Experienced dentists can and should help young people cope with the challenges of this profession
Aesthetic dentistry is the branch of dentistry concerned with improving the look of the smile and the teeth, resulting in a more beautiful and more confident smile. Considering how important a smile is in our everyday life, more and more people turn to aesthetic dentistry to fulfil their wish for a beautiful smile.
Tell us something about yourself?
My name is Tamara Đogo; I am the mother of a 17-year-old son, which is the greatest, most beautiful and most responsible role in my life. I am a happy wife, a sister and a daughter, a friend and a brother… I do not practise dentistry, I live dentistry. Like everything else I do with a lot of passion, love and devotion, the part of my life in the practice is shaped by that energy. That is how my own practice came about, where I created a space in which the patients, the staff and in the end I myself have full freedom to be who we are and to create healthy, beautiful and happy smiles together.
When, and how, did you decide you would be a dentist?
I actually never made a decision to go into dentistry. Even as a child I had many wishes and dreamed of different professions, wondering why we do not have at least six parallel lives so I could be everything my heart desired. In all that whirl of daydreams, with a heavy heart I came to terms with the fact that there is one life and a choice has to be made. And so eight-year-old Tamara promised her uncle — who at the time was my role model as head of neuropaediatrics in Banja Luka, and who in looks and bearing irresistibly resembled the all-powerful doctors from films — that I would be a neurosurgeon. And so, having finished secondary medical school, I went to enrol in medicine, and it was as if fairies carried me to the door next to it, where the department of dentistry was. And here I am now, writing this as a dentist who adores her work. As a dentist who has packed everything of her own, and all her childhood passions, into the frame of this profession.
What inspires you as a dentist, and how do you find the motivation for your work?
We fulfil ourselves first of all as doctors, for whom the patient's health is the imperative; then as sculptors, artists, who pour all their creativity and talent into creating healthy, happier and more beautiful smiles; then as psychologists, aiming to cut out the long-ingrained fear of the dentist's chair from our DNA. We are there as managers too, then as lecturers who pass our knowledge and experience on to young colleagues. We can fill our soul through humanitarian work as well, and if we relax, as I often do, we can even be singers accompanied by the hum of the turbine
On top of all that, making people happy every day is an indescribable feeling. I think it is clear now why I say the fairies carried me to the door of the faculty of dentistry.
What are the advantages of working in your own practice?
The basic advantage of working in your own practice is the freedom to organise both the work itself and your life. Aware of the importance of that freedom and the peace it brings, the staff in my practice have it in abundance, and only that way is a healthy atmosphere, a satisfied team and a happy life achieved. And only that way can a worker — let me start with myself — give everything and reach their full potential.
Are there days when you have to find ways to get through the planned work?
Actually, there are also days when I do not have to
I think it has been dynamic and turbulent since my first working day: many patients, calls, interventions that cannot wait, and some who cannot wait either
In your opinion, what matters most for a beautiful and healthy smile?
For a healthy smile you need to look after your oral health, which means regular and proper hygiene, check-ups at the dentist, and professional removal of hard and soft deposits from the teeth. And for a beautiful smile, much more is needed. Only a sincere smile, born in the heart, radiating energy and drawing out at least one more… is a truly beautiful smile. And we dentists are there to add a little more shine and glamour to such a smile.
A dentist's advice for our readers.
It depends who the readers are. If you mean my colleagues… to the young ones just starting their career, I can say I believe that for me, as for all dentists including the most successful, the very beginnings were general confusion, with a heap of questions they thought would never be answered. But it all falls into place with desire, work and not giving up. The second very important thing is that there is no shame in asking an older, more experienced colleague for advice; if you call and ask when you get “stuck”, every dentist who has taken the Hippocratic oath — and we all have — will stand by you and help you. If patients who are not dentists are reading…. since they are on this portal reading this, I am sure they have enough knowledge and healthy teeth that they do not need my advice. Except to love life with all their heart, and everything and everyone it brings with it. That is advice for everyone and a reminder for me.