# #348 Agony Uncle — Sina Gilannejad

An episode of [Dental Leaders Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1482901418), 24 Jun 2026, 1 h 45 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/f47b45cc/podcast/play/121891895/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-23%2F426695440-44100-2-e8fb314b20fe2.mp3

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.

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