Your Dental Besties

What happens when you stop waiting for someone else to create the career you want?
In this episode, Claire and Ben are joined by Canadian dental hygienist, educator and practice owner Irene Iancu for a conversation that goes far beyond dental hygiene.
Irene shares how frustration with the limitations of traditional practice eventually led her to build her own. From designing a completely different patient experience and creating clinical systems, to investing in technology, education and her own team, this is a brilliant look at what can happen when hygienists start thinking differently about their role.
The conversation explores autonomy, burnout and “boreout”, practice ownership, clinical innovation, AI, patient-centred care and why doing things the way they have always been done might not be good enough anymore.
They also get into the bigger conversation around oral and systemic health, perimenopause, healthcare collaboration and why dental hygienists could have an important role in bridging the gap between dentistry and medicine.
And perhaps the biggest takeaway?
You don't have to completely transform your career overnight. Start by becoming 1% better, asking better questions and taking more ownership of the clinician you want to become.
A big, bold conversation about the future of dental hygiene, and why sometimes you have to stop waiting for permission to change it.
Follow Irene on Insta @toothlife.irene

What does it actually take to become a better clinician?
In this episode of Your Dental Besties, Claire and Ben are joined by dental therapist Laura Bailey for a very honest conversation about the side of dentistry we don't always see online...... the mistakes, the investment, the constant learning and the reality of putting yourself out there.
Laura opens up about returning to education more than a decade into her career, why learning more about occlusion completely changed the way she looks at restorative dentistry, and the uncomfortable realisation that sometimes the more you learn, the more you recognise what you didn't know before.
She also shares an incredibly honest clinical story about something going wrong during a composite case and why choosing to tell the patient, remove the work and start again ultimately created one of her most loyal patients.
The conversation moves into launching courses, investing thousands before seeing a return, struggling with uptake and the reality behind building something new when social media often only shows us the success story.
Claire, Ben and Laura also talk about confidence, mentorship, investing in yourself, juggling far too many projects and why being a healthcare professional means accepting that learning never really stops.
And because this is Your Dental Besties, somehow the conversation eventually descends into broken feet, questionable things found between patients' teeth and some dental stories you probably don't want to hear over lunch…
An honest, funny and very real conversation about learning, failing, growing and why sometimes the experiences that don't go perfectly are the ones that teach us the most.

What happens when you achieve the career you worked so hard for… and then start wondering what comes next?
In this episode of Your Dental Besties, Claire and Ben are joined by Anna Middleton, aka The London Hygienist, for a brilliantly open conversation about career evolution, personal branding, working with major brands, burnout, boreout and learning to redefine success.
Anna shares how she built her profile long before “dental influencer” was even a thing, why authenticity has been central to the partnerships she chooses, and why having a clear purpose matters far more than simply chasing followers.
But this conversation goes much deeper than social media.
The three discuss the psychological pressures of working in dentistry, hitting a perceived career ceiling, feeling overstimulated, learning to set boundaries and recognising when the constant cycle of achieving the next goal is no longer making you happy.
Anna also reveals how stepping outside dentistry, including discovering a passion for poker, challenged her confidence, pushed her out of her comfort zone and helped her reconnect with parts of herself that had nothing to do with teeth.
From knowing your “why” and protecting your energy to getting a hobby, doing a life audit and giving yourself permission to slow down, this episode is a reminder that your career can be an important part of your life without having to become your entire identity.
And sometimes, growth isn't about doing more.
It might be about figuring out what you actually want next.

What does it actually take to be exceptional in dentistry?
In this episode, Claire and Ben are joined by Adrian for a fascinating conversation that goes far beyond clinical dentistry.
They explore the power of storytelling, public speaking and human connection, why trust matters more than ever in an increasingly AI-driven world, and how small changes can completely transform the patient experience.
The conversation also tackles some of the pressures facing dentistry today- like packed diaries, efficiency targets, clinician burnout and the danger of focusing so heavily on productivity that we lose the very thing patients value: feeling seen, heard and cared for.
But perhaps the biggest message is about courage.
Because being exceptional means being the exception. It means being willing to question how things have always been done, explore new ideas, create better environments and sometimes become the “rogue bee” who takes a different path.
Whether you're a clinician, practice owner, educator or simply someone who wants to do things differently, this episode will make you think about what exceptional really looks like.
🐝 Be the rogue bee.
Have the courage to be exceptional.

What happens when one of the biggest names in technology enters the dental world?
In this episode of Your Dental Besties, Claire and Ben get into the launch of the Dyson toothbrush- from AI, cameras and water flossing to the much bigger question of what evidence actually sits behind the products we recommend.
They discuss the growing influence of social media and influencer marketing on oral-health advice, why a huge following doesn’t necessarily equal clinical credibility, and why dental professionals need to be able to look beyond the headline and interrogate the evidence for themselves.
The conversation moves into water flossers, misleading interpretations of research, fluoride and mouthwash, stannous fluoride, Tooth Mousse and why oral-care recommendations should never be one-size-fits-all.
Plus, Claire and Ben reveal that they’re heading back to university together to study for a PGCert in Menopause Medicine, and are already questioning how they’re going to fit it all in.
A proper Dental Besties conversation: evidence, opinions, clinical reality and a few questionable analogies along the way.