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This is a story of a simple woman, dentist and an orthodontist, and now a dentapreuner(!!not sure what it means) who was caught up in a web of frustration and decided to BREAK FREE! I graduated from Dentistry in 2001 and Orthodontics 2013. I was a general dentist for 9 years. Full of passion and always wanting to learn I dived into lots of seminars and courses. When it came to Orthodontics, I did every course/seminar/residency including all major ones that exist today. I walked out always excited and ready to start – plan – help my patients. I had all these gurus showing me how easy it is and how much more $$$ you could make and I could do it better than my local specialist! Personally, the $$$ never interested me – otherwise I would be driving a famous red sports car or dressing designer head to toe or eating at lavish places and flying first class. I would rather donate money to UNICEF but that’s just me. I just did orthodontics as a dentist for the PASSION and its what I enjoyed! I could not afford to do a university degree and this was the easier solution at the time. THIS The future looked bright. I felt I had enough training to do orthodontics. The only thing I didn’t touch were surgical cases and impacted canines. As with everything I do, I launched into orthodontic treatments full of passion. The more I did, the more I realised it actually wasn’t that easy. I had to train my staff, source out labs, learn what to do when things started to go wrong (and they definitely did – lets get real and honest here!). I always told my patients that I was just a dentist but felt competent to do their treatment well. My patients put their trust in me. I HAD. After several years, I started to see my own failures and inefficiencies. The gurus were either not around or too busy to sit down with me and help me and wanted more $$$. RINGS A BELL? I tried networking with multiple dental colleagues who did similar courses to improve – I was going around in circles – but then I decided to BREAK FREE and contact my local orthodontist. These gurus told me how unfriendly these local orthodontist are so I didn’t know what to expect. I WAS FORTUNATE FOR MY LOCAL ORTHODONTIST TO GIVE ME HIS TIME. Eventually he employed me and I only did orthodontics as a general dentist under his supervision. He started to gradually coach me and look at all the patients I had underway. He shared his knowledge of latest evidence, clinical pearls and especially case diagnosis and stability. Because this was real and patient-focussed and related to my everyday practice, it was THE BEST WAY TO LEARN – A WHOLE NEW MEANING came about to my ORTHODONTICS practice as a general dentist. MOST OF ALL – the personal one-on-one case-based approach helped me really understand the COMPLEXITIES OF HUMAN VARIATIONS AND OUR TREATMENTS. I became a learner again and decided to specialise in Orthodontics knowing I would sacrifice my flourishing dental career (I was already starting a path toward LVI dentistry!). It was my only way to learn it at the level I wanted.