DR. LEE SOON BOON
“So Dr, throughout your career, you have been to many countries such as the US, UK or India and to be the visiting professors or even studied in some of them. Do you think any of these countries provide an upper hand in terms of exposure to the latest technology?”
In my opinion, I think the accessibility to new knowledge and new technologies is quite flattened. In other words, all countries, including Malaysia, have full access to this technology, knowledge, and updates on dentistry.
Nowadays, we call it the information technology era or the internet era, whereby information moves very fast. So whatever has been discovered or invented in certain countries can rapidly be transferred or shared with different parts of the world. It is just a matter of the dentists or probably the organizations or the association of their respective countries to take the initiative to facilitate this transfer of knowledge and technology to their respective professions in the country.
“Now, let us talk about Malaysia, Malaysia is also offering postgraduate courses. Do you think these postgraduate courses offered in Malaysia are as competent as the ones that are offered overseas such as maybe in the UK or the US? “
Yes, certainly, because we look into the contents of the curriculum. Besides the knowledge, we also look into the intensity of the clinical training. If you have these two components, that is half the number of hours required, as well as the coverage, the wide coverage of the curriculum, I am sure the quality is equally good.
“Dr, I have read a lot about you online, and you are a respectable individual who is even a pioneer in implant dentistry. Can you share with us your journey in terms of digitalizing dental implants in Malaysia?”
Oh, I have been practicing implant dentistry for the last probably about 20 years. I started practicing dentistry about 23 years ago in 1989. As for implant dentistry, I started probably about 20 years ago. At that time, there was no availability of digital technology such as CBCT for example. I started practicing implant dentistry before the arrival of CBCT in Malaysia. So, from then onwards when this digital technology like CBCT, intraoral scanner, 3D printers came in, it allowed me to look into the ability of this digital technology to improve my treatment, planning, predictability, and also increase surgical safety for the patient. When I realized that all these things can help me in terms of my clinical practice I will not hesitate to travel overseas to acquire this knowledge as far as to undergo training overseas and take this technology into my practice to benefit my patients.
“You can agree that digital dentistry is getting more popular nowadays, right? Has any organization in Malaysia or the government implemented any schemes or efforts to digitalize the profession?”
In terms of incentive, I don't think so, it is more of a personal level. Of course, you also get these associations, the dental associations that will maybe become more proactive in inviting more speakers organizing more kinds of seminars and conferences that will have this type of digital implant dentistry or digital dentistry as in general, as a main topic to serve as a trigger or stimulate more interest among the general dentists or the specialists in Malaysia to learn about this new trend of digital dentistry as well as to acquire the skill through some type of workshop or training, probably to excite them to travel overseas to acquire this skill and knowledge.
“Okay. Now, despite the advancement of technology, we dentists so far cannot escape simple procedures such as restorations or extractions for our patients, right? Do you see these technologies replacing us dentists one day?”
If we are talking about robotics where automated, automatic autonomous dentistry, I don't think it will come so fast. As far as my era is concerned, it will not come before I retire. But as far as the technology being used, or being employed by the dentist or the specialist is already available here. But some groups of dentists are still behind in terms of adopting this technology. So, those who are already into this digital implant dentistry or digital technologies in dentistry in their clinical practice, should encourage, motivate and also share the common knowledge and skill with our younger colleagues or with those who still have not jumped into this bandwagon to facilitate the whole profession moving towards to higher level of adopting this digital talent, which definitely will benefit patients, the quality of treatment and the dental profession as a whole.
“So Dr, what you meant is that all these technologies that can replace us with all these simple procedures are already available, just that the dentists are not adopting them yet.”
It is not replacing the dentists. It's just that it is available for the dentist to use it to embrace, employ or use this technology to improve the quality of the treatment to their patients to increase the safety of the treatment reduce the risk and make their treatment planning more predictable and to make the treatment more comfortable with higher quality than you can offer for the patients. As far as replacing dentists, if we are talking about some cargo machines or robots that are going to replace dentists I don't think it will come soon. Definitely not in my generation, probably not even in your generation.
“So, doctor, can we agree that implants are costly compared to other treatments?If the patients are reluctant to go for implants, even though they are the most suitable choice of treatment, how do you convince such patients to accept?”
Yes, it is expensive. Of course, anything that is new and technological-driven is more expensive. Just like the iPhone is more expensive than the old Motorola and analog phones. So we certainly cannot only look at the costs as a deterrent to acquiring this technology. Because as far as I'm concerned, anything that benefits the patient should be adopted. Because at the end of the day as a clinician, as a responsible clinician, who cares for your patients, you should use it right, of course, it involves a little bit of investment, or I won't call it a cost. It's more of an investment that can give you a better return in terms of patient safety and predictably improve the quality of treatment and patient comfort. The final results will be more aesthetic, more functional and more predictable. Adopting this decision will probably improve in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
Well, we have to make them understand in layman's terms and make them feel that if we care for them, which is very important, they will obtain many benefits compared to other treatments. For example, if you do implants, compared to removable partial dentures, then the bone can be maintained instead of being resorbed. By the time they find that their dentures are too loose, and can't be salvaged anymore, then they have no choice but to go for the implant option, then that time the treatment will be more complex, where they don't have enough bone, then the implant will require some major kind of bone grafting and the costs will increase. So in short, it will be the earlier the better as the patient still has sufficient bone right, rather than losing and then coming back later, then you want to lose a lot of time and also the discomfort of the denture while the bone will be gone. So in short it is like “Penny wise pound foolish”.
“As we know, five years in our curriculum may not be enough? So what is the advice that you can give to a dental student who wishes to aspire to learn and improve their knowledge beyond what is taught in the curriculum?”
Yeah, obviously, in five years the lectures and all the teachers in the universities lay a strong foundation for you, right as for you to move towards a higher level where you can do more complex restorations or Prosthodontics work or even dental implants, as one of the option for your reconstruction or rehabilitation or complex for your patients. So you need to undergo training or take some powerful, comprehensive course that allows you to have the skill and knowledge to practice this thing and other areas as well. Whatever you learn in dental school is just the foundation, then you need to build on these foundations to go higher, to be more skillful, and to be more knowledgeable so that you can treat bigger varieties of conditions.
“So Dr, you mean like the student themself, they should be proactive to look for courses that they are interested in, to improve their knowledge?”
Yeah, Absolutely. That is the motivating driving sight for the students who aspire to be able to practice wider scopes of dentistry in general, all right, even as simple as some restorative works, that you may learn it, but you may not be able to practice it in dental school, then when you are in private practice or a specialist practice, you will encounter these patients who require this treatment, then you have the skill and knowledge, then you can help them. Right? So that is one important thing, of course. Secondly, I think the winds of change that are growing strongly among experts, particularly in Malaysia, is that we know that the number of young dentists or general dentists populations is increasing, due to those competitions, you need to be able to do a wider variety of treatment options that the patient may need. So if you are only able to do certain small sections of dentistry, then you will find that it is too competitive for you in terms of your practice.