This document provides tips for how to acquire skills as a dental professional. It discusses identifying your learning style, making notes, creating a study plan, taking breaks, avoiding cramming, moving around, being curious, and taking care of your brain to improve learning. It also discusses how to become a professional through looking and acting professionally, being ethical, honest, fair, respecting patients, prioritizing patient interests, and serving patients rather than pursuing prestige. Finally, it outlines how to acquire clinical skills through developing diagnostic abilities, thoughtful treatment planning, utilizing dental assistants, refining manual dexterity, collaborating as part of a team, enhancing education skills, and cultivating soft skills.

1. How to Acquire Your Skills

2. Objectives
At the end of the lecture, the student should be able to:
- Identify learning & it’s importance
- Identify tips to improve learning
- Know how to become professional
- Know how to acquire clinical skills

3. How to Acquire Learning
Skills
Deem Al-Blaihed, BDS

4. Outline
• What is learning?
• Why is improving learning skills important?
• Tips to improve learning skills
• Taking care of your brain

5. What is learning?
Learning is the process of gaining knowledge or skill by:
 Studying
Practicing
Being taught
Experiencing something

6. Why is improving learning skills
important?
• Learning is a skill and it can be improved
• Everyone has the opportunity to develop their memory and
learning ability
• Learning something new always takes motivation, commitment ,
self discipline & practice

7. Tips to improve learning skills
Identify your
learning style
Identify
Learning
Objectives
Make Notes
Make a Study
Plan
Take Regular
Study Breaks
Avoid
Cramming
Move Around Be Curious
Take care of
your Brain

8. Identifying Your
Learning Style

9. 1. Visual (spatial):
You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding

10. 2. Aural (auditory-musical):
You prefer using sound and music

11. 3. Verbal (linguistic):
You prefer using words in speech and writing

12. 4. Physical (kinesthetic):
You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch

13. 5. Logical (mathematical):
You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems

14. 6. Social (interpersonal):
You prefer to learn in groups or with other people

15. 7. Solitary (intrapersonal):
You prefer to work alone and use self-study

17. Which one are you ?

19. Identifying Learning Objectives
• A learning objective states specifically what a student should
be able to do
• Learning objectives tell students what is important
• Learning objectives are what the teacher want the student
to learn

20. Learning Objectives Example

21. Make notes
• Making notes helps you to gain an overview of your what
you are studying
• Take notes from what the lecturer is saying, not just from
texts you are shown in presentations
• Use to highlight something important
• Use show that you did not quite understand
something

22. What are the ways to take notes?
Summary
• Writing a summary or outlining in
your own words helps you to
mentally organize information
Concept maps
• Help you to organize information as it
illustrates the relationship between
things

23. Make a Study Plan
• Think ahead and create an effective study plan
• It will help you organize your time
• It will put your mind at ease

24. Test Yourself as You Make Progress
• You should test yourself throughout the whole study process
• Create the test yourself
• It helps you review the lecture & identify the important topics
With refresh
Without refresh
Forgetting Curve

25. Take Regular Study Breaks
• None of us are superhuman
• There is a limit to how long your brain can properly function
without a break
• In order to maintain an optimum level of concentration you
need some time to recover from the work you’ve put in

26. • Taking regular short breaks help improve your focus & productivity

27. Avoid cramming!
• Your brain is like a sponge! Try to overload it and the excess will run off!
• Your brain needs time to process the new information and make
connections
• Forcing information during the last few days is incredibly inefficient

28. Move around
• The brain makes connections between what you’re learning and
the environment you’re in at the time
• Find a place to study that is quiet and with few distractions
• Alternate between locations (office , room, library, beach)

29. Go Beyond Memorization and Ask Why
• Go beyond just taking notes!
• Be critical about what you’re learning and question it.

30. Be curious!

31. Taking care of your brain
Get enough sleep:
-A good night's sleep supports the functions of the brain and
memory.
- Insufficient sleep weakens your concentration and increases
restlessness

32. Taking care of your brain
Protect your brain
• Support your brain with a healthy life style
AVOID

33. Taking care of your brain
Nourish your brain
- Eat and drink enough, but not too much. Eating small, frequent
meals will keep your blood sugar levels even which is useful to
effective studying.
- Keeping your body well hydrated is essential to concentration and
learning

34. Support your brain by exercising
• Exercise improves the oxygen supply to the brain
• Exercise improves concentration
• Exercise has a positive effect on learning
• Exercise reduces stress
• 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or fast
walking every week

35. How to Acquire Professional
Skills
Shimaa Ibrahim, BDS

36. Outline
• Profession definition
• Professional definition
• How to become professional

37. Profession:
Is an occupation involving long and specialized preparation on
the level of higher education and governed by a special code
of ethics.
The aim of a profession is the public good.

38. Professional:
Refers to one who practices a learned profession and has
special knowledge and skills used to benefit the public,
regardless of personal gain.

39. Officially became a participant in
a profession
Professional

40. To become a dental professional you
should

41. 1. Look professional

43. 2. Be concerned about conduct

44. 3. Be ethical
What is meant by “ethics”?
• Ethics are the moral principles that govern the character and
conduct of an individual or a group.

45. 4. Integrity

46. 5. Be honest

47. 6. Be truthful (trust)

48. 7. Be fair
Discrimination

50. 8. Respects patients needs, values,
confidentiality

51. 9. Places patients’ interests first

52. 10. Do no harm
(safe and healthy)
(refer to a specialist)
Knowledge

53. 11. Do good (consider needs and value)

54. 12. Primary concern is service, not
prestige or profit

55. How to Acquire Clinical Skills
Rahaf Najjar, BDS

56. Outline:
Some tips to be a good dentist:
• Diagnostic Skills
• Treatment Planning
• Dental Auxiliary Utilization
• Manual Dexterity
• Teamwork
• Education Skills
• Soft Skills

57. Diagnostic skills
In less than 1 year

59. Diagnosis Good Treatment

60. Diagnosis is important to build an
appropriate treatment plan

61. Treatment Planning
Why?

62. Dental Auxiliary Utilization

63. Manual Dexterity
• It is the ability to use your hands in a skillful, coordinated
way to grasp and manipulate objects and demonstrate small,
precise movements.

64. Manual Dexterity
• A dentist must have superior manual dexterity skills.

65. Manual Dexterity
and consider for a moment the size of the
average person's mouth.

66. Manual Dexterity
• A dentist must be able to exercise very fine motor control
and possess excellent hand-eye coordination.

67. What to do to Refine Manual Dexterity
1. Drawing / Painting
2. Woodcarving
3. Creating 3D artwork through jewelry-making, sculpting or
ceramics

68. What to do to Refine Manual Dexterity
4. Sewing/needlepoint
5. Crocheting / Knitting
6. Learning a musical instrument that requires extensive
hand-eye coordination (e.g. piano, violin)

69. What Helped Me

70. Teamwork
• The dental care team consists of a wide range of people with
different skills and academic backgrounds.
• You need to have strong interpersonal skills and enjoy
working as part of a team.

71. Education Skills

72. Soft Skills
• Positive attitude.
• Self-Confidence.
• Good communication skills.

73. Soft Skills
• Time management skills.
• Problem solving skills.
• Flexibility and adaptability.