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Adelaide prosthodontist Dr Yohan Thomas is on a mission through the Advanced Dentistry Institute to bridge the gap between dental theory and clinical reality. By John Burfitt
Dr Yohan Thomas has always had a passionate love of learning and believes the best kind of learning in dentistry needs to go beyond what’s found in a textbook.
As a student at the University of Adelaide 20 years ago, Dr Thomas recalls his ability to memorise even the most intricate dental theory allowed him to pass the exams.
“I could memorise 1600 pages of a textbook, but once I finished the exam for that subject, pretty much whatever I learned about the theory disappeared,” the specialist prosthodontist says. “But that changed completely the moment I did something practical and put the theory into practice.
“Putting the practical and theoretical together is what makes the difference. But I often feel isolated in having this philosophy which has shaped so much of my dental career, particularly as an educator.”
Dr Thomas, who is the director of the educational Advanced Dentistry Institute which he founded in 2013, believes too many dentists are graduating from Australian dental schools well-versed in theoretical knowledge, but under-prepared when it comes to practical experience to feel genuinely confident in a clinical setting.
“I don’t think Australian dentistry is in a good space at the moment in this regard,” he states candidly. “I am concerned dentists graduating don’t have the practical hands-on skills they should have.
“At the institute, we deal with some dental graduates who have no idea about areas like dental implants. I was helping a new grad dentist who graduated only last year, who could tell me everything he’d read about crown preparations, but I was shocked by the quality of work. He admitted that at uni he was never given the chance to practise enough, and I hear that from both new graduates and dentists many years into their careers doing courses at our institute.”
The philosophy that theory and practice must correlate through all stages of learning sits at the heart of Advanced Dentistry, which offers dentists intensive clinical training in such areas as implant dentistry, full-arch rehabilitation, surgical extractions, rotary endodontics and restorative procedures. More recently, new programs in full dentures, porcelain veneers, facial aesthetics and botox application have been added.
One of the core learning procedures offered moves dentists beyond testing their skills on models and AI simulations, to instead train on real patients in a supervised clinical setting.
“No matter how hard you try on a simulation model, you cannot replicate the challenges of doing it on a real live patient in a controlled, safe setting—and I have seen for over a decade how much of a difference this can make,” he says.
I don’t think Australian dentistry is in a good space at the moment in this regard. I am concerned dentists graduating don’t have the practical hands-on skills they should have.
Dr Yohan Thomas, founder, Advanced Dentistry Institute
Advanced Dentistry’s live-patient training model operates through programs in Chennai, India. The courses, offered in a dental school setting under the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, have been run by Advanced for the past 13 years.
As part of their studies, the Australian dentists travel to Chennai for clinical training where, under direct specialist supervision, they perform procedures including implant placement, surgical extractions and rotary endodontics on local patients.
For Dr Thomas, this is where the difference between understanding dentistry and actually practising dentistry becomes most valuable.
“With an implant, you may understand all the various steps, but do you actually know how to do it, and explain to the patient why they need it and why this is important for their health, and how to deal with their fears?” he says. “There’s no way to replicate the real-life human experience of doing this.”
The ethical framework for this approach to training is high on his agenda. “Actually, that is the biggest challenge of doing a course because we have a reputation to uphold, the university has a reputation and we ensure our patients are not treated like guinea pigs,” he says.
Dr Thomas explains the procedures with patients are conducted in a university setting, and these are all supervised by senior prosthodontists. After the Australian dentists complete the work, patients have ongoing reviews with the university’s postgraduate students who continue to manage the cases for the restorative stages.
“Patients are kept under review because the university has a protocol to see how these cases are doing five and 10 years down the track. So it’s well-structured and free, and consent is given through each stage.”
It’s a training model, Dr Thomas says, that can make the world of difference to a dentist’s abilities.
“There is just such a difference between what is being taught and what is actually going on in the clinic, and we have a lot of academics who have never worked in private practice or understand real-world challenges. Graduate dentists have told me of having university tutors teaching subjects, and yet the tutors had only graduated themselves a few months before.”
Born in India, Dr Thomas moved to Australia in 2002 to study at the University of Adelaide, where he completed a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from Adelaide Dental School in 2006 and then completed his graduate diploma and a Doctorate in Clinical Dentistry (Prosthodontics).
At Adelaide Uni, Dr Thomas says one of his mentors instilled in him the value of lifelong learning with a piece of advice that has stayed with him ever since.
“Professor Lindsay Richards said, ‘Your degree is only a ticket to learning,’” Dr Thomas recalls. “That made me aware there was so much I did not know, so I had to keep learning. And in dentistry, there is always more to know.”
After his studies, Dr Thomas was recruited into one of Adelaide’s leading prosthodontic practices, before starting his own practice, Grace 1 Prosthodontics, in 2010.
Even though the practice was successful, he realised there was a gap in his own education. Despite years of specialist training, he had never been taught implant surgery. “That was when I knew I needed to learn more,” he says. He then embarked on multiple international courses over the following three years.
“That time was the genesis of Advanced Dentistry,” he says. “Initially, I just wanted to teach myself how to do this, and then it evolved as other dentists I knew asked me to help train them.”
Advanced Dentistry Institute now runs courses for 16 weeks each year and continues to grow.
“I now need to decide what will be my future focus, and I think it will be education,” he admits. “I would always keep one day per week of specialist practice as I want to keep my hands wet in the clinic, by remaining on the tools and working with patients. I don’t want to be one of these academics who have no idea of what it is like to be in practice.”
What began as a way to improve his own skills has evolved into an educational mission to help other dentists develop theirs.
“Everyone has to practise, no matter what stage you’re at, as that is what makes you as a dentist better,” Dr Thomas says. “There’s such a sense of joy and accomplishment when I see students who never knew how to do something at the start of the course, by the end say, ‘I can do this.’ There is a sense of achievement, and they see a pathway and opportunities.
“I can take my skills to the grave, but what is more important is: did I teach somebody what they didn’t know, or did I keep it to myself? I want to know I have done my best to share, to help others grow and better themselves.”
