KUALA LUMPUR, January 20, 2019 – The Young and Inspiring Dentist forum was recently held in conjunction with the 26th MDA Scientific Convention and Trade Exhibition in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia students from the Dental Student Club (DSC) were afforded an opportunity to attend.
The theme of the event was a young and inspiring forum and the panels featured some members with a dental background and included Associate Professor Dr. Firdaus Hariri; an oral maxillofacial surgeon and humanitarian advocate, Major (R) Dr. Faiz Khaleed, Malaysian astronaut, Dr. Ezani Farhana Md. Monoto first MasterChef Malaysia and Dr Ibrahim Shahruddin an entrepreneur.
These inspiring individuals shared their experiences and journeys to become accomplished and passionate dentists. The two dentist celebrities, Dr. Ezani and Dr. Faiz, both nationally well known for their non-dental activities, encouraged young dentists to focus not only on their dental education but also to gain experience from other fields. Dr Ibrahim Shahruddin shared his experiences opening his own clinics (he is currently focusing on his 20th clinic at the age of 32). His philosophy in life is ‘if we go alone, we may achieve something, but if we go in group we can go far’ and his success inspires us to start planning 5 years to 10 years in advance to achieve long term plans. We must also be brave, as in order to achieve anything, occasional failure is unavoidable. AP Dr Firdaus Hariri mentioned that failure is not a barrier to become successful but a motivation to be more successful. He reminded the younger generation to refer back to their roots and how far they have already come to become a dentist before thinking of quitting an undertaking . It was a most fruitful session for the young students and hopefully they were gained further insight into becoming successful future dentists.
Reported by,
DSC and Syatirah Abdullah, PhD