Name: Mrs. S. Abdoel
Title: Dentist-Implantologist
BIG-reg.nr.: 39916229002
After her HBO education Oral Hygiene, Mrs. Abdoel worked for many years as a dental hygienist-paramedic at Dentalzorg. In addition, she completed her dentistry training at the Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA). In 2012 she obtained her diploma as a dentist. Her expertise mainly covers periodontology and implantology.
Education
Oral health care at the InHolland University of Applied Sciences and then dentistry at the Free University.
Practical experience
In 2004, immediately after my HBO study, I started as a dental care professional at DentalZorg. During this training I did an internship at a referral practice for dentistry and at the Medical Center Alkmaar. In 2006 I went to study dentistry at the VU and graduated in 2012 with periodontology and implantology as specializations. I already followed those directions during my HBO study, but I specialized further academically in them, especially the surgery part, which naturally comes up in implantology. After graduating, I intensively engaged in courses at the Dutch Society for Oral Implantology and still do. This is even officially required to keep your knowledge as a dentist up to date, so that your registration as a specialist also remains valid.
Why did you want to be a dentist?
As a girl of about 8 years old, I already knew that I wanted to work in healthcare, but I wasn’t quite sure what exactly. In 1998 we moved to the Netherlands, as a family, after having lived in Suriname for 5 years. There are many dental technicians in my family. My father knew about my wish to also work in healthcare and at one point asked ‘Why don’t you become a dentist?’ I couldn’t imagine anything about that. Like many people, I was always afraid of the dentist, so I put my father’s proposal aside for a while until I was 15 years old and once got a very bad toothache. Then I had to go to a dentist. We lived in Amsterdam-Zuidoost and there I ended up with a female dentist. It helped me so much; she was very nice, reassured me and i heard nice relaxing music in the background. I almost fell asleep while I had to undergo a major root canal treatment. Well then I knew; I also want to be a dentist.
What (basic) criteria do you think a good dentist should meet?
It is a care profession, so you provide care, in this case to someone’s teeth. I think you have to be critical about that, but also empathetic. You have to be able to put yourself in the shoes of a patient, who sometimes has a lot of pain complaints. They are often afraid, angry or dissatisfied, for example because of bad experiences elsewhere. It is then your duty as a physician to act in the right way, to listen carefully and to come up with a satisfactory solution. Communication skills are, in addition to your professional knowledge, just as important to your colleagues. In that respect you have to be inventive and remain open to the other.
What do you think of DentalZorg? What do you think are the benefits of being a client at DentalZorg?
I think one of the main advantages is that we don’t have waiting lists, which is often the case with other practices. You will be helped quickly. At most, a referral to another specialization will require a little extra time, but that is at most a few days. We want to provide people with the necessary help as quickly as possible. We guarantee continuous care. If a certain dentist is not available, due to illness or vacation, the client will in any case be helped by a colleague. It does indeed happen that you have to refer clients to colleagues and/or other specializations.
Do you still see yourself as ultimately responsible, as the first ‘lock’ in the entire dental process?
Yes, a client comes to me or one of our other dentists for an initial consultation. In that case, after a diagnosis, a referral must sometimes be made, for example to an oral health care professional or a dental specialist. If I cannot help the patient in the first instance and I have to refer the patient, I remain responsible. Our protocol is therefore that if the patient has been treated by that specialist, he or she will then come to me for a check-up. We are convinced that this is the only way we can offer optimum quality and care.
Why should clients choose you?
I think my strength is that I started as a dental care professional, I have that as a basis. I am also an implantologist so I perform special surgical treatments and I am there on Saturdays. This is useful for many patients who do not have time during the week. Another consideration is that I explain a lot. I talk a lot with the patients, I like a personal approach. Information is half your job. A complex treatment, for example, is self-evident for me, but often not for the patient. Then I explain what the procedure is, what I will do and what not. In this way, the patient will not be faced with surprises, which may result in many questions afterwards. I do this for myself, for the overview, but above all for the benefit of the patient, for his or her reassurance.
Tell something about yourself. For example about your family, friends, hobbies.
I have a family with two children; a daughter and a son. Family is very important to me. They do a lot for me, to make my work and family possible and I help them where necessary. They help me to be who and what I am today. I like to go on vacation, I like to travel and I like to read, I like novels and psychological thrillers. And I like to cook for people, that’s where my caring side comes in again. Sometimes I forget myself in it, but my family happily says in time «Hey Shebrina, are you still thinking about yourself!?»
Do you have any further ambitions, such as a different specialization?
Yes, I would very much like to do a PhD, for example on quality in healthcare, especially in my profession. And furthermore that I can take good care of my children, give them a good upbringing and education, so that they can spread their wings independently.
