Behind a Smile with Dr. Shauntel Ambrose

Be the Best Version of Yourself serving Excellence Globally with Dr. Meglin Rathnasamy

• Shauntel Ambrose • Season 2 • Episode 3

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When Dr. Meglin Rathnasamy decided to transport his life and dental practice from the rich landscapes of South Africa to the bustling cityscapes of Australia, little did he know the odyssey that awaited. As he sat down with me, Shauntel  Ambrose, his story unfolded—a tale of aspiration, meticulous orchestration, and a seamless melding of cultures. His profound insights into the professional shifts and the pursuit of a work-life symphony in Cairns will surely resonate with anyone standing at the crossroads of change.

It's not every day you get to peer into the daily rhythms of a dentist who has fine-tuned the art of community-centric practice while guarding the essence of family. In our heart-to-heart, Dr. Rathnasamy illuminates the path to empowering a dental team, advocating for the distribution of knowledge and the cultivation of a supportive culture. His transition from general practice to specialized dentistry speaks volumes of the lifelong passion and dedication required, serving as both a beacon and a guidepost for dental professionals everywhere.

We also cast a critical eye over the delicate balance between ethical practice and business growth. Meglin doesn't shy away from the tough conversations about profitability, the surge in dental implants, and the impact of mentorship on career trajectory. This episode is a trove of wisdom not just for dentists from South Africa, but for any practitioner looking to kindle or rekindle their vocational fervor. And as we close, we turn the spotlight on the significance of family and personal milestones, inviting you to join us in this journey of professional and personal enrichment.

Speaker 1:

I'm Shauntel Ambrose and I'm a dentist, and I host a healthcare business podcast that shares tips from the healthcare industry leaders. So, whether you're a startup or needing a push in the right direction, a family business or just looking for mentorship, join us. So welcome to everyone. We're talking to Dr Meglin Rathnasamy that is now based in Australia and has been kind enough to actually give us some of his time to talk about what it's like to be part of the Australian fabric of the industry, so I want to share a little bit about him.

Speaker 1:

He has qualified from the University of Witwatersand and he ran his own practice in Wittbank for around eight years before he went over to Australia. After working for Queensland Health, he finished his ADC exams and he made a move into private practice in Australia, and he is there for around 12 years now. So Meglin joined Smithfield dental, and that was, I think, in 2012. He became an associate and then he and his wife, pam became the owners of Smithfield dental. And now, megalem, I think that you also have your second practice called dental on, martin, I want to hear a little bit about you. So welcome, I'm very excited to have you on Hi.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'll say good morning for you guys. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Shauntel, I'm excited. I think you would know that the perspective of many dentists in South Africa at the moment are we're keeping our cards open. I wonder if you could start with telling us what's your journey like? What led to you reaching Australia?

Speaker 2:

So for me, my journey has been very eventful and faithful. I guess I was just really lucky to be in the right places at the right time. So, qualifying, I went to Bitbank and loved practice, but I wanted more. And in 2007, 2008, I started looking at either specializing back in South Africa, but I also wanted to make inroads into leaving South Africa for a better or greener pastures in the land of opportunity. And a big reason for that was the birth of my daughter in 2006, which made me reevaluate life in South Africa and the potential life that my daughter was going to have, and she was the big, key reason that we decided to take a leap of faith.

Speaker 2:

We were really lucky having communication with lots of South African dentists that were already in camps in Queensland Health in the same district that I was going to be hosted in, and they created a very supportive network that made it a really soft landing for us in camps. So that journey has been an amazing journey. I am far more enlightened now as to the inroads. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. You just put your head down and do one step at a time, and I think that is the most important thing that got us through, pam, myself and my daughter Karina through the journey.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to know what did it look like when you left? What does that prep look like For anyone thinking I can do that? What does it really look like? How many years does it take for you to make that decision and then finally get there?

Speaker 2:

So the prep in advance. Everyone procrastinates, everyone's too afraid to give up what. The good life that we have in South Africa, the luxuries that most dentists can afford is not common in South Africa. It's very easy to gain wealth in South Africa being a dentist doing what we do. So it's a big privilege and it's an honor being a dentist in South Africa and we all get comfortable.

Speaker 2:

So I made the decision in September 2010 to finally just fight the bullet without visiting Australia just on a leap of faith. Other South Africans have done it. This is the end will justify the means for me. And I came home one day and told Pam I have applied for a job and I've had an interview at two o'clock this morning while you were asleep, and I think we're moving to Australia. And she said how long is it gonna take? And I said three months. That's how long it took us.

Speaker 2:

It was planned to take us to get all our paperwork in order, sell to houses, sell a practice, sell everything we own, liquefy all our assets to have sort of a financial footing in Australia. So, yeah, minimum three months. I don't recommend it, but yeah, that's how long it takes to get your ducks in a row. We were lucky, under the public service workforce scheme that was running at the time we had South African dentists had limited scope or practice to work within the government systems and yet it made it a lot easier getting your foot in the door at that point.

Speaker 1:

Well, I doubt very much that you could do that in three months any longer. Once you're there now, what are the biggest changes that you experience from now, knowing South Africa as a dentist, as a person, as a family? What are the biggest changes that you experience once you're there?

Speaker 2:

You know, from an acclimatisation perspective, as a family, Australia was probably the best place we chose. Firstly, they all love barbecue and beer, which is something I think or as we say in South Africa, right. But on a more serious note, there's a lot of similarities amongst Aussies and South Africans. The people are fantastic, the people give you a fair chance in life and if you prepare to work hard, there's lots of opportunities to be had in Australia. From a dentistry perspective, you know I always loved dentistry. I always had a passion for it and for me the dentistry was easy.

Speaker 2:

I don't think there's much difference in the quality of dentistry. We were taught and trained. We were way ahead, you know, 20 years ago, in our training. I'm not sure what the landscape of the training looks like these days at our universities, but I pulled my head up high with the training that we received. It was world class. And you know relearning dentistry, if you can call it that, with eight years of experience I loved it. I enjoyed it.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't about learning new things about dentistry. It was more learning about the requirements that the Australian standards wanted you to give them. It wasn't about learning how to cut crowns, how to take out a tooth. It was just about what's the standard of care in Australia and, to be fair, it was below what we were used to in South Africa. So dentistry was the easy part in Australia.

Speaker 2:

All the other challenges of not having family, you know, going through hard times, the affordability of daycare, not being a citizen, not being a permanent resident, so you're not afforded any of the subsidies, so everything is paid in international rates while you have until you achieve that. And then you know the flip side is also true is, once you are a permanent resident, they act like you've always been here and we have so much of the subsidies and luxuries that's afforded to being in a first world country like Australia with all its privileges. So you know. In saying what was the biggest challenges or changes, I'd say every day is a bit of a change, every day is a bit of a challenge.

Speaker 1:

But as long as you are people that you know.

Speaker 2:

you've got to have your purpose, and my purpose was my daughter. Her purpose might have been a bit different, you know, because all we did was trip her away from her grandparents, who she loved more than anything else and we took her to a place that we told her was better. But South Africa was amazing for her because she was sheltered from everything that we knew was wrong with the place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so listen, that's amazing and thank you for sharing that with us, because I think I have to share with our listeners that just today, when I'm doing this interview with Meglin, they're busy in the background, actually preparing for a cyclone. I was just really amazed that you say now you're ready to go, and I'm thinking, but are you sure that you really want to have this interview? No, I'm ready to go and I think it really. For me, it is actually the reason why it's an attitude almost oh, very little gets under your skin, it appears. From what I hear from you, you just are able to be quite resilient in the climate. Now I want to know what does your typical day look like there?

Speaker 2:

My day is pretty fantastic. I really am privileged to have the type of days I have. I don't deal with the big city like Sydney, brisbane, malvern, traffic. I live in Paradise. I live in Cairns, which is the tropics. Every few times a year we get a cyclone, a tropical cyclone, and the pros and cons. The pros outweigh the cons any day.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, a typical day for me is I get up in the morning, go to the gym with my daughter I tend to six every morning. We then come back home. I drive two minutes to work maybe three minutes if there's traffic and get to work. I've got a fantastic team that makes sure everything is looked after for me. I get in there. It depends on the day.

Speaker 2:

Some days I do a bit of restorative. Some days I do general dentistry. My general dentistry day is I see 20 patients for the day. My specialized work day is I see two to three patients for the day and, yeah, it's really fantastic. The team is so supportive. Pam, my wife, handles the running of the business. A couple of days a week I do go to the second practice and just do specialized consultations there and if it's any big treatment, we bring them back to our home base, which is at Smithfield Dental. So, yeah, that's my typical day, and then usually I run late because I never say no to most patients to Pam's annoyance and we get home. It doesn't take us long to get home and then, yeah, it's basically family duties, but that's a typical day for us.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so it sounds very much like you almost have the ease of being able to get into practice in the shortest period of time. You get a little bit of family time before you even get there, just to connect with your daughter, which is, I can see, something that is, I think, all of us that are running families and having our careers it's just that one thing that just keeps you going, keeps you well motivated. I wanted to know how did you choose your team, because it sounds like you have that magic team. How do you choose your team?

Speaker 2:

I think that's. It sounds like that but it's not. You know, in the dental fraternity, most of the time we get dental nurses. We run a traineeship program where we get their CEP3 through one of the technical colleges. So we always got trainees that we are running two to three trainees at a time in our program. We love trainees because we teach them how to work. We don't have to deal with bad habits, we don't have to deal with bad culture. So you know our procedures, protocols and our team culture is continuously evolving to what we need.

Speaker 2:

I don't think you can say at any time that you know you've got the dream team. It's. It is dynamic. People come and go, people have families, some people it's a stepping stone to learn from the dentist as mentors so that they can pursue a career in dentistry or hygiene or oral therapy. So I think the important thing is having more than one person to do particular tasks so that there's no key man dependence, including myself, a path from. You know very, very specialized work that I do in plant post-adontics and some of the implant work the surgical implant. Anyone can replace me in my team. Any of my dentists can replace me in my team if I need downtime, and that's the approach we use. I hope that answers your question as to how do we choose our team. We choose slowly and we fire quickly.

Speaker 1:

Now I can see that you have an academic focus and I think that I always remembered that about you, even when you were in South Africa, that you always enjoyed academics. You could see that this is your love job, I think even at an undergraduate level, and it is something that I think that you've taken back with you to Australia. Can you expand a little bit on what sort of academic profile do you have that you both see now that you're there?

Speaker 2:

So, academically, I think the best thing for me was re-during my degree in preparation for the ADC, because it was fun to study. It was fun to learn things, not just to pass an exam, but with eight years of experience it was so much of fun studying all of that again and I learned so much. So after that I knew I didn't. I think it's. The 80-20 principle is that when you start off as a new grad, you've got to do everything and you probably love only 20% of it, but you've got to pay the bills and you've got to do the hard yards in that regard, and my goal has always been to flip that to the other way and to love 80% of what I do and do the other 20% because I have to. As an associate, you always have to do whatever you need to do from a procedural perspective. And when we, pam and I, went into ownership, well, just before that I did a grad that did the new plantology, because that always was my passion surgery and yeah, the opportunity arose and it worked out. But in saying that, I've also got heaps of mentors here in Australia, not necessarily in Cairns, but in a guy that own multiple practices that are so willing to share.

Speaker 2:

As a practice owner, it can sometimes be a very lonely arena where people think that you're competing with the next job or people like to keep their trade secrets to themselves. And that's why I say, even here in Australia it's been like that for the last, however many years. But there's a new generation of younger owners in between the 30s and 40s or 30s and 30s that, through social platforms, through the mentorship programs that they run, are so willing to share the ups and downs, to make you feel like you're not imagining your problem, that you can scale. People have done it before. This is sort of the rulebook to do it by, or the blueprint, and you can extrapolate on that and make it your own. So I think that for me was the opening.

Speaker 2:

It's not a nice thing to say, but I tell my work this all the time is when I'm on the tools doing dentistry, I'm probably my East productive, but I'm at my happiest. And when I'm not on the tools and I'm sitting with downtime, that's when the expansion plans, that's when the productivity goes through the roof, but it's not necessarily what I love as much as my clinical work.

Speaker 1:

That's a refreshing perspective, but thank you for sharing that I think everyone has. If you are able to identify what it is that you're good at doing and what you like doing versus and what is necessary to do, I think it's a critical foundation for any business, whatever it is that you choose. So it is an incredibly important discussion. Thank you for bringing it up. I know that there are unexpected challenges. Now I was sharing with you today that, as we're doing our interview, that I have load shedding. So these unexpected challenges that come our way, you have a cyclone.

Speaker 1:

So I know that in order to run both the practices, there has to be a number of systems and processes in place that are keeping you going, and I know that this is a large perspective of what PAN does for you. So once you decide on your systems and your processes, how do you get that implemented and do you revisit it? Do you revisit it from time to time, thinking oh listen, I think that's going quite well, but I'm going to give this a three month plan and let's just see how much productivity we get out of it and how often do you do that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I do it all the time. You're 100% correct. You have to identify what you're good at. You have to identify what brings you your branding as well. For me that's dentistry, that's whole-hearted clinical dentistry, not upselling. Patients know what they're getting when they see me and that's where the word of mouth referrals. All of that in cans, over a short period of time, not trying to be pompous, but that's what led me to build my branding in cans.

Speaker 2:

From a growth perspective, a busy dentist is not necessarily a profitable business and that sometimes can be an ethical dilemma for most dentists being clinician. But you also can't help anyone if you're not in business. And to stay in business you have to be turning over a couple. And there's nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of your profit as long as you're doing part work. The good old days of a dentist just opening and putting a gold plaque out on his wall and making sure that that was enough marketing, and he was busy. And I say he because that was the time when it was only medical dentists, that where the majority is one.

Speaker 2:

Times have changed. Yes, it is a competitive market. Yes, you have to put your branding out there, but it also doesn't mean that you're competing with the dynamics, though there's more than enough market share from the population. You just have to be the best version of yourself and do things that keep you up to date, so revisiting processes and protocols. You have to do it all the time If something is not working. A lot of the time, our hearts make us stick with something that's not working, even though our heads tell us differently. Something that I've come to trust a lot more, and that's Pam, because she's come from a finance background, is numbers. Don't like you. A formula will always give you the right answers to know whether your KPIs are being met, whether you are sitting in the red or the black. So you can fool yourself for so long until you look at the figures and all you need is the data of a long period of time and it tells you what you need to change. And if you don't change it, then things will belly up very quickly.

Speaker 1:

Listen, what you're saying is something that's really critical. I think it takes a lot of courage If you're not a numbers guy, if you're not a numbers girl. It takes a lot of courage to actually know what's happening with your numbers and how to revisit those numbers and how to make sense of them so that it actually can be based on planned production, planned progression. I think that to get planned progression requires what a number of revisits to getting to the nitty gritty of the red line, black line, where they're sitting at the moment.

Speaker 1:

And I love the fact that you say that you revisited, because I think that it needs to be said that, no matter how busy your practice is, no matter how wonderful your team is perceived to be, that there will be a day that some days are less productive than others, some days you are going to be closer to your red line than you will ordinarily be, and to accept that as just part of the process is, I think, an incredible tool to just keep on going you can't be bogged down by your numbers, just not looking the way you perceive that they're going to grow but also to keep your wits about you, to try to find what it is that's going to light up your surgery in the way you want to do it.

Speaker 1:

So I love what you've said there. I think it's going to be extremely valuable to especially the end of the year evaluation that we all go through. So I wanted to also check with you. I see that you're really doing a lot of implants now. Is it a very common thing to be asked to do, and do you have to have a specialist qualification? I'm understanding from you.

Speaker 2:

No, you don't have to have a specialist qualification, but it's good to have it A formal program of following all the literature, following protocols and, most important, having mentors to be able to consult with. Again, learning new procedures. You have to learn from others mistakes, not just your own mistakes, and so it's definitely favorable to have a grad at that place. Implants I give a lot of talks to new grads and they don't even have the basic foundation of dentistry and all they want to do is invisalign an implant and you also have one, and the motive is completely wrong. It's completely financially correct.

Speaker 2:

I think at that stage in your career it shouldn't be driven solely by finances. It should be driven by learning about gaining skills and figuring out what you love doing and basically, you know, try and find those specific procedures that you love doing and do more of that. Not be driven by hey, you know what that dentist does a nice cow, or that dentist that took them 20 years to do. You can't expect to come out as a new grad and have all those wants. Things happen slowly and as a new grad, there's so much to learn.

Speaker 2:

You know, I remember qualifying in 2003 with you and I remember thinking, oh, this is it I've done. Now I've done studying, I can go out and I probably know everything that needs to be known about dentistry. And how wrong did I feel you know? It's a continuous level, just a ticket to be able to learn more, and there's always more to learn, from a dentistry perspective as well as from a business perspective. I think none of us can say that we know everything, and the other thing is that there's so many people out there that have done it all before. All we need to do is ask the questions, use them as mentors, learn from their experiences, and most people who have accomplished a lot are so happy to share the knowledge and the route that it took to get to where they are. So, yeah, that's what I have to say about that side of you know.

Speaker 1:

Listen, I think that a lot of people are in a position right now of just making decisions of future. Because we know we're at the end of this year and you take on the evaluation of life for the podcast, we are gifting our audience with sort of ways to reevaluate where you're at in life. So to get that 360 perspective is really the aim of our discussion and I wanted to ask you for those people that are in the mindset of maybe I should actually go over what's the advice that you have to South African dentists.

Speaker 2:

My advice to South African dentists is my heart will always remain in South Africa. In a way, one of the biggest regrets I have is leaving South Africa because I never thought I would. I always felt those of us that are educated enough, those of us that are in positions of power and financially more secure than others, should use those positions to influence change and be the change. So, in terms of that, contributing to the brain drain has always been a guilt that I have. But, on the same note, I love Australia. I love it because it's been really good to me. We've taken every opportunity that was thrown at us. We've taken big risks that I would never have imagined taking in South Africa and they've paid off with hard work, with dedication, sticking to the plan. We're still taking risks, so it's not at the end of that tenure either. So my advice to South African dentists think about moving.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of opportunity here.

Speaker 2:

You guys have a fantastic degree. You've worked and trained so well. You don't know how well because you've got nothing to compare it to, but I see it every day. We do have a good background in training and if you're prepared to do a little bit of hard work, not just in dentistry but also with the actual change through the paperwork, going through a little bit of difficulty from a lifestyle perspective because unless you're rolling in a lot of money in South Africa it is hard to maintain that lifestyle, but at the end it's going to justify the means Then you've got to ask yourself what's it worth to you and for me for my daughter to be able to walk on the street safely, or her to go to school by bus, to not have to worry as much. I mean, crime is everywhere, but you're just minimizing your risks. For me that is in done.

Speaker 1:

I'll do it in a heartbeat.

Speaker 2:

I may be a little more cautious and may not achieve the things I have achieved thus far if I had to do it all over again, but I definitely will do it again. As I said in the intro, sometimes ignorance is bliss. I didn't know how difficult the road was going to be, but I took it in a leap of faith. And especially when you throw everything at it, you've got to have to go to work because everything's riding on it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, I appreciate that. I know you have many accolades and you always have, and often you get mentors that will give you a little bit of advice, but they need you to actually go through a little bit of pain for it, and I appreciate that you're able to give your advice so openly. So I'm very grateful for that. What are you most proud of?

Speaker 2:

Most proud? Probably my wife and daughter. To be fair, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be doing the things I do and, yes, that's my primary purpose. But in saying that, day to day, I'm not always thinking about them. Every single procedure, every single thing I do, I love doing it to the best of my ability because that's what I'm competing against. Most proud of? Definitely my family, but I love doing good work in anything.

Speaker 1:

I really think that the advice you've given us may actually spark many people to just take on a lot of what your motto in life is it's just be the best you. Hey, I think you've done well at being the best you Well done.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for the kind words, Gentel. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1:

I have covered starting up and how to turn your vision into a business, and in our future episodes we look at leadership. We look at multi-practice success. I'm grateful for you and I would love to hear your ideas. What questions do you need answered? Please drop me a mail at behindasmile2@gmail. com. I look forward to hearing from you and remember you are heard, you are seen and on this platform, you are invited. Let's make it happen together.