[Spotlight] The Reality of a Portfolio Career in Dentistry

What does it really take to build a portfolio career in dentistry?

In this spotlight episode of Just4Dentists, Dr Ruth Baidoo shares a key moment from her conversation with aesthetic and restorative dentist Dr Shiraz Khan.

Shiraz reflects on the financial commitment behind postgraduate dental education, how opportunities like international lecturing can evolve over time, and the reality of balancing clinical dentistry with wider career ambitions.

If you're a dentist considering further training, speaking opportunities, or diversifying your career, this clip offers an honest look at the journey behind the scenes.

Listen to the full episode on the Just4Dentists feed

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Presented by Dr Ruth Baidoo

Produced by Your Podcast Producer Ltd for the Just4Dentists team

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute formal financial or legal advice. Every dentist’s career pathway and financial situation is unique; therefore, you should not rely on this content as a substitute for professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Transcript

Dr Ruth Baidoo 0:00

Hi, I'm Dr. Ruth Baidoo and welcome to Just4Dentists. Every fortnight I spotlight a moment from one of my recent conversations that's really stayed with me. In our latest episode, I was joined by Dr. Shiraz Khan, who talked about his multifaceted career. I love connecting with him again after first meeting him nearly 10 years ago. Here's a moment from that conversation. It's interesting from like just knowing a little bit about you and watching you on social media. It seemed like from graduation point, you seem to move quite quickly into like being quite intentional about your career and then doing a masters. So tell me more a little bit more about that journey and what made you decide to actually do that. Because that's a big commitment, especially financially.

Dr Shiraz Khan 0:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, when when we qualify in dentistry, and this I think applies to everyone that's listening, you, you know, anyone that enters dentistry, you you plan for this aspiration of your career, and then you really have no idea what you're getting yourself into until you're actually in the clinic and you're like, oh my God, I don't know anything. Oh my God, I don't know how to communicate properly, my my hands aren't doing what they need to. You know, I always, even in undergraduate training, had this aspiration for trying to do the artistic side of it, you know, trying to make every tooth look like a tooth, whether it was covering an amalgam or prepping a tooth or doing a composite, whatever it was. I was also like, oh, I want to try and make it look as tooth-like as possible. And um, I really started then pushing into doing courses, um, as in being a participant on courses to really start furthering my understanding and education portfolio and so on. As you know, financially it's a massive commitment. Um, I don't mind saying my wife was hugely supportive because at the time, you know, we all talk about our circumstances quite openly, but you know, that was a big chunk of house deposit that I had to move on to do my own career. So, you know, things like that are are tricky, are challenging. Yeah, you need a good supporting ecosystem. Shout out to her because she's always been wonderful to me.

Dr Ruth Baidoo 1:51

100%. I think I'm glad that you're transparent and honest about that because a lot of people wouldn't be, for example, you know, just kind of like coast. I think that's one thing dentists don't do very well. We're not very open about um talking about money. Money's still very taboo. And I get it, it can be a tricky subject, but I think when you're making this big commitment, like you're about to do a masters, which is not cheap. Like dentistry in general is not cheap, like all the training and all the other equipment and materials that you need, but then to then go and do a masters and commit to that financially, it's not cheap. So thank you for being transparent because there's probably someone listening to this who's considering it.

Dr Shiraz Khan 2:24

But always

Dr Ruth Baidoo 2:25

When we first met years ago, like you were also doing international speaking and things like that. So tell me how that came about. Was it just an opportunity that was given to you and it was just snowballed into other things?

Dr Shiraz Khan 2:35

Sort of, sort of. I mean, um, so essentially, when I was in my FD year, my TPD - Training Programme Director - asked me to come back and speak to the future FDs about what my experience was like. So I did that, and then at that, there was another training Programme Director who asked me to come to their scheme. And then at that, there was Stephen, Professor Stephen Lam, my humble MB. He asked me to speak at the National Conference for all the KSS - Kent, Surrey, Sussex. And then from that, it was like, oh, um, we saw you at that. Would you like to speak at the British Dental Conference, which was run by the BDA at the time, if you remember that was our fun weekend away in Manchester?

Dr Ruth Baidoo 3:11

Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, I remember that.

Dr Shiraz Khan 3:14

Good times, good times. So, so what happened was there was this stepwise progression, and of course, with the Young Dentist Academy where we met, um, Martin Ansell was quite keen to have me on board with that. So, all of these things sort of just you know started gearing me towards that. And when I first qualified, I didn't think speaking was an opportunity, I didn't think being able to travel with dentistry was any opportunity that we had. So the fact that that came up was, I mean, a blessing from God ultimately, but like a real privilege. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? And um, and then yeah, that then I started engaging at when I was at the British Dental Conference. Then one of the companies within dentistry came to my lecture, reached out, and saying, we saw you at the British Dental Conference, can we arrange a meeting with our European Head of Sales, etc.? And then that started all of that process off. Uh a word and shout out to my younger compatriots and colleagues that, you know, the first what, 15 speaking opportunities obviously didn't get paid. Um, that's just not how it works. Um, but if you invest that time, yeah, it pays back in the in the future. So yeah, it's a real privilege.

Dr Ruth Baidoo 4:21

Amazing. Um, so from a financial perspective, how does diversifying your career income streams provide stability and help you plan for the future? I know it was accidental in a sense that you were given all these opportunities, but it is an additional source of income. So can we just unpack that a little bit more financially?

Dr Shiraz Khan 4:37

Yeah, I mean, you know, the the the additional source of income is a little bit of a red herring, if I'm being clear, because if you're thinking about what you're doing, you're taking time out of your clinical rotor to then be able to speak. So all you're really trading off is what you'd be earning at the clinic versus what you'd be earning from lecturing, generally, generally speaking. So the the the earning stream diversification doesn't strictly work out as I don't use like using the word lucrative. It's not, it's it's really just replacing lost income per se, rather than necessarily be, but that that obviously changes when you're um speaking on a weekend. Yes. Um often when I travel abroad, it's not just a day in, day out, it's usually a couple of days. So you're trying to you're trying to effectively work out that that lost income. But in reality, spinning that on its head, the ability to earn, whilst not being, you know, hands on deck as it is per se, is also a is also a privilege, isn't it? I mean, you know, we are quite lucky to be able to be, you know, fairly well supported in dentistry in terms of earning potential, etc., to be able to do that and still be able to share, it all adds up. I think it's all just um we're just we're just so lucky.

Dr Ruth Baidoo 5:54

So if you like what you heard so far, you'll find the full conversation with Shiraz on the main Just 4 Dentists feed. Can't wait to see you in the next episode. Bye.