CATEGORY 46 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST The Training Model built around the patient in front of you For thirteen years, the Advanced Dentistry Institute has paired every dentist with their own specialist mentor. As the institute expands into new disciplines and locations in 2027, that model remains at its centre. Most training programs follow a familiar arc. Demand grows, cohorts get bigger, and the format bends toward whatever is easiest to deliver to a full room. The Advanced Dentistry Institute has grown differently. Over thirteen years it has added disciplines, mentors and locations, while keeping the model that brought dentists to it in the first place: one general dentist, one mentor and real patients. That model grew out of a problem Dr Yohan Thomas saw again and again. A Specialist Prosthodontist in private practice in Adelaide, he spent more than a decade mentoring dental students before founding the Advanced Dentistry Institute in 2013. The dentists he met had sound knowledge, but few had placed an implant or completed a surgical extraction with someone experienced beside them. “Most general dentists I meet don’t lack ability,” Dr Thomas says. “What they lack is the experience of doing a procedure properly, with a specialist guiding them, before they’re expected to do it alone in their own surgery. Without that, capable dentists refer work they could be doing, simply because they’ve never had the chance to build confidence in it.” The courses are designed to close that gap. Each dentist is paired with a mentor in the discipline being taught, so surgical extractions are mentored by an oral surgeon and rotary endodontics by an endodontist. Treatment is carried out on patients who have been medically and dentally screened by the institute’s university partner, with cases matched to each participant’s experience. When a course ends, patient care continues with the university’s postgraduate students. The mentoring continues once dentists are home, too. Participants join mentorship sessions and case discussions, and where it’s useful, Dr Thomas spends time with them in their own practice. Sally Lumber, the institute’s Course Coordinator, sees the groundwork that goes in before anyone picks up a handpiece. “By the time a dentist flies to India for their clinical week, they’ve already done preparation in Australia and they know what they’ll be treating,” she says. “We look after the travel and logistics so they can give their full attention to the patient. A lot of dentists tell us it’s the first time they’ve been able to focus completely on learning.” What 2027 brings Next year, clinical courses will run in February, April and August, giving dentists the opportunity to plan training around their practice and family commitments. The Advanced Dentistry Institute will also extend its mentored model into facial aesthetics. Before then, the implant restorative course will be held in Canberra and Auckland this November. Dr Thomas is clear that this growth is built on the same foundations. “Every new course has to meet the same conditions as the ones we’ve run for thirteen years,” he says. “That means small groups, a mentor beside every dentist and patients who have been properly assessed. If we can’t guarantee those things, we don’t run the course.” For dentists, that consistency creates a clear pathway. Someone placing their first implants can progress toward more complex cases over time, with the same standard of mentorship at every stage. Those whose interests extend into endodontics, oral surgery or, from next year, facial aesthetics will find the same structure waiting for them. It also means joining a growing network. Many past participants stay in touch long after their course, sharing cases, raising clinical questions and, in time, returning for the next step. “I learn as much from our dentists as they learn from us,” Dr Thomas says. “Learning is a two-way street, and a lot of how our courses have developed has come from those conversations.” Thirteen years on, the Advanced Dentistry Institute still judges its courses by what dentists go home and do in their own surgeries, and 2027 will be measured the same way. u To find out more about 2027 course dates, visit advanceddentistryinstitute.com.au or call 1300 949 697. EVENTS
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