“5 minutes with…” is our new spotlight on some of the amazing and dedicated dental specialists that we refer to. Specialist treatment is sometimes required for more extensive or complex treatment plans, and at Alphington Dental Care we have curated a comprehensive list of practitioners who deliver excellent treatment.

Dr Martin Gale is one of the specialist Endodontists we refer to, who specialises in the nerves of the teeth. More than just root canal treatment endodontics an involve diagnosis of difficult or unclear pain, treatment of anatomical tooth defects, management of cracks or tooth resorption.

Name:	Dr Martin Gale
Profession:	Dentist, Endodontist
Practice:	Ivanhoe Specialist Endodontics
Contact details:	(03) 9499 6699 118 Waterdale Road, Ivanhoe VIC 3079 isendo.com.au

So, what made you get into dentistry and endodontics?  Did you always see yourself doing this?

I am an endodontic specialist, and we just do root canal treatments.   I sometimes joke to patients that I specialised in endodontics because I wasn’t much good at anything else.  (I don’t take myself too seriously, as you might have already guessed.)  But endodontics was my favourite subject while studying, so there is a bit of truth in this.  Also, I gravitated towards endodontics because when I was in general practice there were so many patients who needed root canal, and so I wanted to be good at it.  It seemed such a shame to take teeth out.

Endodontics is also very rational with clear science backing it up, so one can work out what to do and why.   I like that aspect of it.  In addition, in specialist practice we have all the high end equipment like microscopes and a cone beam CT scanner machine which makes the job so much easier and more predictable.   It’s sort of fun getting things to work out nicely for the patients.

What is your favourite thing about the work you do?

Killing the germs in teeth so that the teeth get better.  I still get a kick out of seeing the infective bone holes healing up around the ends of the roots.  Yes that’s right, infection in the root canals cause your jaw bone to dissolve away! Yikes!  I also like getting patients off the frequent sugar in food and drinks, so they don’t get any more decay and root canal infections. And my staff are really good and supportive too.  We enjoy coming to work.

What are three things you wish more people know about your line of work?

1.  Most dental disease such as decay and gum disease is preventable.  With a low sugar diet and good daily cleaning then much of the disease I treat every day would not even have occurred in the first place.  Most people don’t realise this.
2. These days anaesthesia is usually very good so dental treatment shouldn’t be painful, but is never enjoyable.  You may be surprised to hear that we actually don’t enjoy that people have to endure the uncomfortable treatment.  Patients also probably don’t realise that we get quite uncomfortable too, sitting for so long doing fiddly and detailed work.  Spare a thought for us too.
3. But we do really enjoy fixing teeth and helping people get back to dental health, and also teaching them how to avoid new dental disease (see 1 above).  It’s a great job to do.

If you weren’t a dentist/endodontist what would you be doing?

In my youth I was so into aviation and flying.  If I wasn’t a dentist then I would have tried to become an air force  or commercial pilot.  Flying seems like pure magic.  I did two years in the UK RAF as a volunteer reserve pilot when I was a dental student which was a lot of fun.

But at present, I am into geeky techy stuff and can see huge potential in computer based artificial intelligence in all sorts of fields, including dentistry. Right now there is an explosion of new methods in decision making and robotics which will likely match or even exceed human capability.  If I didn’t have the day job, then I would be developing this technology for dentistry.   Dentistry is hard to do well, and we need more tools to make it easier.

What is something people don’t know about you?

I wear size 10 shoes.  OK, I crossed that out as you all know it now.

Finally, what quote do you feel best describes you/your philosophy in life?

Don’t take yourself too seriously, but do try and make a nice job of things and work for the greater good.  And avoid sugary food and drinks! (I had to get that in again…)