One of the first things we learn when we are taught how to drive is to be aware of our "blind spots." You can watch the road ahead, look left and right and check your rearview mirrors but that is still not enough to give you a comprehensive assessment of your surroundings.

The only way to navigate with complete assurance in some instances is to consciously turn your attention to those blind spots; to look around and find out what might be there in those areas that otherwise remain hidden.

You can have blind spots in your life and in your work as well. As a dentist, you can reach a point where you are cruising along, confident in what you are seeing and what you are doing, and probably even progressing at a good speed. But you don't know what you don't know. You're not checking your blind spots, because you may not even realize you have them.

If you think you don't have clinical blind spots, ask yourself: Are you sure that when you look in a patient's mouth, you are seeing everything your most-respected mentor would see? For instance, according to recent research the number of dental implants placed each year represents only a very small fraction of the number of people who could benefit from implants. The same could be said for many endo and ortho procedures and for restorative dentistry in general. Sometimes it's a matter of presentation or acceptance issues, but very often it's a case of the practitioner simply not seeing the opportunity.

That's really what higher education is all about. I hear this all the time from participants in our hands-on workshops in particular – that even though they have been in practice for many years, it is like they are seeing comprehensively for the first time. I think they are so excited because, for them, it is not necessarily just about seeing the same thing in a different way. It's more about seeing something that was there all along that they never saw before. The same goes with our study clubs, which are really all about getting small groups of dentists together to share knowledge and discover their blind spots.

In that sense, blind spots in your professional life are not points of danger, they are areas of opportunity. They're around you right now. You just have to make the effort to see what is hiding in them.


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