RiskBites - Perfectly, imperfect

Hi, I'm Anita Kemp, Case Manager at Dental Protection. Welcome to Risk Bites, a series of podcasts created specifically for dental practitioners in Australia. Risk Bites looks at the key dental legal risks and issues affecting dental practitioners across Australia and provides helpful advice and guidance on how to steer clear of them, leaving you free to provide safe and high quality dental care for your patients. As some few may recall, I work on the podcast series with Annelene, and I prefer to do that from behind the scenes. From time to time Annelene drags me out onto the mic, and so I'm turning the tables on Annelene today and asking her to talk through the topics she believes to be of relevance to all dental practitioners, that of perfection. Thanks, Anita. So, Annel, why did you pick this topic? Well, Anita, you had the excellent idea in 2024 of ending the year on something a bit less heavy and a bit more upbeat, and it was a really popular concept, actually, so I wanted to continue it through to this year as well. And being perfect isn't heavy? A little bit, but hopefully not too much. I wanted to talk today about being perfect through two lenses, Anita, so the lens of perfection, our cosmetic patients desire, and of course, we've been talking about cosmetics a lot across 2025, haven't we? And also that tyranny of perfection, which is the driving force in many of us, often driving us straight into the ground. Okay, so where do you want to start? Well, I guess I want to start out by saying categorically that there is no perfect, doesn't exist. Even nature creates imperfection. So when we're thinking in terms of perfect, it's often better to think in terms of balance or harmony. They're better ideals from an aesthetic outcome perspective to strive for rather than this unattainable concept of being perfect. Okay, so thinking about aesthetics in terms of harmony, it's like when you hold a mirror down the center of your face and you look really strange when you actually are the same bilaterally, or when you see the images of celebrities where they have mirrored one side of their face. Yeah, that's right. It just looks really weird and really unnatural. And a really classical example of this that predates Instagram is Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian man, where da Vinci utilised mathematical principles to create the perfectly balanced man. And while it's a really interesting exercise, if you've seen it, you'll know Anita, he looks fake and to be honest, not what we would aspire to be at all. Agreed. So what does this have to do with their patients? Well, in many ways, they all want to be a Vitruvian man in theory, don't they? Patients come in expecting their teeth, especially if having cosmetic work, to be perfect. But the thing is, they themselves are not perfect, no matter how much surgery or augmentation that they have, and nor should they be actually. And having a perfect teeth isn't going to make them perfect, perfectly attractive or perfectly happy. But unfortunately, however, this is what some cosmetic patients are actually hoping for. It's not unusual for there to be an objectively perfect for one of a better word, cosmetic dental outcome in a cosmetic patient, but the patient remains unhappy due to other factors. Yeah, that's right. And we've had circumstances where patients have had beautiful, beautiful treatment outcomes, but they remain unhappy. And whether it be due to an underlying body dysmorphia, unmet, unreasonable or unarticulated expectations, or my personal favourite, because some adjacent augmentation has actually shifted their facial midline, so their dental midline is now in the wrong place. So think nose drop for that one. And we've actually seen that again in a recent case, haven't we? Yeah, we have indeed, which is why it's front of mind. So all I really want to emphasise today is when we're reflecting on patient outcomes and perceptions of perfection. We need to remember that perfect doesn't exist, and that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Beware of our body dysmorphs when you're working in the cosmetic space. And look, we've already dedicated a podcast to this very subject on this series, and we have another to follow in 2026. So it's something that we are looking at and helping you to understand. But you need to understand your patient's expectations before you commence any treatment. And if you don't think you can meet these, or perhaps more commonly, the patient's unable to articulate their desired ascetic outcome clearly, a second opinion can be an incredibly helpful tool. We find that patients sometimes find it really hard to tell us what they want, and they not even really know themselves, but trust me, they very much identify what they didn't want, if and when that outcome arises. They're perfect, not the standard that we want to be held to, because it is unobtainable. And as I just mentioned, beauties actually quite subjective, varying between genders, generations, and also cultures. So while golden ratios have their place in some aspects of clinical treatment, I really don't feel we can distill the human form and subjective beauty down to a series of numbers and percentages or proportions, and I don't feel that we should. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, and it can be tricky to know what a patient is really seeing when they look in the mirror. The patient's perception really is key here, isn't it? It is, and I can't emphasise enough the need for a robust and meaningful discussion with the patient prior to the commencement of any treatment about their expectations of the outcome and any limitations you're aware of of the treatment they're considering. Complaints commonly arise in the cosmetic space. It's why we've been talking about it so much, and why opera have put in so much additional guidance this year. And they can actually be quite easily preempted and averted altogether by good communication before the treatment begins. I'm still waiting for the upbeat part of this presentation, isn't it? There's fair enough. So considering how to overt complaints before they happen, isn't necessarily the serious topic I get that. I did want to move on then to look at perfect from another aspect, from the perfect we demand of ourselves. So at the time of releasing this podcast, we're moving into the festive season. And as working mum's Anita, you and I both know that her Christmas cheer carries with a high burden of demand and expectation. It does. And again, I'm still waiting for the upbeat. Yeah, I suppose. I wanted to sign off 2025 by reminding colleagues that it is okay to let perfect go. It is a tyrannical master. And if you've yoked yourself to it, then it will only serve to increase your stress, and anxiety, and drag you down clinically, aim for excellence, not perfection. And personally, I believe we should consider shifting our focus from insta perfect moments to something else entirely, such as what do you think? Well, as I said, striving for excellence over perfection in a clinical spaces, probably the best way forward here. So not striving for an unattainable standard, particularly when, as I previously mentioned, you don't know what the patient themselves actually sees. But I don't think that striving for excellence in our personal lives is the best way to go, because I think trying to be excellent would be such a burden, don't you think? Yeah, I do. Trying to be excellent all the time would be equally as devastating and damaging as trying to be perfect. Yeah, I agree. So you know how much I dislike the phrase, a work, life, balance, because it contains a suggestion that we all have to be perfectly balanced all the time. And if one aspect of our life is taking additional attention or time, we're not balanced, and therefore we are for healing at life. Yes, I do, but I didn't know that was the reason why. Yeah, I feel that if we focus on this concept of always having to be balanced to heavily, we're inadvertently making the need for balance itself a chore, burdening someone who may already feel exhausted and overwhelmed, who can't be perfect and can't even be balanced properly. I mean, what a nightmare. So I prefer to think of life in terms of work, life, harmony. So everything is working as well together as it can, as harmoniously as it can, regardless of what our dominant or driving factor is. Sometimes Anita, whether we like it or not, our professional life is all consuming. Like occupies all of our discretionary time, and even if it isn't, it's living rent-free in our heads, distracting us away from our loved ones. You know what I mean here. And it doesn't mean that we're bad or out of balance, it's just a way that sometimes some things need to be, just like sometimes we need to be with our family when we're actually supposed to be working. That's life, mate. I really worry sometimes that the pressure of expectation from others, whether it be family or colleagues or even friends, can and does weigh really heavy on us. Our media really hasn't helped with us either, has it? No, it hasn't. And it horrifies me, Anita, that we now live in a world of prosumarism. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with this phrase, it relates to the societal shift towards not appreciating a moment until it's been endorsed and ratified by others. So not living in the moment, okay? A classic example of this is people going out to a restaurant and having a series of moments, beautiful and precious ones. But not actually being able to objectively enjoy them until they've posted about them on social media and have a suitably sufficient number of likes, loves or comments. So is it really a thing? Yes, sadly, yes, it is. And it's been researched and proven that life through a lens has changed the way that some in society experience pleasure. Now, we don't get it, Anita, because we come from an entirely different generation. So we're digital migrants, rather than digital natives. We remember our first mobile phones. I remember mine was roughly the size of a house brick. And you know how much we loved playing snake, but anyway, I digress. So what I really wanted today, Anita, was to give our listeners permission to be imperfect, to embrace the messy nature of life and rather than seek to control it, to revel in the moments that may not be instant perfect, but are instead uniquely ours. We don't have to be perfect and more importantly, we don't have to pretend to be perfect. What other people think about us is none of our business, okay? And never has the phrase, "You do you" meant more than it means right here and right now. Yes, drive for excellence with your patience, but when you hang up your loops for the day, give yourself a break. You deserve it. Yes, we do. We do. Anita, we really do. So on that note, we'll sign up for the year and wishing everyone a safe and peaceful festive season. Thank you all for supporting the podcast series and as ever, we hope that this podcast was helpful to you and look forward to sharing more guidance with you in the future. 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