Dentistry’s Next Top Digital Dentist: training and support 

Sheena Tanna, Dentistry’s Next Top Digital Dentist winner, shares the training that she’s undertaken as part of the journey and how it has helped the practice stay ahead of the curve.

Making the dream work: thoughts from the team  

Winning Next Top Digital Dentist has opened many doors for Sheena Tanna and the team at Billericay Dental Care.  

Run in collaboration with Align Technology, Dentistry’s Next Top Digital Dentist offers a unique opportunity to embark on a year-long journey of mentoring, coaching and access to cutting-edge digital tools designed to drive clinical excellence and practice growth, unlocking the full potential of digital workflows 

Here, Sheena and the team detail the educational opportunities they’ve experienced as part of the Next Top Digital Dentist journey. 

Has winning Dentistry’s Next Top Digital Dentist revealed any new areas of digital dentistry you’re particularly excited to explore or develop further? 

What I love about digital dentistry is the fact that there’s always change happening – it keeps me excited and interested.  

Winning Dentistry’s Next Top Digital Dentist has opened my eyes to the world of support I have available to me from Align. We were using some of it, but I don’t think I realised how much was available to me and how much more there was to it. It’s been really great for moving us as a practice forward. 

We’re now using something called X-ray Insights, which is helping us explain things much more clearly to patients. Before we started this journey, we were only using the smile video at the start of treatment to show the before and after, now we use it throughout treatment. All these things help enhance the patient journey and the patient experience.  

I’m also really looking forward to the Smile Collab Roadshow in June! 

What motivates you to prioritise continuous learning? 

I’m motivated by the patient journey and patient experience. The other thing I love seeing is all my other team members grow.  

One of the great things about digital is being able to utilise everybody. It’s not just about me and my growth, it’s about each individual team member. It allows me to train them, it allows them to shine as individuals, and as a result, we provide the best patient experience. We’re all benefiting from that. 

Looking back, how has ongoing education influenced the dentist and business owner you’ve become? 

I’m a great believer in clinical education. It’s an important part of not just my own growth, but my team’s growth.  

One of the key courses I did was the Mastering Invisalign course, run by Mismile. Sandeep was really inspirational, and had a lot of really good points. I integrated lots of it straight away, personalising it for us and what we were about and what we wanted to achieve.  

Each team member has an appraisal every year, and we talk through what their objectives are, and we invest in courses that are going to help not just grow us, but grow them and make them reach their next levels. And in doing so, we then, as a practice, all grow together and provide an amazing experience.  

You’ve taken part in ADA courses and forums. How have these learning opportunities contributed to your professional development and enhanced your clinical skills in practice? 

I love Align Dental Academy (ADA). I’ve invested heavily in its courses and mentoring. Dentistry can be a very lonely profession, but ADA provides you with a team of people who are there to help you, and mentors who you can bounce off and support. With that, you learn to grow and you become a better clinician. And when you become a better clinician, it doesn’t just impact your patients, your team feel it, and then when they’re feeling it, your patient feels it, and you provide a better experience and that all of you grow together. That’s what I love so much about it.  

Has this experience changed the way you approach digital workflows or treatment planning? 

We’ve always used digital workflows in our practice, but one of the things that has become apparent in this process was that the digital workflows we were using, we perhaps weren’t optimising properly. You don’t know what you don’t know, until you start speaking to people, and then start you start experiencing education.  

What advice would you give to other dentists on how to get the most out of their partnership with Align? 

Just get going! One of the easiest ways you can do that is to engage with your territory manager. They are a wealth of information. They’re always so friendly, and they make life so easy, because they’ll actually come to the practice for you, so you don’t even need to take time out of your day.  

When we talk about digital to some people, that can feel really overwhelming. So what I always say is start really easy – just download the app and see what it has available to you. There’s so much readily available you’ve just got to make a phone call and get going.  

Dentistry’s Next Top Digital Dentist competition is run in collaboration with Align Technology, empowering the next generation of digital clinicians and supporting the advancement of digital workflows.