» My contact with dentistry was an early one as my father was also a dentist and I practically grew up "between teeth". But the concrete and applied contact started in 1994 when I entered university. Throughout this period I saw, learned and subsequently I think I understood what a complete and correct dental service means beyond the smokescreen of the industry's advertising.
» In the 2000's, in Bucharest, any more enlightened practice had an advertisement with "Treatments Without Pain". In the 2010's that message has dissapeared. In the 2020's seems to be back. Messages are adapting to the times, the reality being according to an old Romanian proverb "The same Mary with a different hat!"
» That said, the approach that I strive to have is one based on clinical observation, with the nitty gritty details on the table and away from the marketing propaganda that tries to sell a product or another.
» Sharing my current thinking about dentistry and orthodontics has become a passion I would have hardly guessed a few years ago. I like making connections between informations from different fields like dentistry, orthodontics, neuroscience, human psychology, general medicine, physics, and body building (they too work with muscles). All this added to 15 years of general dentistry experience and 22 years of orthodontic experience, by 2022, are putting me in a position where I think I might have a broader perspective and understanding of the Dento-Maxilary Apparatus than I did when I finished dentistry school.
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» Together with 32 other European doctors, as the only one from Romania, I've had the chance to be chosen by Ormco to be a pioneer of the Damon Ultima Bracket.
» I will only say that it's the 7th Generation of the Damon Bracket just to give a perspective of the Research and Development that goes into it. For context most brackets have just one generation and rarely two.
» In June 2012 I've had the pleasure to be at the Tweed Course in Tucson Arizona. We had a great Romanian team of doctors and it was the first year when Romania won the competition as the "Best Table at Wire Bending" of the course.
» At the end of that course I've received, from Dr. James Vaden, a Letter of Invitation to become a Tweed Instructor. I did not honor it for a variety of reasons but nevertheless, together with winning the competition, it made me feel proud to be Romanian.
» Starting 2016 I started speaking to fellow doctors about my experience within the Damon Universe. It was a great experience as I was, and I still am and always will be, Master and Apprentice at the same time. I was myself discovering this wonderful approach to orthodontics.
» Nothing teaches you better than explaining to others.
» Between 2002-2005 I had the honour to take my first steps in orthodontics at the Dentistry Faculty of the Carol Davila Univesity in Bucharest, under the guidance of two pioneers of Romanian orthodontics:
1. Prof. Univ. Dr. Dragoș Stanciu - from whom I learned that Orthodontics is Analysis, Calculation and Method - necessary things from a didactic point of view.
2. Asst. Univ. Dr. Constantin Cojocaru - from whom I learned that Orthodontics is Analysis, Invention and Adaptation - things anchored in clinical reality.
» After my residency my path in orthodontic practice was strongly influenced by two other names, two Parisians, to whom the Romanian orthodontics after the year 2000 owes a huge debt: Prof. Dr. Andre Horn and Dr. Tudor Țovaru.
» I had the real pleasure to be a lecturer at the Dentistry Faculty of The Carol Davila Univesity in Bucharest, in the Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, from 2002-2008. I say "real pleasure" because the experience I had on the other side of the Master-Apprentice relationship was a revealing one with two great challenges:
1. Finding solutions to explain a completely new subject to students, of whom I almost belonged, so that they would find it useful in their future practice.
2. To make the previous point as exciting as possible so that future doctors are left with more "Orthodontics" than "just for the exam".
» I feel that this experience has strongly impacted my professional training in terms of communicating with the patient, especially from the perspective of patient awareness of why the recommended intervention is necessary.