Mentee to Mentor: How Dr. Patrick Calalang's Love of Teaching Led Him to Biomimetic Dentistry
“If it weren’t for the doctors I mentor, I would be on a beach right now in the Philippines,” Alleman Center mentor Dr. Patrick Calalang often says with a smile and a laugh. Yes, that is a positive statement.
Dr. Patrick Calalang had his eyes set on retirement until he discovered his passion for mentoring other dentists. “I was ready to retire. I had a good relationship with my patients and I still liked dentistry, but I thought, ‘there’s more to life than work.’ I took one last CE course with Dr. Bob Winter and things changed.” During a prep course at the Spear Center, Dr. Calalang was offered a mentorship position to help other doctors gain the skills that he had already spent years crafting.
Dr. Calalang found that by helping other doctors build their skills and confidence, his enthusiasm for his own work returned.
As he saw the difficulties his fellow doctors encountered in their daily work, he began taking more and more CE courses, building his own strengths to be an even stronger guide for the doctors he mentored.
Then in March 2020, “right after the lockdown, a friend told me to check out this thing called Instagram,” Dr. Calalang remembers. Like many other dentists at the time, he was amazed with accounts posting flat preparations that restored teeth using biomimetic restorative techniques, and he wanted to learn more. Also like many other dentists, Dr. Calalang realized that following dentists who used biomimetic techniques wasn’t enough. The pieces of information he gathered from the accounts only sparked his curiosity further.
“I messaged one of the doctors I had been following who I knew to be studying with the Allemans, Dr. Ashley Chung,” the same @dr.ashlifts who later joined the Alleman Center mentor team, “and asked her what the Biomimetic Mastership was all about. When she told me they read literature my first thought was, ‘I don’t want to read literature!’”
Now having studied the articles behind Dr. Alleman’s Six Lessons Approach and helped other doctors do the same, Dr. Calalang says, “the literature is the most important part. Now I don’t just drive the car. When the transmission breaks down, I can fix it. If something isn’t working in a restoration, I know how to fix it and the science that backs up my steps.”
As an Alleman Center mentor, Dr. Calalang’s commitment to education is stronger than ever. “When I talk to a doctor who is just trying to do what is best for their patients and they hit a roadblock, my advice is the same: education. Taking the time to educate your patients, educate your team and educate yourself will mean you always offer the best work. The learning doesn’t stop when you leave dental school. Continue to study, learn and explore, and your patients will see your commitment to them through your work.”
Dr. Calalang is now a self-described “CE hound,” working more than ever at his office, Absolute Dental, in Gilbert, AZ, and mentoring doctors at the Alleman Center, BAARD Institute and SPEAR Education. When he isn’t posting educational and motivational photos and videos on Instagram, he enjoys making memories with his family, golfing with his friends and relaxing with Netflix. Follow his work on Instagram @dr.patrick.calalang.
While Dr. Calalang has since left the Alleman Center team to focus on his practice and family, we encourage everyone to follow his work and continue to learn from the wealth of experience that he shares.
