1,300 miles. Two Dental Besties. One unforgettable road trip… and apparently absolutely no ability to keep hold of our belongings.

This week, we're taking you behind the scenes of our Canadian adventure- from Calgary to Banff, Lake Louise, Edmonton and one of the most beautiful drives we've ever experienced through the Canadian Rockies.

Claire and Ben talk spontaneous tattoos, bears, mountain “beavers”, questionable hotel choices, getting trapped in a car park, losing cameras and microphones, Canadian whitening strips that nearly took Ben's teeth out, and somehow deciding that a 12-hour drive was obviously better than a three-hour one.

But amongst the chaos, there was some dentistry too.

They reflect on attending and speaking at the GBT Summit in Edmonton, what was learned from dental professionals working internationally, and why stepping outside your usual dental bubble can completely change the way you think about your career, your patients and what's possible.

And somewhere between the mountains, glaciers, karaoke and 1,300 miles on the road, this became much more than a work trip.

It became one of those experiences they will probably talk about for the rest of their lives. ❤️

So grab a coffee (Ben certainly will), settle in and go on a Canadian road trip with Your Dental Besties.

🎧 Like, follow and share the podcast if you enjoy the episode, it genuinely helps YDB grow and keep making more.

Your Dental Besties - making dentistry FUN

Claire and Ben discuss what they have been up to. From Canada to Milan, they have been busy.

Ben discusses translational science and gives us some interesting insights into some plans he has coming up.

Have your say. Get in touch with team YDB to send us your Agony Aunt and Agony Uncle dilemmas. Send us your funnies. Give us topics you want to discuss. What guests do you want to see on the pod?

Email: [email protected]

Insta: @yourdentalbesties @clairelouisesays @thegumsguy

Claire starts by putting a scenario to Ben and asks his thoughts on treating influencers for social media marketing. What is your thoughts on this? Do you think this is a good form of marketing and do you think it is ethical? Ben and Claire also discuss influencers being paid to talk about products generally.

Your Dental Besties then go on to talk about marketing strategies if you are a direct access clinician.

Let us know what you think about this episode by commenting below. And please do follow and subscribe if you find the podcast useful. It helps more then you know. You can contact Claire and Ben on Instagram @yourdentalbesties @clairelouisesays and @thegumsguy

Ben and Claire talk about how they perform their cancer checks. They discuss a case where a young woman had a lesion on her tongue which was not diagnosed until it was really advanced.

Do you check even if the patient has seen a dentist first? Do you check every time you see a patient? Answer in the comments. Tell us how you perform your cancer checks.

Ben and Claire start with a discussion about Ben's new skin care regime. Does retinol work and have you heard of retinal? Apparently its a thing! Listen if you want to know good skin care routines.

And did you know that you can have pilates for your face? Ben talks about his recent course that was for pilates for special injuries and this includes the TMJ. If you are a practice owner you can do wellbeing days for your staff, it helps to keep everyone supple and healthy.

Also, lets start a petition to get Ben and Claire on Gogglebox.

Thanks to EMS UK for sponsoring the podcast and being such a great advocate for hygienists and therapists.

If you like this episode please do comment and let us know and remember to follow and share the podcast, it helps us more than you know.

We appreciate you. Team YDB xx

Upsell is a dirty word. It is difficult talking about 'sales' in healthcare, and really it shouldn't be a conversation. It should be about patient need. But is this reality we live in now in dentistry?

What are your thoughts about this topic? Have your say and tell us your view below in the comments

Thank you to EMS UK for sponsoring the podcast so we can bring this content to you. Book a GBT demo using this link:

https://www.ems-dental.com/demo-gbt

Ben and Claire answer an agony aunt/agony uncle sent in by a listener about a new hygienist joining their team and only having a certain amount of equipment. What happens if the new hygienist works on the same day as the current hygienist, but they only have one unit to perform particular treatments with? How would you navigate this scenario? Comment below

This weeks podcast goes into referring to perio specialists and how to have difficult conversations with patients.

Ben and Claire also discuss a recent webinar that they carried out for Oral-B professional. Did you tune in? Have your say on the topics by commenting below.

What topics do you want to discuss on the pod? Let team YDB know

A lovely listener started Team Ben and Team Claire and the duo talk about how this came to be. They show us the T-shirts that Jade and Vicky created from Cwytch Study Club had made. Ben wear Gums Guy pink and Claire wears Khaki, in series 1 they said they would love scrubs in these colours. Such a lovely gesture, so a BIG THANKYOU to Vicky and Jade at Cwytch Study Club.

Then Ben talks about Vaping and how much nicotine is in each vape and how to have the conversation with patients.

If you have anything to add about topics that were discussed in this episode, please get in touch. Also send your Agony Aunts and Agony Uncles in for Claire and Ben to discuss.

Ben and Claire talk about ratio's of hygienists to dentists across the globe to begin. Some of these ratio's might shock you.

They then talk about notes and how some people question if we need to write as much as we do. They talk about templates and what they write in their notes, as well as discussing how to make this process more efficient.

What are your thoughts? Do you use AI for your notes. Comment below and let us know.

Thanks for EMS for supporting the show and being such a great supporter of team YDB