Prior to her upcoming course in April, we caught up with Dr Vanessa William.
When it came to deciding to specialise in Paediatric Dentistry, Vanessa says you must be lucky to find a job you are passionate about and she feels fortunate to be one of those people. “I worked for five years in private practice, and also became a sessional dentist and ‘on-call’ after hours emergency dentist at Princess Margaret Hospital for children,” she recalls. “I received a lot of encouragement from the Paediatric Dentists in Perth at the time, particularly Drs Peter Gregory and John Winters. It is through these experiences, I decided to proceed with studying Paediatric Dentistry in Melbourne.”
They say it takes a special person to work with children, and it is clear Vanessa is in the right specialty. She says she loves working with children, chatting to their parents, and seeing the children grow.
“There is so much positivity and energy that comes with working with children, seeing their confidence grow and getting to know their family,” she says. “It is rewarding to see apprehensive children become more confident with time; children who are happy or even excited about coming back for their next visit; helping the children with special needs who may need a little more time and a slightly different approach; and providing comprehensive restorative dental care to children in their primary dentition and discharging them back to their dentist with a caries free dentition, reduced caries risk and arming the children and their parents with greater dental knowledge and greater dental appreciation.”
The half-day course will take the participant through the indications for using stainless-steel crowns, a step-by-step guide for tooth preparation and its requirements for your dental practice.
Topics covered include
Vanessa says the course is quite comprehensive. “I provide two lectures followed by a two and a quarter hour hands-on practical session,” she explains. “We have limited the course to a small group of approximately 18 participants. The advantage with having such a small group is that everyone has the opportunity to ask questions and gain as much information as they need to enable them to provide this treatment in their dental practice.
“My lecture style for this course is reasonably relaxed, where I encourage questions and discussion throughout,” she adds. “I believe this makes for a more interesting morning and more relevant for each participant. Following a quick tea break there is one or two more clinical tutors to assist in the hands-on component. Ms Wendy Walker from 3M provides the Stainless Steel Crowns and attends the course to assist the participants in any questions they have regarding the pricing of materials.”
What three words best describe you?
Meticulous, Positive, Creative.
If you weren’t in the dentistry field, what would you be doing for a living?
Playing tennis – just joking. Oh gosh, I can’t imagine doing anything different.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I think I spend nearly all my spare time with my family, especially my two boys, playing, riding bikes, swimming, going for trips in our caravan; when I have spare time during school hours, I play tennis.
Is there anything people might be surprised to learn about you?
(Perhaps a talent or unusual hobby?)
I love scuba diving and met my husband whilst scuba diving at Rottnest, and I love to play tennis, but wish I was better at it and would play five times a week if I had the time.
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