From pizza shop to Maxfax theatre — Sina Gilannejad's route into dentistry is anything but straightforward. Born in Northern Ireland to Iranian parents, Sina brings a rare blend of warmth, self-awareness, and hard-won clinical confidence to this conversation.
He opens up about the anxiety that drove him towards DCT, the perfectionism that almost derailed him, and how a stint in maxillofacial surgery — confronting cancer, mortality, and the limits of medicine — fundamentally changed his relationship with the job.
It's an honest, searching episode about what it actually means to become a dentist, and what to do once you've got there.
In This Episode
00:01:10 - Extraction anxiety and the road to DCT
00:02:10 - Growing up in Northern Ireland
00:03:45 - Working in his dad's pizza shop
00:08:30 - Dental school in Bristol
00:16:45 - Politics, cancel culture and the Overton window
00:24:00 - "Most Presenting Complaint" — the podcast with Adam
00:25:25 - The FD year: imposter syndrome and mental health struggles
00:35:35 - Practitioners Health and CBT
00:39:20 - Patient communication and dentistry's image problem
00:41:45 - DCT explained — the case for and against
00:44:50 - DCT1 in Cardiff: oral medicine, oral surgery and Mike Lewis
00:50:05 - Choosing Maxfax — Chesterfield and DCT2
00:53:35 - Advice bias: the responsibility of giving career guidance
00:57:05 - To specialise or not to specialise
01:02:00 - General practice at Dental Beauty
01:04:10 - Wisdom teeth, retained roots and the perils of perfectionism
01:05:20 - Implants: the next step?
01:11:00 - Practice ownership, the super associate and social media
01:14:50 - Maxfax, mortality and perspective
01:22:10 - Blackbox thinking
01:26:50 - Teaching, favourite resources and DCT study budgets
01:38:50 - Fantasy dinner party
01:42:25 - Last days and legacy
About Sina Gilannejad
Sina Gilannejad is a dental core trainee who completed DCT1 in oral surgery and oral medicine at Cardiff and DCT2 in maxillofacial surgery at Chesterfield. A Bristol dental school graduate and former dental school president, he now works as an associate at Dental Beauty practices in Dalston and Basildon, with a particular interest in oral surgery and conscious sedation. He is also co-host of the Most Presenting Complaint podcast alongside fellow dentist Adam.
