDSconnect 42nd International Dental Show 16–20 MARCH 2027 COLOGNE, GERMANY
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