BDS (Syd Uni) FICD FPFA FADI FACD

Brett enjoyed a coddled suburban childhood in southern Sydney, before being relocated (against his will) to central west NSW to attend high school. There he commenced his dental career, employed (with minimal training) by a neighbour to cut the canines of newborn piglets (you never forget your first traumatic pulp exposure).

Strangely deciding to reject a career in farming, Brett moved back to the city, where he completed his BDS at Sydney University in 1984. He immediately secured employment a stone’s throw from where he grew up and is still practising there 41 years later (can we stop pretending someone other than me wrote this?).

I’ve had a lifelong passion for acquiring and sharing knowledge. From 1991–1997 I supervised final-year dental students one morning a week at Sydney Uni. In 1997 I got conned into running for ADA NSW Council. Rather than just warming a seat and enjoying the lunches, I decided to try and make a difference. The ADA Centre for Professional Development was one of my babies (Patrick Meaney is the other father), as was the Cynergex life support course and drug kit (commissioned by me after I nearly killed someone; good story—ask me one day). The ADA was kind enough to award me their inaugural “Branch Medallion for Outstanding Contribution to Dentistry” for my years there (1997–2005).

From 2000 I started taking live-patient training programs in the US (at LVI). I’d drag patients across the Pacific and treat them under supervision. It was a great way to learn, but prohibitively expensive. So I had the bright idea of running the courses in Australia. The ADA hosted the first few before we moved to larger premises in Brisbane. Students (experienced dentists) treated their own patients under supervision.

We taught quadrant direct and indirect restorative, 10-unit smile makeovers, full-arch and full-mouth restorative (at a verified comfortable occlusal position). I did that with three other Australians for about 10 years. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

For about the last 30 years I’ve lectured in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Fiji and the US on whatever topic took my fancy at the time. While I love the technical side of dentistry (particularly the toys), I’ve always had a soft spot for the communication side of practice. I learnt very early: the better you communicate with patients, the more successful you become.

It’s a nuanced skill, however, that requires thought and practice, but it’s well worth the effort. I hope to bring to DAN the distilled wisdom of too much experience, and maybe a few left-field ways to think about life and practice. You spend a lot of your life practising…and all of it living. Best to get good at bot