Embracing the Future of Dentistry with Dr. Anthony Mak

Envision a future where dentistry is transformed by technological innovation, as seen through the lens of an eminent dental surgeon who's at the cutting edge of his field. Dr. Anthony Mak, a trailblazing dental surgeon based in Sydney, Australia, is set to reveal how he's reshaping the world of dentistry—and it's a conversation you won't want to miss.

Delve into the mind of Dr. Mak as he unravels his approach to state-of-the-art, meticulous dentistry. He will walk you through his experience of managing two avant-garde dental clinics, complete with their own high-tech in-house labs and a skilled Japanese ceramist. As you explore his career and his commitment to both his profession and his community, you'll discover the game-changing effects of artificial intelligence and next-gen technologies on dental care. Listen to Dr. Mack discuss his work with innovative tools like traditional articulators, 4D virtual jaw tracking, and advanced light scanners, revealing how he is expanding the horizons of digital dentistry. This deep dive will challenge your perceptions of what's possible in the field, underscoring the value of open-mindedness and tech adoption.

That's not all: get an intimate glimpse into Dr. Mak's fulfilling life away from the clinic. Learn how his deep-rooted passion for dentistry has not only enriched his professional life but has also given him the opportunity to travel the world and nurture his love for tennis. His philosophy on achieving success and his unwavering commitment to his community and patients are incredibly motivational. This dialog is a goldmine of inspiration, inventive concepts, and actionable advice for both veteran dental practitioners and budding professionals. 

So prepare for this enlightening discussion, and look forward to being captivated by Dr. Mak's expertise and zeal, which he'll elaborate on at our forthcoming London conference.

For the video versions of all BACD Podcasts head to https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_QEFI0rmiaNYJmACUGLq8Re3uZ0icAOU&si=qw2NCg1iBZ7iKBkU

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the official podcast of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. Whether you're a seasoned dental professional, an eager student or simply someone curious about the intricacies of cosmetic dentistry, you're in the right place. Here at the BACD, we bring together the brightest minds, groundbreaking research and innovative practices from across the UK and beyond. In each episode, we aim to delve deep, offering insights, sharing stories and demystifying the beautiful world of cosmetic dentistry. I'm Simon Chard, president of the BACD. I'm thrilled to have you join us on this enlightening journey. Let's dive right in.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Welcome to today's podcast. My name is Carol Somerville-Robits, I'm one of the board of the BACD and it is my absolute pleasure today to be talking to Dr Anthony Mack, who is going to be one of our hands-on speakers at our conference this year in November in London. Between the 9th and the 11th of November, we are really excited to be welcoming Dr Mack to London. He will be doing a hands-on session which is titled Aesthetics with Direct Resin Thieving Injection Technique, and then he'll also be lecturing on aesthetic adhesive restorations in the anterior dentition. Dr Mack is a dental surgeon in Sydney, Australia. He has two absolutely beautiful practices. They are so wonderful, very contemporary. They're set up on a philosophy and ethos of modern, comprehensive dentistry that strives for perfection. Dr Mack is a huge advocate of digital dentistry and also minimally invasive, restorative dentistry. He lectures all over the world. He is a KOL for many, many things and we are delighted today to be talking to him. So welcome, Dr Mack. Please could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey into dentistry.

Speaker 3: 2:05

Hi Carol, how are you? Thank you for inviting me to this little podcast. It's great to have people listening and, I guess, sharing my little story. Yeah, so I guess I'm based in Sydney, in the heart of Australia. Like I said before, one of my main practices is very close to Bondi Beach. I'm sure a lot of people in the UK have sort of made a visit there or heard about it or may have watched a show called Bondi Rescue. But yeah, it's a beautiful little practice where we try to practice a comprehensive restorative dentistry. I basically did all my schooling in Sydney and afterwards I've considered Sydney my home. So no, it's a wonderful place to be in Our practices we've got.

Speaker 3: 3:05

You know it's a multi-disciplinary practice. You know we're fully digital. We have our own in-house laboratory and it's a fully digital laboratory where everything, where all the in job, all the jobs, are all through digital scanned STL files. We have our own sort of master Japanese ceramist and the team of CAD designers and you know I'm very lucky to have all the toys, printers, milling units, scanners. We have specialists visiting, we have oral surgeons, we have pediatric specialists and we work with some of the other sort of local specialties that don't come and visit us in our practice. So I mean all that is just to create a hopefully create a really lovely environment for our patients to be looked after so they can get really nice care.

Speaker 2: 3:59

Fantastic, and what was it that made you decide you wanted to become a dentist? Is this something that's been in your family, or you just like the maverick and started?

Speaker 3: 4:07

you think I probably if I told you you probably wouldn't believe me, but I actually stumbled into dentistry.

Speaker 3: 4:14

You know, back I'm not sure if anyone's familiar with any schooling in high school in Australia, but I was in one of those public academic schools and to get into dentistry Now final year we sort of had to get off school and actually spend half a day where we had to sit for a separate exam like a GAMSTAT or like a general knowledge exam, to make sure that you know you can read, you can write your math, your maths are good and you know I just all my friends just decided that they wanted to do dentistry and so they were all going off school for a day and I said, well, I didn't know anything about it, but because everyone's going to go leave school for a day, I said I'll just join you just for the fact that I can hang out.

Speaker 3: 5:03

So I did the tests and luckily enough, there was only two people that passed that test, that got passed into the interview stage for dentistry, and the other person now is a well-known neurosurgeon. He came top in our state in New South Wales in Australia, and the other guy was me, so he was at the bottom of the other spectrum so, and so I just fell into it. I managed to get in and people were saying you know you're silly not to try it, and so I tried it and I loved it. And you know I've always had very good sort of hand skills in the sense that I love, you know, models, so I was always good at racket sports and so sort of really thrive in that environment where when we started sort of seeing patients and did that clinical work, Wow, so so obviously very lucky break that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:55

And so what if you kind of were talking a bit about your practice and how that set up? What do you think your real passion is within dentistry?

Speaker 3: 6:02

Oh, I have to say that, like you know, technologies and digital dentistry I mean, that's something that you know. We've spent the last probably more than a decade, you know, focusing on and improving and pushing boundaries and in terms of that field is more restorative dentistry. Most of my work is implants and restorative work and that's really been, you know, my passion in the last decade in what we've done. So where we feel we're not as strong as we've got, you know, like I said, we've got some really good colleagues and mentors who visit us or we work very closely with, and so those are the we feel are the strength in our practice, that the practice is set up for, really, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:46

Fantastic, and how long have you had your practice?

Speaker 3: 6:50

I started my practice in 2008,. You know, I've been practicing for about 21 years. I had some really good mentors, some really well known people from Australia who are also sort of well known and speakers around the world, and so I was really lucky to learn off them. And, you know, one of my goals when I started my practice was, if I could ever be as half as successful as what they would be, I'll be happy. You know, and that was something that you know, I kept, you know, true to myself and just kept trying, and trying and and just delivering quality work. And that's one of the ethos is, you know, if it's good, it's not good enough if we wouldn't have it in our mouths. And I think that's something that that we're very passionate about and that we keep true to. You know, everyday practice.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Yeah, that sounds fantastic. So where do you see the future of dentistry going?

Speaker 3: 7:43

Oh, I mean, look, there's so many fields of dentistry but you know, I don't know where it's going because it's changing so fast. Like, literally, with AI and with all the technologies and all the modern stuff, there is a definitely drive to a new way of practicing dentistry, and that is not just learning how to use a tool, it's a real change in mindset in how we apply these technologies. For, you know, for example, the traditional articulators, I feel is going to be no more in the future, because we're going to be looking at, you know, 4d, you know virtual live, live jaw movements, not just from a scan but from a radiographic point of view. We're going to see so many things and, you know, just yesterday I was speaking to a company, the owner of one of the well-known 3D printing companies, and they're talking about scanners, light scanners which can penetrate through teeth so you can see all the internal parts of teeth just from a camera. No longer you need to take x-rays, you know, and it's already out there and it's on the market, so things are evolving so much and I think that's where it's exciting, but also scary, and I feel that, you know, we really need to embrace it and be open-minded.

Speaker 3: 9:01

That's one thing that I share with a lot of people be open-minded with these, and I think there's always, you know, technology is always a pushback, or it's not as accurate, or it's not as good, and things like that. And I always say to them well, let's see. Let's always focus on 80-20 rule. You know, we want something that can do really good quality stuff. 80% of the times we don't need it to invest in technology and only invest in it to do the 10-20% of things that we very rarely see, and I think it's just a progress in how things are. So that's where I see dentistry moving. The technology is going to make our life so much more simpler. Where would I like dentistry to go? Well, I would like to have someone to be able to build a robotic nurse, because, you know, finding staff and finding auxiliaries is so hard in our country at the moment.

Speaker 3: 10:01

So you know if someone can build a you know the building humanoids if they can build a humanoid that can assist them think and know what you're going to be doing next, I think that's going to bring the breakthrough in dentistry.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Wow, yeah, maybe so, maybe so. So obviously you're doing a hands-on session for us on the 9th of November. Just talk through a bit about what the delegates can expect to kind of learn and take away from that session. You know some of your stuff that would make them excited, because obviously you know, in terms of anterior resins, different approaches, and you're going to be talking about injection technique. Is this a technique that you use all the time?

Speaker 3: 10:44

Yeah, I use this very commonly and I think a little bit about the history of the guest, this technique and how we sort of embraced it was really two things. I mean back, you know, around 2000 and I think it was about 2013,. You know the newer sort of paradigm shift in sort of flowable composites. You know, especially with the company that's supporting me with this, is from GC. You know they started developing this material called injectable composite, so it was more like a flowable composite with the physical properties of a traditional paste composite and it basically gave us a new type of class of materials. Because now you have these materials which were very, very strong and able to extend load much better than conventional, traditional flow, but you know, traditional flowable composites and without the shrinkage stress is, without all the problems of traditional flowables, and we've got this material that you can actually use it as a as on the top layer, as a restorative material. And then you add to that was that then came the sort of the influx of digital dentistry, so we're able to mock up teeth really easily rather than using wax. We're able to mock up teeth on our digital softwares and we're able to manipulate them where we don't have to wax up the whole mouth. We can wax up every second teeth. And then if you combine that with some 3D printing where we can print these models, and then with some new generation of sort of clear silicons where it's super clear we're able to, so then it's sort of everything sort of clicked and married together and formed this new technique, which has been around and which was one of the founders, like Terry Douglas. Terry sort of developed this many years ago, but all the things that we All the challenges we face with that technique, all of a sudden sort of become more simple and be it was solved because of these types of technologies that came through. And so that's when I sort of embraced that and started using this technique more using it in a digital workflow, using it as a vertical dimension increase, using it in the case where we can give people either permanent restorations or intermediate restoration we call it transitional restorations before maybe a indirect sort of rehab and be able to copy and create lifelike restorations from a digital mock-up and transferring that accurately. It sort of all fell into pieces and this was all sort of fell together, sorry, and this sort of came about many, several years ago. And when all these materials came out and I sort of embraced that because I was at that time working very closely with the dental company GC who were developing these materials. So I was very lucky enough to trial and actually participate in a lot of the developments, in how the handling and the colors and the characteristics of how they should be performed, and we had a little input. And so it was it just formed sort of nicely.

Speaker 3: 14:01

I mean, in my session we're gonna teach two different techniques.

Speaker 3: 14:03

There's a common one where people use a lot of Teflon to separate the teeth. We've sort of over the years sort of found a way that we don't need to use Teflon, because we find that if you have Teflon tape separating the teeth you're gonna increase the level of tolerance in your stents where they're not gonna sit properly, and because it's okay if you have one piece of Teflon, but if you have four or five pieces of Teflon, how can we expect to be able to sit that silicon gut exactly where it was taken? And so that how can we sort of say, well, did we transfer that restoration or that injected restoration precisely? But if we didn't have to use the Teflon and we can able to do this, we find that we get a much accurate and much sort of refined restoration, I guess and that's sort of what we'll be sharing with everyone in our hands-on workshop how to sort of wear cases using this injectable technique, but in a special way where we can avoid using or having to use the Teflon tape as the separator.

Speaker 2: 15:06

Wow sounds very exciting because I've always thought, yeah, that you know when doing that technique, as you say, how do you get an accurate fit when you have to put Teflon in? So definitely one. I'd be interested in learning and talk to us a little bit about.

Speaker 2: 15:23

You know what you're going to be doing out on your Saturday morning session, because that's always, you know, the one after the garlic dinner on the Friday night. We want it to be a really exciting session. So people are there and really excited to hear what you've got to say. So what do you think you'll?

Speaker 3: 15:37

be talking about. Carol, you're giving me a warning there that you know that the first session after the garlic dinner I better come up with something you know, quite poppy and and to get people interested in coming home because it'll be quite a big night.

Speaker 2: 15:52

It's a big night. Yeah, it's going to be a really fun one. Okay, Hopefully you'll be there. But yeah, you know what do you say? What are? What can I delegates? Look forward to Saturday morning.

Speaker 3: 16:02

I mean, look, that lectures a lot of. It's everything about what we've we've done in the form of digital and restorative dentistry over the last 15 years. You know it's it's showing long term cases. It's talking about how you know the predictable workflow. A lot of, there's a lot of.

Speaker 3: 16:19

As I said, there's a lot of different pieces to the puzzle in what we call digital workflows, not like the traditional work, the workflow where we know it works. You take a good previous impression, the lab pours up in a stone model and then and then waxes up the dye and then creates a restoration. All this is very stock standard, well proven and tested. Whereas to do the same thing using modern restorative techniques, trying to be minimally invasive but also doing it in a completely digital workflow where everything is simplified and streamlined, where the patient gets the benefits.

Speaker 3: 16:56

That has been the challenge for us, because there's so many different softwares out there, there's so many different types of materials or milling units, there's so many different types of 3d printers. Which one do you use? Which one is the one that's going to give me a good result? And over the 15 years we sort of tried and tested and failed in lots of different ways and we sort of streamlined it to a sort of a nice workflow where we know what works and we're going to share with you how we manage these aesthetic cases using direct restorations, but also cases where you use indirect restorations in the form of all ceramic veneers, and we're going to show cases where we do a combination of them and we have lots of videos to show and how we do these cases.

Speaker 3: 17:40

And one of the things I've been well known for is creating these nice sort of stories for these cases and how they're presented. So hopefully everyone will be just come and just listen. I don't mind, even if people are sort of half-dressed or half-dosey, it's okay. I think it'll be good to share what I have with everyone.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Yeah, I know I'm very much looking forward to it. So you touched a little bit about the fact that you've been involved with GC for a while. What is it about GC products that you particularly like, or them as a company?

Speaker 3: 18:13

I think they're a company.

Speaker 3: 18:15

I mean, look, we've worked with many different dental companies over the years and I've really been very appreciative of all of them.

Speaker 3: 18:21

And I've been very appreciative of GC because I think it's just the ethos and the leadership behind the company itself and the philosophy that they impart in working together with the dentist and the community and developing products. And I think, just having the, they've got a really large research team based in Europe, they've got research teams based in Japan and they're really big in focus in R&D and you can show that the products are designed and well designed and always seem to work very, very well. And one of the things I really enjoy about their products is that the QC of them is always good. Like very rarely would you have a bad batch of composite or resin cement from GC and so but I mean, look, there are lots of products out there which are very good from different companies, but I just GC has just been very, I think, the ethos behind their research and the development of the materials and the quality of the QC. Everything has that you know, japanese attention to detail to it and I think that's something that you can see when we use them. I guess.

Speaker 2: 19:33

Yeah, they're lovely products. And so if you said, you fell into dentistry by accident, now, if you hadn't been a dentist, what do you think you would have done? What would be the dream? Why are you living the dream?

Speaker 3: 19:45

I think I'm living the dream, Like I. Honestly, I'm very lucky that I have everything in my practice that we would love. You know what I mean. Who wouldn't want a master's ceramic just upstairs from your surgery that you can call upon? You know, we're very lucky to have all the gadgets and toys and, most importantly, I'm very lucky in the sense that we have a beautiful patient base, patients who actually appreciate what we do. They're part of our family. So, you know, I think that's something that's really important, that connection with our community, our local community, and you know we're able to the patients allow us to create beautiful restorations for them.

Speaker 3: 20:26

If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to do what I love. So I think that's sort of the main thing that I feel I wouldn't do it any other way. I think I am living the dream at the moment, you know, with a really good quality of life, and dentistry has allowed me to travel the world. For example, I'm coming to London in November. You know I go to Belgium. I've been to Asia, you know I've been to many places through dentistry, so, and it's always good to meet friends right across the world. So I think I am definitely living the dream.

Speaker 2: 20:58

It's a very, very rewarding career. I see patients, other ones that can make it something really special. So is there something? Is there anything that you'd like to share with us that I haven't asked you about yet?

Speaker 3: 21:13

No, look outside of dentistry, I'm a big tennis fan. I just I just came back from London. Actually, I was very lucky to get some Wimbledon tickets, so I actually came. I actually visited London for a few days just last month and I actually had managed to get two tickets for my son and I, who were big tennis fans, and we were able to visit. And it's the first time I've been to Wimbledon and I was actually absolutely blown away. It's such. It's probably the best Grand Slam event out of every every other places, and so you know it's so. It was so special, I had such a special day.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Oh, fantastic. And so have you been to other sort of tennis, huge big tennis tournaments. Do you go to the Australian Open?

Speaker 3: 21:57

Yeah, we go to that regularly and things like that. And you know, we visited the French Open. I'm yet to do the US Open yet, so it's one of those things. But yeah, no, my son plays a lot of tennis and it's part of our family and and so we really enjoy it. So, you know, one day, if I can get, if I can manage to get a debenture at Wimbledon, that's something that's, that's a, that's a life goal. I think that's on the bucket list, okay.

Speaker 2: 22:21

And so do you think that do you obviously mentioned, have you, you've got children. How many children have you got?

Speaker 3: 22:28

I've got two little ones. I've got the one that's turning 13 this weekend that's my daughter, and my son is 10 at the moment. So I write and think of it actually, between work and, you know, family, I mean they're, they're, they're how do what I say? They are at an age where they've got so much on but they're not able to get there themselves. There's a lot of ubering around outside of work. So so that's what we've been doing a lot of times, between ubering them around and dentistry and work. It keeps me very busy.

Speaker 2: 23:01

I'm sure it does, and would you be happy if they followed you into dentistry.

Speaker 3: 23:07

Look, I'm not, I'm not sure actually, I feel, for I mean, look, I think anything they do, I mean, involves a lot of hard work, isn't it? And I think our philosophy is that if they can be, if they enjoy what they're doing and they can be, and they can do it every day, we feel that they will be successful at it, and I think that's that's something as a family that we, we, we sort of believe in. So I mean, whatever they want to do, my son wants to be a professional tennis player, my daughter at the moment wants to be a fashion designer. So, who knows? You know, it doesn't look like they've got the genes and I have to say, look, I was not your typical dental student either.

Speaker 3: 23:45

I mean, that's one thing that people don't know about, or people in my dental school would know, but they would not have seen ever that that I would be doing what I'm doing now, like I was probably in my first couple of years. I think I was. I think they thought that I wasn't going to make it to my final year. That's how, that's how much I struggled. I think. If they had to pick, who was going to fail dentistry after the first two years and be one of those ones that failed and get kicked out and and be. You know, work at, at a I don't know at a supermarket or as a waiter or something else you know that would, I would have been that person, so I don't know. Something sort of clicked in in in, I think, my third year of dental school and and I managed to end up coming doing really well at the end of it. So you know, life changes, I guess. Yeah fantastic.

Speaker 2: 24:39

And I see, look at you now it's done. You've traveled the world, you've got living the dream, so you know that's fantastic. I think that's a great note to end on. So thank you so much for your time. Really really excited to meet you in person in November. It'll be really I'm really looking forward to your sessions and so thank you so much.

Speaker 3: 24:57

Thank you so much for that and hopefully everyone will come on the Saturday for my lecture and look, if you can't make it, I understand. I know there's a reason for it. You don't hate me personally, it's more. You know we had a big night out the night before.

Speaker 2: 25:11

Thank you, I'd have a great evening.

Speaker 3: 25:13

You too, cheers, thank you.