Dr Diana Spencer is a long-time member of Alpha Omega and has served as Secretary, Chairman and now Membership secretary. She owned and ran several practices over the last few decades and is currently enjoying being a part-time associate in her old practice in North West London which she recently sold to someone younger and more energetic!
Dr Jayne Cooper was born and brought up in North London and qualified as a dentist from University College London Dental School in 1982. She worked for several years gaining hospital experience as a House Surgeon and Senior House Officer in Oral Surgery, Orthodontics and Children’s Dentistry at many leading London Hospitals whilst studying towards gaining her FDS (RCS).
She gained DOrth, MOrth and an MSc in 1991 after a three-year Postgraduate Orthodontic Course at King’s College and St. George’s Hospitals. Whilst continuing as a part-time Senior Registrar at King’s and an Associate Specialist at Whipps Cross Hospital, she also began work as an Associate Orthodontist in Barnet. In 1994, she relocated her Orthodontic Practice to Hampstead Garden Suburb then to her present address in 2003.
Jayne has three teenage boys, and enjoys Boot Camp, theatre, bridge, sailing, keeping fit and very long bike rides!
Why did you choose dentistry?
All of my friends at school were going into medicine, but I felt that I wanted to specialise in one area of the body only. I just didn’t want to follow the crowd… time to be a bit different! I also felt it was a better career pathway for a woman.
What excites you most about the business/practice of dentistry?
When I qualified we didn’t have to do a Foundation year and I found hospital training far more exciting than general dentistry, and I wanted to do more post graduate training and specialise in a topic that really interested me as a house officer, so I only did general dentistry for less than a year and would not have wanted to do it for my whole career.
Why did I choose orthodontics? There weren’t as many in those days and everyone wanted to do oral surgery and I thought that Orthodontics was a nice branch of dentistry….. as I wasn’t terribly surgically orientated and there is noon-calll work. I love kids, and orthodontics was mostly for children in those days. I would never have enjoyed making dentures for edentulous 80 year olds or giving injections or treating nervous patients….. It was just not for me! I am more invested in prevention than treatment and orthodontics lends itself to this.
I like being part of a team especially in a hospital environment and I am happy to be working within a corporate these days. Being in a single handed dental surgery can be quite lonely.
Tell me about your culture fix…. How do you unwind? Books: what are you reading now; favourite TV or Netflix programme?
I loved being a chaperone with my children in the activities they were involved with, whether it was opera singing groups, summer schools or theatre. This progressed onto the Scouts and I’ve been helping with them for the last 20 years. I have met great mentors at cubs and scouts. I love keeping fit at the gym. I sail, paddle-board, cycle and run. The mental benefits of exercise are really helpful and I even used to play bridge! Obviously there is Alpha Omega as well which I’ve been involved in for the last 10 years as secretary and now as Chairman.
The stresses and strains of being a dentist cut into the time I can spend on myself, so I have learned to balance my life more and ensure that I spend some time for me. Am off to Champneys shortly!
What advice would you offer an upcoming dental student? And why join AO?
We never had to earn CPD before, so never had to prove we were updating our knowledge. These days there is such rapid change in the techniques, materials and equipment and so many rapid advances made that it is imperative to keep up and refresh our knowledge constantly. Patients are now more knowledgeable and astute as well so important to keep up with all progress.
Many dentists in Alpha Omega are fantastic at teaching and have a fount of knowledge which can be drawn on. It is an International dental organisation, so wherever you travel as an AO member you can connect up with other members. All money raised is for charitable purposes both in the UK, Israel and elsewhere.
How do you see dentistry in 5 or 10 years?
Because of Social Media, people interested in teeth straightening and appearance for instance when going for job interviews and just for social interaction.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are some areas where many children don’t even own a toothbrush. Everyone should have access to dentists and not have extractions because they can’t afford root canal treatment and a crown. Tooth preservation has to be the most important part in dentistry especially as we are an ageing population.
I am involved with a charitable organisation, and I go around schools in inner cities giving lectures where we hand out toothbrushes and toothpaste. There is a real gap in the availability of our NHS dental services and I strongly feel that everyone should have access to all specialities of dentistry, whatever they may be.
The future: Possibly no NHS dentistry, and the growth of dental insurance in the UK which would be relatively cheap and easy to access.
Who was your mentor? And what was the best piece of advice received?
I had some great consultant orthodontists who taught me for 6 years after I qualified especially Professor Simon Ash at Whipps Cross Hospital. He was a great teacher who taught me everything I needed to know about Twin block functional appliances when I did a 3 year orthodontic diploma post grad and a Masters.
The only thing I had been taught originally was removable appliances and headgear!
The AO dentists are great at maintaining my enthusiasm for dentistry and encouraging me to keep practising and enjoy myself as well!
Funniest thing that happened to you in a dental surgery?
It amuses me that some patients haven’t come back to the surgery since before covid as they assumed we were shut… wearing the same braces for over 3 years… just using that as an excuse for non-attendance in my opinion!
Any regrets?
No, I love my job. I enjoy being part of a corporate group which I joined 20 years ago. I worked on my own for about 10 years found it soul destroying. Introduction of digital services from scanners to computers has been really beneficial and working with colleagues is more my style.
The self-employed status has its pros and cons, NHS pay a salary which is helpful but quite low and there is a high turnover of patients. I have a colleague who was given 17000 UOA’s and 4 therapists and she had to supervise the therapists and see private patients herself.
She was given a bog standard daily fee… she nearly went over the edge mentally. That’s why I can see NHS dentistry has failed as quite often more is spent doing the work than is received in fees. I often feel I don’t have a break, I see patients in my lunch break and generally, the world has become more demanding.
However, I have a tremendous amount of satisfaction overall from seeing my patients many years later and feel I contributed to their wellbeing and sense of worth. So no regrets really!
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