CAPT(R) ASST. PROFESSOR DR. HAIKAL BIN MUHAMAD HALIL
“Here with us today is Dr Haikal. He was the Immediate Past President of MES (Malaysian Endodontic Society). Thank you Dr for being here today to be interviewed. We’ll go with the first question. Dr, can you please briefly introduce yourself, so that the audience will know your background?”
Okay. My name is Haikal Halil. I’m currently a lecturer in International Islamic University Malaysia in the Restorative Department. I graduated from University of Malaya in 2006(undergrad) and as a postgraduate in Restorative Dentistry from University of Malaya in 2014. I’m married with 4 kids, married to a surgeon. I think that’s about it. I’m from Ipoh by the way and currently living in Kuantan with the whole family. My parents are in Kuching, Sarawak. I love football so much. I’m a Manchester United fan.
“Okay Dr, you have served the Malaysian Armed Forces. How did your journey start there and how was your experience working over there?”
Oh, okay. I graduated in 2006 and then my initial plan was to seek adventures and there was no other department that is more adventurous than army. So that is why I went for an interview in 2006, and they accepted me and I served them for a very short period of time, from 2006 to 2009. And you know being, one thing adventurous, I managed to go for few missions, helping people during floods, going to rural areas to help people and in 2008 after I got married that’s when the vision changed. I think because my wife wanted to do Oral Surgery, so someone had to sacrifice. So yeah. I looked for opportunities in the universities after that. The best experience was when I went to Somalia. Have you watched Captain Phillips? The real story of the pirates hijacking all the ships and vessels. Yeah, I was there for around 6 months for OPs Fajar. That’s the best experience. Basically my task is to take care of the oral hygiene of the team. We have around 250 army personnel for 6 months. That was a good experience for me.
“That’s a great experience Dr. So Dr, why did you decide to pursue in Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics instead of general dentistry?”
Actually I wanted to do Orthodontics. But the view has changed when I became a trainee in 2009 because Restorative is so fundamental and at that particular moment we don’t have enough specialists in UIA. And the Dean at that time was Major General Datuk Termizi and Major(R) Dr Akbar Sham Hussin, agreed to support my views on pursuing Restorative Dentistry and that’s when I started to explore Restorative Dentistry.
“Oh, that’s nice. Dr what are the challenges you faced in your dental journey as a student and currently right now?”
Haaa…This is a long story. No, the thing is I was once a failure. During my undergraduate, I struggled a lot. I didn’t understand things. You know I was playful. You know being boys or men, we are so playful and we are not focused, so I had a very hard time to really adapt dentistry into my life and of course like other people, dentistry is not our…, we don’t want to be a dentist. Normally, we want to be someone else. But you know, your parents, wanted you to be a doctor and all. That was my struggle as a student. And after I did my postgraduate, only then the context has been different, where you start to mature and see things differently and we men are known for late bloomers, that’s when I changed my view towards dentistry.
“So Dr, is it normal for a student to feel if they are going to make it or not?”
Yeah, that’s normal. That’s why you have to surround yourself with positive people. That’s normal. When you are around positive people, you will always want to do extra good and you want to have a good vibe.
“Dr, you have a beautiful clinic over here. How it all started and how was your experience opening this clinic?”
Business has always been in my blood. It runs in the family. Being a lecturer, we don’t have time to do clinicals. So in a way when we have a clinic, you force yourself to do clinicals in order for me to keep up with my skills. I joined few clinics before but this is my own. I started working in dental clinics since 2010 and they were my part-time. This is my own practice that I started 3 years ago and basically, the aim was to keep myself busy with clinicals and my personal view is when you have the skill or view a lot of patients, then your knowledge will be updated. Once you are updated, you can teach the students. It has to go concurrently, but no offense to the other lecturers. I’m not saying other lecturers are not good. It’s for me to keep up with the technologies and advancement of materials and therefore, I decided to open up this clinic. And my second objective was to help my students, my patients and my family. So, by having this clinic, I can help a lot of people.
“That’s very true. Dr, this is a burning question to many dental students here. How do we know that
Endodontics is the right field for us to pursue? Do you have any personal view about this?”
First of all, I don’t consider myself as an Endodontist because I’m trained as a Restorative dentist but I have a special interest to do Endodontics. I was trained in UM for a Restorative course where we do Endodontics, Prosthodontics, a bit of Implantology and a bit of Periodontics. I have a special interest towards Endodontics. To me, you don’t have to be a specialist to do Endodontics because all students are doing Endodontics in undergraduation. But you are a student, you can’t incorporate the knowledge into clinical practice. But if you want to pursue Endodontics, it’s definitely fine. But if you don’t have the opportunity to pursue your masters, you can still do endo because endo, it’s just routine. Daily we do Endodontics. Again, if you want to pursue Endodontics, you will get the opportunity to do a lot of more difficult cases like sclerotic canals, separated instruments, microsurgeries and apicectomy. So, I think Endodontics is so large and with recent advancements of pulpotomy, you know those area, you don’t have to be a specialist. You just have to be a good practitioner with so many short courses. During my time, we don’t have any courses. Again, Endodontics is related to Restorative and Operative Dentistry. We learn a lot about pulpal diagnosis as part of Restorative, Operative and also eventually Endodontics. So, you don’t have to be a specialist to know this. You are a student, you know all the pulpal and periapical diagnosis. Yea, if you want to pursue, it’s good. Just that, you do Endodontics any day. Alright?
“Okay Dr, that answers the question. Dentistry has been evolving with technology, advancements and ongoing researches. So as dental students and also dentists, we have to keep updated with the current updates. Can you share with us any new knowledge, you feel students should know now?”
I think there are two areas that students might need to know. Number 1 the resin composites. There are so many composite adhesives that are coming out, resin ceramics, more to esthetic areas, students need to keep updated and the other area is digital dentistry. The students need to know how they go about because it’s emerging. For like myself, I like esthetic dentistry as well, not as good, but okay. I can do. But if you want to be a good clinician in future, from what I predict in 10 years time, digital dentistry or esthetic dentistry would be the major thing. In my practice, I have incorporated digital plus conventional because digital is too expensive as not many patients can afford it. So, I still incorporate conventional, I would call it a hybrid approach.
“Okay Dr. Besides having a clinic, you are also a lecturer in IIUM. What made you pursue in academics?”
Like I told you, I was once a failure. Uhm… my approach is slightly different. Why? I always like to help the ‘‘failures’’. You understand what I mean? I always like to help those who think that they are not good and not ready for dentistry. I’d like to share my experience because I was once a failure. So, that’s why of course, and also, my wife being a major role as for me being a lecturer. I was very inferior, thinking that I don’t know anything, my skill is not good. So being a lecturer in UIA, it’s my main target to help those students who feel that they are not good. Basically, that is my vision. Good students read their books and pass definitely but the ones who are 50-50, who are not confident, feeling inferior, I will definitely push my limit to help them.
“How do you define success Dr?”
To me, I always tell my students success is very subjective but for me, success is when you can control your attitude, your manners. When you have good manners, you will be successful any way. That is for me. I remember that because, I was once a failure because I couldn’t control my manners. So, I will go anywhere, everywhere, I was always a failure. But during my postgrad, I controlled my attitude by becoming more responsible and I was matured enough to think of the consequences. Then, I could see my pathway going straight unlike before. I think that’s my definition of success.