Episode Details

Welcome to What I Wish I Knew by Dental Head Start. This is a podcast where we learn from people that have been there, made the mistakes, learnt the lessons and have developed into the accomplished dental professionals they are today.

It’s your weekly mentoring session.

Hosted by Dr Cigdem Kipel

This is a slightly controversial subject, so we’re going to lean into it with Dr Tim Maxwell.

It’s no secret that there are some specialist orthodontists who are against general dentists performing ortho. One of the reasons is that there is too vast a difference between the depth of education an orthodontist receives versus what’s available for general dentists to start immediately practicing ortho. 

For a GP dentist wanting to learn ortho, not having the full support of the specialists doesn’t provide much confidence in what’s already a daunting educational pursuit. Not only that, there are strongly held and contentious opinions out there when it comes to different aspects of ortho: extraction vs non extraction, fixed vs clear aligners, age of intervention, degrees of airway involvement and more, further adding to the confusion. 

Dr Tim Maxwell shares how he learned the importance of gaining both breadth and depth in navigating the world of orthodontic education for GPs. He talks about how to critically evaluate various education providers to gain a balanced perspective on the landscape and practice ortho competently and safely.

Dr Timothy Maxwell

Dr. Tim graduated from the University of Western Australia dux of his class in 2014. He was awarded the two highest honours for a graduating student: the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons Prize for top graduate, and the Welten Prize in Clinical Dentistry for top clinical graduate. He also achieved undergraduate prizes in histology, head and neck anatomy, endodontics, periodontics, general medicine and oral medicine.

Dr. Tim practices the full scope of dentistry, with a special focus on cosmetic dentistry, orthodontics and oral surgery. He has completed two years of additional private training in orthodontics with Progressive Orthodontic Seminars in Sydney, and provides both fixed braces and clear aligner solutions including Invisalign. He has completed further surgical training in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia in dentoalveolar and implant surgery, and maintains a strong