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[VOICE]: This [00:00:30] is Dental Leaders. The [00:00:35] podcast where you get to go one on one with emerging leaders [00:00:40] in dentistry. Your hosts [00:00:45] Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki.

Payman Langroudi: It gives me [00:00:50] great pleasure to welcome Alex Puccio onto the podcast. I met [00:00:55] Alex first at Mini Smile Makeover.

Alex Buciu: But yeah, probably the [00:01:00] first time. The first one. Yeah. But you’re the first man because I. You came twice. You came to [00:01:05] New York. They named it twice. New York, New York. I had to do it.

Payman Langroudi: Lots of people come twice. [00:01:10] You know, people can come as many times as they like. And the record is seven times. Seven [00:01:15] times. And actually, interestingly, we talk about that because now Depeche after three years he’s going to do [00:01:20] Mini Smile makeover part two multiple teeth. So that that guy’s a perfectionist. [00:01:25] Yeah. So good to have you, buddy. Alex.

Alex Buciu: Thank you for having me.

Payman Langroudi: My pleasure. [00:01:30] Alex is a dentist who qualified in Romania and, uh, then decided to [00:01:35] make the move firstly to Northern Ireland and then to Peterborough lately. [00:01:40] And working as an associate.

Alex Buciu: Yes. That’s it. I chose, uh, Northern [00:01:45] Ireland because I was extremely scared about the NHS, uh, dental [00:01:50] and, um, target cdas and stuff. And I chose Northern Ireland, uh, [00:01:55] because I had a friend there and also it’s a fibre item. [00:02:00] So I said, yeah, even if I don’t.

Payman Langroudi: And you knew that from Romania.

Alex Buciu: So I said, [00:02:05] it’s gonna be like a stepping stone and take it from there, even if I, there’s no target. [00:02:10] So whatever I make, I make and that’s it.

Payman Langroudi: And had you worked as a dentist in Romania?

[TRANSITION]: Yes. [00:02:15] Yes, I had my own clinic. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So I qualified in 2004. I [00:02:20] had my own clinic. Uh, and in the last few years before I left, most [00:02:25] of my friends were endodontics or root canal. Yeah. Specialists. [00:02:30] And I started to go on that path. Uh, I was working [00:02:35] under a microscope. I had some dentists that started to send referrals over. So [00:02:40] imagine the shock and the disappointment when, uh, I moved Northern [00:02:45] Ireland and they said, okay, you have 15 minutes to place two amalgams. It’s like an amalgam because I [00:02:50] wrote read about it. But, uh, um, in Romania they are banned [00:02:55] for ten dozens of years. You know, it’s like you have to like, what? Would you play something? I [00:03:00] was like, no. And I would place rubber dam and, you know, floss the rubber dam. And my nurse [00:03:05] would pull her like, we have five people waiting in the.

Payman Langroudi: So it’s not an uncommon story, right? I have [00:03:10] people sitting where you’re sitting, coming from India from all over the world, and their [00:03:15] first exposure to the NHS as shocking for them. Um, [00:03:20] tell me this. The decision to move. I mean, if you were a practice owner, [00:03:25] someone who’s doing endo to that level, why move? I mean, [00:03:30] you could have had a pretty good life in Romania.

[TRANSITION]: I guess it.

Alex Buciu: Was a good life. Um, it [00:03:35] it wasn’t amazing, but it was good. Um, however, the associate [00:03:40] I had, the. I’m not gonna go into too many details. Uh, for the clinic, [00:03:45] things started to deteriorate.

Payman Langroudi: And between you and him.

Alex Buciu: You. Yeah, it [00:03:50] was my sister.

[TRANSITION]: But it was.

Payman Langroudi: Your.

[TRANSITION]: Sister.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. But, uh, dishonesty [00:03:55] and, uh, yeah, theft [00:04:00] and stuff like this.

Payman Langroudi: So then what did the practice start failing?

Alex Buciu: The practice was doing [00:04:05] okay, but I couldn’t be part of that.

[TRANSITION]: I had.

Payman Langroudi: Enough.

[TRANSITION]: Of it.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. So at some [00:04:10] point I, after years of trying to work things out, I said, you know what? You can have everything. [00:04:15] I literally signed everything. You keep everything. I don’t want anything to do.

[TRANSITION]: With.

Alex Buciu: You anymore. [00:04:20] So that was one. Then we had the children and we started to my daughter. [00:04:25] In the first few years of our life, uh, spend most of the [00:04:30] time in the hospital with different, uh, with actually one medical issue that [00:04:35] kept on, uh, reoccurring. And it was extremely easy to [00:04:40] sort out now that I know what it was. Um, but they kept [00:04:45] the medical system was failing anyway. And even though we went privately and we paid private [00:04:50] hospital private still they weren’t weren’t at that level to understand. So in the whole [00:04:55] country, there were only two specialists that, uh, knew about the very [00:05:00] young children, uh, renal issues. And, [00:05:05] uh, until we ended up with one of them, we kept paying and. [00:05:10]

[TRANSITION]: He didn’t have even a diagnosis.

Alex Buciu: So they gave us, like, at some point, 90, uh, uh, [00:05:15] days of three antibiotics just to it’s like she’s gonna get cirrhosis, [00:05:20] you know, by the time she’s five, she’s not gonna have a liver anymore. No, no, no, this is so that [00:05:25] was one. Another one was the, um, judicial [00:05:30] system, which is extremely corrupt. So if you are connected, if you have [00:05:35] money, you have the law on your side.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: If not, [00:05:40] you’re you’re going to be at a loss.

[TRANSITION]: It’s it’s a lot of [00:05:45] countries I.

Payman Langroudi: I’m not sure I can call Romania a third world country, but a in a lot of [00:05:50] those second and third world countries, it comes [00:05:55] a lot down to who you know.

[TRANSITION]: Yep yep yep.

Alex Buciu: That’s correct.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s an interesting [00:06:00] thing. Yeah. Because some people are very good at sort of leveraging relationships [00:06:05] or some people are obviously.

[TRANSITION]: Fortunate, really good, fortunate.

Payman Langroudi: Enough [00:06:10] to have huge networks family wise and all that. And some people aren’t.

[TRANSITION]: Right.

Alex Buciu: My, my [00:06:15] network was exclusively, uh, done by me. I didn’t inherit [00:06:20] anything from my family, rather, except from some problems that I [00:06:25] had to sort them out. So not even no, no help. Not even, you know, uh, [00:06:30] so, um, I had my good network, but, [00:06:35] uh, on the other hand, I don’t want my children. I didn’t want that. You ask me why I decided to leave. [00:06:40] So that was, uh, probably the main one. I didn’t want my children to learn to [00:06:45] get away with things like, uh, calling in favours like, look, Alex is my father. Can you help [00:06:50] me out with this? And I want it to be on their own merit, you know? [00:06:55]

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And thirdly, when my daughter started school there, she was [00:07:00] six, even though she was a good, uh, school in our, uh, hometown. [00:07:05] Uh. The the process [00:07:10] and the level of, uh, knowledge the teacher [00:07:15] had was very, very low. Very every. So we [00:07:20] started, like, look, medically is crap. Judicial crap. [00:07:25] Uh, education, education is also failing [00:07:30] and getting from bad to worse. So it’s like there’s no point, uh, my business. I told you I wasn’t [00:07:35] too happy with them. And I started to cut down my days. So I was doing part time [00:07:40] with other different clinics, so I. There’s no point. And I had [00:07:45] a friend, a dear friend of mine from probably ten years [00:07:50] before. She kept saying, Come to England. She was working in Norwich at the time. I [00:07:55] went and visited her. I think it was 2011 and I shadowed her for a few days, [00:08:00] and I was shocked by the system [00:08:05] and how many patients you’d see in a day, like in and out, in and out, when I would stay with my patients [00:08:10] and talk a lot and got friends with them and, you know, so completely [00:08:15] different. Then I was like, no, I’m not ready. At the time I was ascending, I was going [00:08:20] up, up, up, up, up. So I didn’t want to pull the brakes then. And [00:08:25] uh, yeah. So this is why I ended up in Northern Ireland. And, um, [00:08:30] few years back, I moved to England, to Peterborough. [00:08:35] This is our home town now.

Payman Langroudi: But when you made the decision to move, how [00:08:40] long after did you move? I mean, was there an amount of saving money [00:08:45] or Romania?

[TRANSITION]: You mean selling houses or whatever? Selling [00:08:50] nothing.

Alex Buciu: It didn’t have anything to.

[TRANSITION]: What was the prep.

Payman Langroudi: For it? And then. And [00:08:55] then the sort of the you know what what were you timeframe? Yeah, yeah. What were you worried about [00:09:00] coming over and what was the reality when.

[TRANSITION]: You.

Alex Buciu: Only had one worry? And that was if the [00:09:05] children would get, uh, integrated? Yeah, if they’re gonna. Because none [00:09:10] of them knew English.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Um, and, uh, we started with some, uh, [00:09:15] private tuition. Uh, but, uh, that was my main worry. Uh, [00:09:20] in the when we moved to northern, it was [00:09:25] the very last few days of school, so I had to, uh, like [00:09:30] a parrot, teach my daughter, say toilet, please. You know, my [00:09:35] name is Sophia. Toilet, please. I didn’t want, like, could may I go to the toilet? May I know? [00:09:40] Just basic. So she wouldn’t wet herself, you know. So [00:09:45] that was the level of English. And now she speaks like she’s the queen.

[TRANSITION]: Okay.

Alex Buciu: She [00:09:50] has a very posh accent. Like, tone.

[BOTH]: It down to me like it’s like. [00:09:55]

Alex Buciu: And ask her in Romanian. She understands, but she replies in English.

Payman Langroudi: And had you arranged [00:10:00] the job before you came over?

[TRANSITION]: Yes. Yes, yes.

Payman Langroudi: So how did that work?

Alex Buciu: Um, [00:10:05] we we had lots of interviews over the phone and, uh, um, [00:10:10] the, uh, no, it went straight forward. It was with Bupa at [00:10:15] the time.

[TRANSITION]: So were they.

Payman Langroudi: Were they in Romania looking for dentists?

[TRANSITION]: Was that.

Alex Buciu: Um.

[TRANSITION]: How did [00:10:20] you how did you know about. My friend put.

Alex Buciu: Me in contact with, uh, them, but [00:10:25] they would go from time to time to Romania to for for recruitment. Uh, [00:10:30] yes, but I never attended any events of them. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So you get to England, you [00:10:35] start working, you put your kids in just a normal English school.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. Yeah. [00:10:40]

Payman Langroudi: And obviously difficult for them the first six months.

[TRANSITION]: No, no.

Alex Buciu: Amazingly [00:10:45] enough, they they love school. So again, the school in Romania was 100 [00:10:50] years behind. So even if it was not Northern [00:10:55] Ireland, not a very wealthy part of our country, um, [00:11:00] the people were lovely. The teachers, they literally [00:11:05] couldn’t wait so they would cry when we took them from when we picked them up from school, they wanted [00:11:10] to go back to school. This is something unheard of. We keep telling. Wow. Even now, they [00:11:15] they hate the holidays and they want to go back to to school.

[TRANSITION]: What a.

Payman Langroudi: Great. [00:11:20]

[TRANSITION]: School.

[BOTH]: It’s a public school.

Alex Buciu: Don’t get me wrong.

[BOTH]: They’re public school.

Alex Buciu: But my [00:11:25] daughter at least knows the difference because she had two years in the Romanian school, so [00:11:30] it’s more, uh, pupil centred. And. [00:11:35] Yeah, we’re going into philosophy now. The the way we [00:11:40] were born and communist. If you don’t count as a person, it’s the whole [00:11:45] country. Yeah. You know, so here every.

[TRANSITION]: It’s.

Payman Langroudi: All about the individual. [00:11:50]

Alex Buciu: Every individual counts. Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: That’s it. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So dairy as a town. I [00:11:55] mean, not a very big town, is it?

Alex Buciu: Uh, 120,000 [00:12:00] people, roughly.

Payman Langroudi: Which town were you in? Romania?

Alex Buciu: Constanza. So I was, uh, [00:12:05] born on the seaside. Sea shore? Yes. Of the Black Sea. Constanza is [00:12:10] one of the biggest cities in Romania. And it’s, uh, very, very, [00:12:15] uh, beautiful town when we don’t have tourists, which [00:12:20] is May to October, roughly. But June, July, August, September is the craziest. [00:12:25] Yeah, they litter and they’re loud and they, you know, motorcycles [00:12:30] at 3:00 racing and, um, but, uh, we have very, very [00:12:35] wide. Nice, fine sand beaches. Like 400 miles. Imagine. [00:12:40] Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: Well.

Alex Buciu: Again, this, uh, the [00:12:45] corruption, uh, they started to build, uh, kicked in and they started to build [00:12:50] hotels on the on the sand on the actual beach, which is illegal. And, [00:12:55] uh, they didn’t even think it through because the sun comes from [00:13:00] the sea, like in is exactly towards east. And they put their, [00:13:05] uh, hotel. So that means from maybe 12, 1:00, uh, after [00:13:10] lunch, uh, all the beach starts to get in the shadow.

[TRANSITION]: Uh.

Alex Buciu: So [00:13:15] they’d be like, most, like.

[TRANSITION]: Ten.

Alex Buciu: 12, 15.

[TRANSITION]: Stories. [00:13:20]

Alex Buciu: So by by the time the sun starts to go in the second part, the [00:13:25] west west, everything is just like you’ve shot yourself in the foot. Why [00:13:30] would you do that? Like so.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Your initial feelings on dairy like as [00:13:35] a as a town. It was like what didn’t have much of stuff that Constanza had, right?

Alex Buciu: No, no, [00:13:40] no.

[TRANSITION]: It’s like.

Alex Buciu: Irish English.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: Parts. Yes. We [00:13:45] lived, you know, about the troubles and everything. Yes, we lived there exactly [00:13:50] where they started.

[TRANSITION]: Oh, yeah.

Alex Buciu: So like 500m away from where those troubles, [00:13:55] unfortunately, are still going on every Thursday, Friday, Saturday there’s [00:14:00] a riot, there’s a shooting, there’s a fire. There’s a. So [00:14:05] yeah, very, very sad. Um, because [00:14:10] we don’t look local. We were always safe. So they would look at us and like, no, [00:14:15] like they are not either or.

[TRANSITION]: And.

Payman Langroudi: Not as many immigrants [00:14:20] in Northern Ireland as.

[TRANSITION]: They weren’t in the rest.

Alex Buciu: However, in the last few years, yes, [00:14:25] there’s been lots. Yeah. So, uh, there was a love [00:14:30] for this. Um, there was only black, uh, patient, lovely, [00:14:35] lovely guy. Um, and, uh, he was my patient there, and everybody [00:14:40] knew him. You know, I cannot say names, you know, um, and everybody [00:14:45] says, oh, he’s he’s. Yeah. And I was talking to him once and he said, uh, [00:14:50] and I said, what do you do? Oh, I’m into weddings. And I was like, oh, are you a priest? I was like, no, no. He started to [00:14:55] laugh. No, no, no no no. I just do videography with drones and stuff. Oh my god. And ever [00:15:00] since he’s like, I’m not a priest. I’m not. I’m not a minister. But he said he’s [00:15:05] doing weddings. I initially thought he’s the one, you know, doing the religious [00:15:10] part.

Payman Langroudi: So then this practice was Bupa and 100% NHS.

[TRANSITION]: When. [00:15:15]

Alex Buciu: I moved in. Yes. Um, with the support of the practice manager [00:15:20] and, uh, it was very difficult to switch, uh, [00:15:25] approaches and ideas. I tried to talk to my, uh, patients [00:15:30] about the private option and discuss. And that was 2018 [00:15:35] and well when still it was fully NHS private [00:15:40] was just something very, very seldom offered. [00:15:45] And after the first year about 35% of my income was private. [00:15:50] After the second year it was 60 something percent. So I did prove [00:15:55] like, you just need to talk to the patient, explain to them the differences. Don’t, uh, go [00:16:00] by default your NHS. So you get an amalgam or you NHS, you we [00:16:05] can only get you this and that. We can offer this, this, this, that would cost this advantages, [00:16:10] disadvantages.

Payman Langroudi: So and so for that work you’d actually would like slow down and do it properly [00:16:15] and.

[TRANSITION]: I would.

Alex Buciu: Slow down. No, no I, I’m a slow dentist. No I work doesn’t [00:16:20] matter. Even if it was an amalgam I would have rubber dam on and.

[TRANSITION]: Oh really. Yeah. [00:16:25]

Payman Langroudi: Oh really.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. My managers were not happy.

[TRANSITION]: I was not from that point of [00:16:30] view.

Alex Buciu: I was not efficient in their spreadsheets.

[TRANSITION]: And, you know, I was like, oh yeah. [00:16:35]

Alex Buciu: Other people see like 60, 70 patients a day. It’s like, yeah, I had like 20 today. [00:16:40] And most of them were exams and but I wanted to do the dentistry I, I loved [00:16:45] and uh, found some patients that were happy to pay [00:16:50] for that with time. I, uh, met a lovely, [00:16:55] lovely dentist and he became my mentor afterwards. Uh, very, [00:17:00] uh, out of the social media, under the radar. [00:17:05] Kieran, if you’re listening to this, love you man. Uh, [00:17:10] he he took me under his wing. He has a private practice [00:17:15] just outside Derry. Top specialist. But again, you look at [00:17:20] there’s no website or no Instagram. He’s very low profile.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [00:17:25]

Alex Buciu: Uh, but other top specialists from Northern Ireland. We say, okay, we recommend you go to him for [00:17:30] this full mouth restorative or whatnot. And, uh, I worked [00:17:35] a lot at that practice. And again, I gave my 100%, uh, in [00:17:40] the on the Saturdays, Friday, Saturday I would stay and do letters for the patients. So after [00:17:45] a new patient exam, a letter sometimes would be like 18 pages. So [00:17:50] that’s proper writing. Sundays would be the clinic and discuss [00:17:55] cases and he would teach me, this is how you do this. This is how you approach this. This is how you explain [00:18:00] this. So it reignited my spark, which started to be very dull by the doing [00:18:05] the NHS.

[TRANSITION]: And where did.

Payman Langroudi: You meet Kieran?

Alex Buciu: At uh.

[TRANSITION]: At [00:18:10] a course.

Alex Buciu: At a course? Yes. He gave a small lecture. You [00:18:15] know, we have to do like peer reviews.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And never done a peer review in England. But [00:18:20] they are mandatory in Northern Ireland.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Um, and every two years. And I [00:18:25] met him, I think, at a course, something like this, and we ended up talking. I kept interrupting [00:18:30] because I’m that guy in the first row with the hands up and asking questions. And, [00:18:35] uh, he noticed me and we started to talk and exchange numbers. Let’s [00:18:40] meet for lunch. And.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, so.

Payman Langroudi: I was going to say I after my smile maker. I saw [00:18:45] you at lots and lots of courses. You’re always at courses and you’re even, [00:18:50] you’re quite, quite, quite a lot on social media and, you know, very involved [00:18:55] and curious and trying to get better all the time. And as you say, asking questions [00:19:00] and, you know, you stood out, you know, I see thousands of dentists at MSM and you stood [00:19:05] out as someone to me. And then we met each other again. And where did this come from? Like, when [00:19:10] did you become this sort of excellence driven person or were you always, I mean, were [00:19:15] you were you were you that seven year old as well, or was there a moment of inflection [00:19:20] necessarily?

[TRANSITION]: I, I.

Alex Buciu: Cannot pinpoint to a moment, uh. [00:19:25]

[TRANSITION]: Because you probably.

Payman Langroudi: Get what I’m saying about some dentists are like that and you see them everywhere, and [00:19:30] then some dentists are the exact opposite. Never want to learn anything, do anything.

[TRANSITION]: Just probably. [00:19:35]

Alex Buciu: The entourage, the my friends that were the are still the [00:19:40] top endodontists in Romania and we like challenged ourselves [00:19:45] and I was trying to I was looking up to them and trying to.

[TRANSITION]: Do.

Alex Buciu: A little bit not compete because [00:19:50] they are way ahead. Yeah, but you know, get better, get better, better, better. And [00:19:55] when I moved to UK again I.

Payman Langroudi: Stayed with you that.

[TRANSITION]: Idea [00:20:00] of improvement.

Alex Buciu: Because financially when I moved to UK I had [00:20:05] 3100. I was ashamed to say it, £3,100 in my pocket. That’s it.

[TRANSITION]: Wow.

Alex Buciu: Okay. And half of [00:20:10] them were were borrowed from a friend.

[TRANSITION]: Okay.

Alex Buciu: So imagine I spent this in the first week [00:20:15] because I had to pay rent and the deposit and then the the apartment we got, [00:20:20] I came alone and they followed me. My wife and the kids. After a [00:20:25] few months, I had to buy literally everything from forks to duvets to.

[TRANSITION]: Salt [00:20:30] and pepper. Yeah, salt and pepper.

Alex Buciu: You know. Beanbag. Everything. Everything? [00:20:35] Yeah. Like everything. And, uh, after a week, I started to panic. Like, okay, [00:20:40] when is this the salary coming? Because I’m not gonna be.

Payman Langroudi: Thank goodness you had a job. [00:20:45]

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: And, um, I had to be really careful with [00:20:50] the money. So with every course I take or everything, I look into it a lot [00:20:55] and ask lots of feedback about the course before I choose. Because if, say, like composite bonding [00:21:00] is like there’s going to be ten providers. Yeah. Um, I don’t know. Preps. [00:21:05]

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. There’s so many.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. So. And I have to be again, really, really [00:21:10] careful of the courses I choose because I want to make the most of it. And [00:21:15] I’m happy with the my process of choosing courses. [00:21:20] Uh, the sometimes it takes a year, maybe more, until. [00:21:25]

[TRANSITION]: You just.

Payman Langroudi: Try and find loads of people who’ve been on them.

Alex Buciu: Look online, look on social [00:21:30] media, look on cases, look on Pierre. There’s so many resources. We have our, [00:21:35] uh, we have our WhatsApp groups with different alumni [00:21:40] from. So you ask around.

[TRANSITION]: Mhm. The [00:21:45] problem is.

Payman Langroudi: Tubules.

Alex Buciu: Uh, I’m.

[TRANSITION]: Not sure anymore.

Payman Langroudi: Which [00:21:50] WhatsApp group is it. What kind of thing are we talking.

Alex Buciu: So, uh, there’s [00:21:55] different. I have my friends like Romanians in UK. [00:22:00] Friends, uh, friends from, uh, the, you know, sunny, [00:22:05] sunny for the GTA. I have probably three groups with them.

[TRANSITION]: Sunny, sunny. [00:22:10] Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna.

Alex Buciu: Get to talk about him.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, we’re gonna talk.

Alex Buciu: So, uh, [00:22:15] there’s lots of dentists for dentists, Facebook, the [00:22:20] dentists on Facebook there’s different.

[TRANSITION]: So you deeply.

Payman Langroudi: Research which composite [00:22:25] course to.

[TRANSITION]: Go. I love that because I’m, I’m.

Alex Buciu: Uh not a wealthy person. I don’t [00:22:30] have anything nobody gave me ever gave me money or family help or anything [00:22:35] like this. So I really need to be really careful what I spend it on. And, [00:22:40] um, so.

[TRANSITION]: But did you.

Payman Langroudi: Ever get this wrong? Did you ever go to a course thinking it was going to be amazing? And it wasn’t. [00:22:45]

Alex Buciu: Once, once, uh, with With [00:22:50] No Name? Uh, gentlemen, that’s really, really high. Uh, [00:22:55] looked at, uh, for his area. I cannot say what he is, uh, [00:23:00] teaching because you’re gonna guess who it is. Uh, but, uh, all [00:23:05] day, all. So I had to travel to Bristol. Already [00:23:10] a clue. Uh, so for the course and, uh, all day, [00:23:15] Every question I would ask is like, ah, answer to this later. Uh, I’ll get to this later on. Oh, [00:23:20] I’m going to talk about this in the afternoon. I’m going to say, uh, we ended [00:23:25] up the course. Oh, the ask so many questions like, can you answer me? Like, yeah, [00:23:30] email me and I’ll reply to. And he never replied. So all the course was just presenting his, [00:23:35] uh, cases and, uh, upselling his big course, you know.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: So I was very disappointed [00:23:40] that the course was not very expensive, but I left [00:23:45] with a bitter taste because I wanted to get some answers. You know, this is why I go there [00:23:50] to. Yeah, I, you know, if you ask a question, you’re stupid for a minute. [00:23:55] If you don’t ask a question, you’re stupid for the rest of your life. So I’m a true believer in this. I stay [00:24:00] in the front row, ask all the questions that I can think of when you [00:24:05] you ask me how I choose sometimes is not very, uh, straightforward. [00:24:10] Because if You’re choosing to go to a certain [00:24:15] course. Like I know restorative that I started with tiptoe now. Um, [00:24:20] nobody has done restorative deep restorative with restorative with [00:24:25] restorative with this. So they can have a objectives. Look I’ve done all restorative available and [00:24:30] this one is the best. All are gonna say they’ve done the best one.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Okay. So [00:24:35] you have to take it with a pinch of salt and to gauge it a bit.

[TRANSITION]: Very true.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. [00:24:40]

Payman Langroudi: Very true. I mean, it’s the same with even when someone’s bought an expensive piece of equipment, they [00:24:45] have to convince themselves.

[TRANSITION]: It was the right thing to do.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. Buyer’s [00:24:50] remorse a little bit, and then it starts to.

Payman Langroudi: And by the way, if we’re talking these sort of year [00:24:55] courses, you know, like where you turn up eight times, I mean, you’ve got to be a pretty uncharming [00:25:00] guy for someone to meet you eight times in a year and still not like you.

[TRANSITION]: Well, [00:25:05] what I can tell you.

Alex Buciu: The first day with [00:25:10] Professor Tipton. Uh, at the first coffee break, that was like, [00:25:15] half ten.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: He already pulled me aside. I was like, look, let others answer. And [00:25:20] it’s like, in a most charming way, you know, very like, look, let others answers. [00:25:25] Uh, when I ask questions, don’t answer the first one. Let others think. Before I was so, so [00:25:30] excited. You know, I waited to to participate. And I apologise to the professor [00:25:35] to to this. And next day we met in Birmingham at the show.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, [00:25:40] yeah.

Alex Buciu: And I apologised again and said, look, don’t confuse my enthusiasm with rudeness. [00:25:45] I’m really, really wanted to to attend your course for so many years. And I saved [00:25:50] a lot of time. It’s like, yeah, no, but yeah, I have to let others. Uh.

Payman Langroudi: So [00:25:55] what have you done? You’ve done that. What else have you done? You’ve done ours. Our composite course.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [00:26:00]

Payman Langroudi: You’ve done so.

[TRANSITION]: Many courses.

Alex Buciu: Wise worth mentioning.

[TRANSITION]: Wow.

Alex Buciu: Uh. [00:26:05]

[TRANSITION]: Sunny schools.

Alex Buciu: So I want, I need to start with obob.

[TRANSITION]: Bob. Oh.

Alex Buciu: And [00:26:10] be jazz and Mahmoud. Amazing. Amazing guys. And unachievable they do [00:26:15] now, which is a practical continuation of the theory in Abab. The [00:26:20] the course was explained so nicely and logically, it’s impossible not to follow [00:26:25] and understand what is taught, and I struggle to understand the nitty gritty of occlusion [00:26:30] for years and read all the dry books and everything. Uh. [00:26:35] I ended up even more confused, uh, compared to when I started [00:26:40] reading the books. But after about, uh, what I can say is that everything felt [00:26:45] like a eureka moment where when you finish a big puzzle, you have put the last pieces together.

Payman Langroudi: Gone, [00:26:50] gone. Summarised the moment in aha! When [00:26:55] it comes to occlusion. What was it.

[TRANSITION]: That you.

Alex Buciu: In a nutshell. Like they.

[TRANSITION]: They [00:27:00] have.

Alex Buciu: Different modules.

Payman Langroudi: I know, but hit me. Don’t hit me with what was it? What was the [00:27:05] moment when you realised what what was it? What thing? What thing can you tell me about?

[TRANSITION]: Occlusion. [00:27:10] For me, it’s a breakthrough.

Payman Langroudi: Thought.

[TRANSITION]: For you.

Alex Buciu: For me, it’s like a spiral. Okay, [00:27:15] so you’re in a happy place, and then you learn a little bit more, and it’s like. Oh, that [00:27:20] puts everything.

[TRANSITION]: Into perspective.

Payman Langroudi: Specifically.

Alex Buciu: Okay.

[TRANSITION]: An example.

Payman Langroudi: I [00:27:25] don’t mean everything.

Alex Buciu: An example landing pads design. [00:27:30] So when you construct a crown.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: How you communicate the definition. [00:27:35] And you know there’s the tripod contact and the cusp fossa. [00:27:40] Or there are different concepts, different pancakes and different pathology [00:27:45] and whatever. This one is a very nice concept. It’s literally like a landing [00:27:50] pad. And the opposite cusp goes on the on this pad that is [00:27:55] a little bit, uh, elevated of, of the occlusal. Now, if [00:28:00] the crown, let’s say it’s a little high, you can shave off with no problem if it [00:28:05] gets worn with time. You still have a good.

[TRANSITION]: Smooth surface.

Alex Buciu: Contact spread [00:28:10] and is not locked in like it would be in a Forza or with a tripod [00:28:15] contact, which is really stable if you have tripod contact. But what happens [00:28:20] if you start to wear down one of the slopes or the tip? Yeah. [00:28:25] Then you have two contacts, which is very unstable. So that was like actually [00:28:30] makes lots of sense. You know.

[TRANSITION]: Like.

Payman Langroudi: Only is it only the tooth that the.

[TRANSITION]: The [00:28:35] crown, is.

Payman Langroudi: It only the fossa or is it the cusp as well.

[TRANSITION]: No, no, no, you don’t go on.

Alex Buciu: You don’t go on to [00:28:40] on the antagonist. You don’t go on you you just design the, uh. Yeah. [00:28:45] The way you designed where the contact is, is like a landing pad.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [00:28:50] So it’s a slightly raised area.

Alex Buciu: It’s nice.

[TRANSITION]: Yes. How interesting.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, very, very interesting. [00:28:55] Yeah. I try to talk to my technicians and wasn’t too successful.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So? [00:29:00]

Payman Langroudi: So then you have to go find a technician who does get it.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, I started after [00:29:05] I started to look more into the TMD, which I always loved, because my wife [00:29:10] clenches and grinds her teeth like crazy. Uh, so I always [00:29:15] tested on her, uh, ideas. Different type of splints [00:29:20] and stuff. Uh, and once I started to understand more, then I done [00:29:25] the splint master course again with jazz. Uh, I done a few more [00:29:30] courses about, uh, TMD eye shadow jazz. Once this [00:29:35] TMD clinic. Uh, you need to know your limits with TMD. [00:29:40] You don’t want some patients. There are some patients that are way more than, uh, you [00:29:45] can, uh, you know, don’t bite more than you can chew. Some [00:29:50] are beyond what you can help with normal exercise. So I know more than a average GDP [00:29:55] about TMD and bruxism, but I also know where I draw a [00:30:00] line and say, look, I can help you up to this point. Further down you have to see a [00:30:05] physiotherapist and there are some good TMD specialist physiotherapists, I [00:30:10] mean, or surgeons or whatnot.

Payman Langroudi: But how do you know when that point comes? What [00:30:15] do you mean? You do it. You do the basic things you do and it doesn’t solve it. Then you know, you.

[TRANSITION]: Know, you’re [00:30:20] at that point.

Alex Buciu: I try to do a proper in-depth exam of the TMJ muscles [00:30:25] and everything, and already I have a provisional diagnosis. If [00:30:30] I see intermittent locking or stuff like, I know, it’s like, [00:30:35] yeah, let’s not uh, probably some exercises, of [00:30:40] course, will help, but I wouldn’t jump on a certain type of splint because there are [00:30:45] so many types of splints. And, uh, yeah, I [00:30:50] you have to know your limits. In most of the cases, it works. Exercises work [00:30:55] normal splint or even a retainer works beautifully for most of the [00:31:00] cases. But yeah, there are some things where it can make [00:31:05] it worse.

Payman Langroudi: So it sounds like you’re kind of becoming a like a I call it [00:31:10] like a super, super generalist. Yeah. Like very good.

[TRANSITION]: At a lot of things.

Alex Buciu: I [00:31:15] never, never heard.

Payman Langroudi: Did you not think of, of of going more into Endo when you got here. [00:31:20]

Alex Buciu: I was put off. I was put off, uh.

Alex Buciu: By [00:31:25] the litigious society. Yeah. So you, you can do a beautiful [00:31:30] endo and they don’t come back for the crown. Five years later, you get a letter from the [00:31:35] solicitor that the tooth broke and it’s your fault, or they don’t brush their teeth.

Payman Langroudi: I think the [00:31:40] litigious risk is just as high in general practice.

[TRANSITION]: Um. [00:31:45]

Payman Langroudi: I’m not sure.

[TRANSITION]: I’m not sure. I’m not sure [00:31:50] I was. I was pretty.

Alex Buciu: Put off by by.

Alex Buciu: By this.

[TRANSITION]: And are.

Payman Langroudi: You saying [00:31:55] you you didn’t have the sort of the bandwidth to become a full on specialist, and [00:32:00] without that you felt.

[TRANSITION]: At.

Payman Langroudi: Risk.

Alex Buciu: I really, really liked it. I really, [00:32:05] really liked it though. But I don’t know, maybe it was the eye. [00:32:10] So at the clinic I had my own apex locator. My own. Even now, [00:32:15] most of the materials and instruments I use are still mine.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Um, probably [00:32:20] if I were in a specialist clinic or somewhere where I would have access to microscope access to [00:32:25] all the goodies and stuff, maybe I would be tempted to go back again [00:32:30] to my first love.

Payman Langroudi: No, but what I’m saying is, you could have even come to Bupa and say I’m a dentist [00:32:35] with a special interest in endodontics, and I want to do the endo for the [00:32:40] for the area or something.

Alex Buciu: Nobody recognises this anymore. So the questions usually were like, [00:32:45] uh, what qualifications do you have? It’s like, okay, okay, very happy with this. But what are the UK [00:32:50] qualifications you have? Like nothing. It’s like so I could know you. [00:32:55] You have to start from the bottom. Unfortunately, nobody will take you as a foreigner to [00:33:00] to this level unless you have some UK [00:33:05] recognised.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: But there are lots of general dentists who only do endo. [00:33:10] Yeah, there are lots.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, but they’ve done some.

Payman Langroudi: They’ve done courses.

[TRANSITION]: Training. [00:33:15]

Alex Buciu: Around here.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah they’ve done courses. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Same sort of courses you’re doing with, you know, Obama or whatever. [00:33:20] Yeah I think I’d look into that, you know, because because your standard is probably already at that [00:33:25] level. And, you know, whether or not someone will refer to you isn’t [00:33:30] even the point yet. It’s the question of once you start doing some, [00:33:35] you start telling your employers, for instance, you’re my dentist now, you tell my dentist, Endo [00:33:40] is what I’m good at.

Alex Buciu: I want to be on restorative now, you.

[TRANSITION]: Know.

Alex Buciu: Endo. [00:33:45]

[TRANSITION]: Endo changed your.

Payman Langroudi: Position.

Alex Buciu: Endo now is I know.

[TRANSITION]: It.

Alex Buciu: Attracts me more. [00:33:50] Endo is now when you see your Uh, ex-girlfriend on [00:33:55] the street holding hands with.

[TRANSITION]: The with another guy.

Alex Buciu: The other.

[TRANSITION]: Guy’s like.

Alex Buciu: You [00:34:00] know, like, stuff like this, but.

[TRANSITION]: It’s it’s.

Alex Buciu: Past the moment, you know?

[TRANSITION]: It’s it’s. [00:34:05]

Payman Langroudi: Interesting. Yeah. This question of what were we built to be from the, [00:34:10] you know, dentist’s perspective? Yeah. Because you must get it now. I get loads [00:34:15] of young dentists. You know, one year out and I say to them, hey, what do you want to think? What do [00:34:20] you think you want to do? And a lot of them say, I don’t know. And I’m just trying lots of things to see what I [00:34:25] like.

[TRANSITION]: Which is.

Payman Langroudi: Good. Yeah, I get it, I get it. But don’t you agree with me in the end that, like, whatever you’re [00:34:30] really good at, you’ll enjoy. You know, it’s one of those.

[TRANSITION]: I.

Alex Buciu: Enjoyed it. [00:34:35]

[TRANSITION]: For me.

Payman Langroudi: But, you know, whether or not.

[TRANSITION]: You.

Payman Langroudi: Picked Endo or perio or. [00:34:40] Yeah, I’ve picked hydrogen peroxide.

[TRANSITION]: You know, all one [00:34:45] chemical. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Whatever you’re good at, you end up enjoying. But you’re now saying, [00:34:50] having looked quite deeply into To Endo. And now getting into this sort of restorative. [00:34:55]

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Um, occlusion side. You’re saying the restorative occlusion side is turning you on [00:35:00] more?

[TRANSITION]: Yes. That’s interesting.

Alex Buciu: That’s it. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: I again I enjoy many parts of [00:35:05] I don’t enjoy the surgical parts.

[TRANSITION]: I if.

Alex Buciu: An extraction turns [00:35:10] out to be surgical I haven’t assisted orders I suppress I haven’t assisted uh, enough [00:35:15] or there’s surprisingly an extra route or.

[TRANSITION]: Something.

Alex Buciu: You cannot see on the 2D.

[TRANSITION]: X ray. [00:35:20]

Alex Buciu: Then, uh, I do it surgically, but I don’t cannot say I enjoy [00:35:25] it. Yes. So I done the course with Tamar Theodossi, the masterclass. Lovely guy. [00:35:30] Lovely. Whoever wants to up their skills in the surgical should, should, uh, [00:35:35] go to his course. Great value. Um, but. And I’m [00:35:40] confident to do it, but it doesn’t attract me.

[TRANSITION]: Uh, the implants.

Payman Langroudi: No, [00:35:45] because it’s surgery again, right? Yeah.

Alex Buciu: It’s not about.

Alex Buciu: Blood or [00:35:50] anything. It’s just I’ve done.

[TRANSITION]: In.

Alex Buciu: Romania, which is, um, more, uh, [00:35:55] how to say, uh, lean back atmosphere. Yeah, I’ve [00:36:00] done apicectomy. I’ve done, uh, included wisdom teeth. I’ve done, like, with a [00:36:05] surgeon next to me is like just giving me pointers. But I was hands on 100%. Like, I [00:36:10] didn’t enjoy it. I done it’s like. Yeah. Another thing, uh, you know, on my belt, you know, but [00:36:15] I didn’t.

[TRANSITION]: Enjoy it every time.

Payman Langroudi: Invisalign or.

[TRANSITION]: Anything.

Alex Buciu: I’ve done Invisalign course, [00:36:20] I’ve done Clearcorrect course. So I’ve done Invisalign just with [00:36:25] the Covid and stuff. So I didn’t do any, uh, cases. Uh, but [00:36:30] my wife had, uh, two failed, uh, uh, ortho treatments as a teenager, [00:36:35] and she was very conscious about that. And I’ve done the clearcorrect, [00:36:40] which is the same as, you know, there are two guys. Yeah. And, uh, that done [00:36:45] Invisalign, and they two partners, and they split up and [00:36:50] one moved across the street. This is in Austin, Texas, and unclear. Correct. But it’s [00:36:55] more or less, uh, similar, uh, way of, uh, approach. [00:37:00] And, uh, I’ve only done one case. Uh, my wife’s. Yeah. [00:37:05] So that’s if there’s not, uh, romantic enough to of course, just for her.

[TRANSITION]: But she.

Alex Buciu: Didn’t. [00:37:10]

[TRANSITION]: Appreciate. So you didn’t.

Payman Langroudi: You also author doesn’t make you that happy.

[TRANSITION]: Either. Yeah. No.

Alex Buciu: If [00:37:15] you would do.

Alex Buciu: It day in and day out, probably it would be very profitable. Definitely would be. But [00:37:20] on occasion, um, no. Either I do it or I don’t do it. If I do it, I [00:37:25] want to be top 5% of dentists. Yeah, and that’s my philosophy. [00:37:30]

Payman Langroudi: So why did you move from this excellent situation you had going on [00:37:35] in Derry with this, uh, Kieran.

Alex Buciu: Uh.

Alex Buciu: Several [00:37:40] personal reasons, but one of them was, [00:37:45] uh, Um. My wife was not happy there. She couldn’t find any [00:37:50] jobs. It’s, uh.

[TRANSITION]: What does she do?

Alex Buciu: Uh, she. Romania. She was [00:37:55] with a company, uh, private company, uh, gas installations [00:38:00] and stuff like this. But they would do, like, industrial level. So they would do an airport or do half of [00:38:05] a city or do a hospital or stuff. And she also done a master in, uh, I [00:38:10] didn’t.

Payman Langroudi: Know.

[TRANSITION]: Sorry.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: Of course.

Alex Buciu: Uh, master in, uh, [00:38:15] uh, international affairs, something [00:38:20] something I wasn’t paying attention to my, you know, my wife said I have.

[TRANSITION]: To.

Payman Langroudi: Get [00:38:25] you in.

[TRANSITION]: Trouble. Yeah, my wife said, I.

Alex Buciu: Have, uh, two, uh, two down, down [00:38:30] force like to defect. Yeah. One is that I don’t listen to her. And second, there [00:38:35] was something else.

[TRANSITION]: You know.

Alex Buciu: Uh, so she couldn’t find [00:38:40] anything. She even tried, like, a test score or something. Like, literally no job openings. [00:38:45] Nothing.

Payman Langroudi: Okay.

Alex Buciu: And for me, with the course is if it was a one day course [00:38:50] for me meant taking at least three days off work one travelling one the actual [00:38:55] course one. So multiplying the, the expenses and, uh.

[TRANSITION]: Don’t [00:39:00] you.

Payman Langroudi: Think like that notion of I hear where you’re going? The [00:39:05] reason I’m asking is we came we came to London from Iran and [00:39:10] different circumstances that we had to run away. Revolution and all that. And then [00:39:15] about three, four years after we were in London, my dad said, let’s go to San [00:39:20] Francisco. And I often reflect on, you know, what my life would have been like if we had [00:39:25] gone, yeah, but my mum said, look, I’ve just figured out London [00:39:30] and it took four years to understand, you know, all the things that were down to stupid [00:39:35] things like hairdressers, right?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, obviously school, all that, everything. Understanding [00:39:40] how the town works. I just don’t want to go through another 3 or 4 years of doing [00:39:45] that in another new place. Did you have. Was that a thought?

[TRANSITION]: Um, no. [00:39:50] Dairy in.

Payman Langroudi: Peterborough might be not so different to each other, but.

[TRANSITION]: It.

Alex Buciu: Was. It [00:39:55] was a big move.

[TRANSITION]: It was.

Alex Buciu: But not as big move as from Romania to [00:40:00] UK.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah.

[TRANSITION]: So you were ready.

Alex Buciu: And now literally today I was telling you we have the we’re moving [00:40:05] houses. So we, I left my wife with the movers and one didn’t show up and the van broke. [00:40:10] And so it’s one.

[TRANSITION]: Of, it’s one of those days.

Payman Langroudi: Crazy that you managed to get a pass from your wife today.

Alex Buciu: I [00:40:15] promise you, I’m a man of my word.

[TRANSITION]: I promise you she is. Yes, [00:40:20] she is.

Alex Buciu: Even though we nearly divorced last night three times.

[TRANSITION]: And [00:40:25] it’s.

Alex Buciu: Like, you know, when you move, everyone.

[TRANSITION]: Is, um. So she itself. [00:40:30]

Payman Langroudi: The move itself again.

Alex Buciu: Now it’s piece of cake.

[TRANSITION]: Move.

Alex Buciu: We move from one place [00:40:35] to another.

[TRANSITION]: Did you have a job already? Yes.

Alex Buciu: She works at a school now?

Payman Langroudi: No, but did you have a job [00:40:40] in Peterborough?

[TRANSITION]: Me.

Payman Langroudi: Went before you moved. Did you.

[TRANSITION]: Arrange? You arranged that? Yeah. [00:40:45] And that was why I.

Alex Buciu: Don’t have any. I, my me and my wife are [00:40:50] are our own backup plan. We don’t have any backup plans. Yeah, okay. No inheritance, no big deposits, [00:40:55] no houses. No, we don’t own anything, you know? Yeah, the cars are a PCP, you know, but, [00:41:00] uh, so, yes, I did, uh, looked into several, [00:41:05] uh, options. And, uh, I found the absolute brilliant, [00:41:10] uh, area manager with, uh, my dentist. He moved. Now [00:41:15] he’s not area manager. He’s still in my dentist, but different, uh, job [00:41:20] and, uh, yes, I was really, really impressed with this guy. And [00:41:25] I came and met him and a couple of times, and I went to see the clinic. The clinic is a [00:41:30] normal dentist clinic. It’s not one of those new ones that are fully refurbed.

Payman Langroudi: And did [00:41:35] you even was the reason you moved to Peterborough? Simply because that’s where the job was. [00:41:40] Or was there another reason.

[TRANSITION]: To have.

Alex Buciu: Different.

[TRANSITION]: Options?

Alex Buciu: And I have been to other places. [00:41:45] Again, my dentist and my dentist. But, uh, the [00:41:50] John, the gentleman that was the, uh, area manager [00:41:55] was so, so, so helpful and went above and beyond to help me with the relocation and everything, [00:42:00] like literally waiting me at the train station, taking me to different clinics. Uh, give [00:42:05] me pointers like, oh, you should look for a house in this area, not in this area. It’s like things that you don’t know [00:42:10] when you are first day in the city. And, uh, secondly, [00:42:15] because Peterborough, I found it from all the options we had, uh, closer [00:42:20] to some friends of ours, which we didn’t even end up, uh, visiting too [00:42:25] often.

[TRANSITION]: In the meantime.

Alex Buciu: But it’s a well connected, like, uh.

[TRANSITION]: Geographic [00:42:30] one.

Payman Langroudi: Out of London.

[TRANSITION]: One hour.

Alex Buciu: And a half to everything.

[TRANSITION]: You know.

Alex Buciu: So [00:42:35] we have the motorways, trains, everything.

[TRANSITION]: And was that a good note? [00:42:40]

Payman Langroudi: Was that straight away all private or was that mixed?

[TRANSITION]: Yes. So when I, when I.

Alex Buciu: Left, [00:42:45] when I left northern I said I’m going to leave NHS behind because it’s not for me. I tried, you know, for [00:42:50] years something. Yes but it. No, it’s, there [00:42:55] are some dentists that thrive in NHS and I know very good dentists that do NHS, but it’s not for [00:43:00] me. It’s good if you have like a stable list and you’ve seen them for many years and then yeah, you [00:43:05] can make some money and be happy and yeah, swings and roundabouts. But uh, for [00:43:10] me to start from scratch. No. And at this practice where I’m at and [00:43:15] I plan on retire at this practice, it’s I’m, I’m working hard to see. [00:43:20] I started from zero patients, so I only saw new patients. I didn’t [00:43:25] take anyone’s list. So yeah, it’s extremely difficult.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And, uh, many [00:43:30] of the patients are see, are nice, but many are not nice. Are [00:43:35] like fallen off the NHS register. Abusive patients. Patients that have long. [00:43:40]

Payman Langroudi: Histories.

[TRANSITION]: Of histories.

Alex Buciu: Like you’re the seventh dentist I see this month.

[TRANSITION]: Oh.

Alex Buciu: You know you’re [00:43:45] not going to be the best one for them. Uh, so it’s a lot of, uh, [00:43:50] work, work, work. And not necessarily you end up having them as [00:43:55] loyal patients long term.

[TRANSITION]: You know? Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Uh, if [00:44:00] you may, I wanted you just to say, because we started from jazz and we went from [00:44:05] another one that I wanted to, uh, mention as a favourite lecture was [00:44:10] Doctor Sandra. Composite course. Uh, you know, it teaches the [00:44:15] greater curve. Greater curve matrix system. He’s a fantastic speaker. And, uh, [00:44:20] besides the actual metric system, the course is, uh, such a great value as it’s [00:44:25] packed with so many pearls that touch, uh, communication, consent, [00:44:30] uh, composite bonding, direct cuspal coverage, improving the hourly rate, [00:44:35] uh, reflection on your own work. So we were asked to do audits for every single feeling [00:44:40] you do using that, uh, system. So it’s it’s absolutely top course. [00:44:45] So. Jazz and sunny. Honestly, I love these guys to bits. And, [00:44:50] uh, they, they they would be my number one, uh, recommendation [00:44:55] for anyone who wants.

[TRANSITION]: Good.

Payman Langroudi: Friends of mine. Both of them are good friends.

[TRANSITION]: Both.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, they’re they’re really, really great. [00:45:00] Great. Uh, and we started to become friends over the years, you [00:45:05] know?

Payman Langroudi: Tell me about the work you do now, then.

Alex Buciu: Gerald. [00:45:10] Dentistry. Nothing crazy. Nothing. Uh, Instagrammable. [00:45:15] My nurses kept asking me to, uh, uh, [00:45:20] make an Instagram account and started to, uh, promote me. And I was like, hey, I’m not. [00:45:25]

[TRANSITION]: The.

Alex Buciu: Type to, um, but I [00:45:30] sometimes post my cases on some WhatsApp groups we’re on and [00:45:35] we discuss them and I know there’s no judgement. Nothing.

[TRANSITION]: So process the.

Payman Langroudi: Process of going from [00:45:40] zero patience to how many days are you fully.

[TRANSITION]: Booked?

Alex Buciu: Three days.

[TRANSITION]: Now you’re booked. [00:45:45]

Payman Langroudi: For three days. So do you only work three days a week?

Alex Buciu: Yes, and I am to start at another clinic [00:45:50] now. So I was four days here and cut down to three days. And, uh, [00:45:55] I think three days is a good balance. Uh, the moment. And, uh, [00:46:00] for this.

[TRANSITION]: Clinic, how.

Payman Langroudi: Far ahead are you booked? I mean, are there spaces in your diary next [00:46:05] week?

[TRANSITION]: Uh.

Alex Buciu: As we speak now, the diary has plummeted [00:46:10] in the last 2 or 3 weeks is extremely happy.

[TRANSITION]: So it’s not. It’s just.

Alex Buciu: An [00:46:15] extreme.

[TRANSITION]: Situation.

Alex Buciu: Um, usually not too far [00:46:20] ahead. I’m. I’m delivering private dentistry, and I don’t [00:46:25] want to tell them. Yeah, I help you. Yeah. Come back in six weeks or something. I want to see them [00:46:30] there and then and they pay more, but they need to get more, not better materials [00:46:35] and but also for, you know, uh, better [00:46:40] diary, uh, or for, for them and [00:46:45] quicker scene and usually I see my, my emergency patients. I [00:46:50] don’t have many, but, uh, if they are, I usually see them same day or if they call [00:46:55] for PM, I see them first thing in the morning, you know. So within a few hours. [00:47:00]

Payman Langroudi: And the kind of work you’re doing. Okay. You said general.

[TRANSITION]: General dentistry, do.

Payman Langroudi: You do things like [00:47:05] full mouth?

Alex Buciu: Not yet. I’m waiting to finish with, uh, [00:47:10] Tipton. Just to have, uh, some letters after my [00:47:15] name to to be able to officially do this. [00:47:20] Um, I wouldn’t jump to that, even though [00:47:25] lots of people are afraid of full mouth restorative again, [00:47:30] if you get it wrong, you get it wrong. Okay. Uh, but when you do a denture, isn’t [00:47:35] that the same thing? If you do a full denture, it’s like full restorative [00:47:40] anyway.

Payman Langroudi: You know, I had a prosthetic specialist, uh, Rory [00:47:45] Boyd. He and I asked him about this sort of aha kind of moment in [00:47:50] full mouth, and he said to think of it as a full denture.

[TRANSITION]: No. [00:47:55]

Alex Buciu: So that’s exactly.

Payman Langroudi: To think of it as a full denture as far as the setup. [00:48:00]

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, like you you set up the teeth.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. The angles and curves and angles and [00:48:05] all that. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And it’s interesting because I kind of one of my bugbears was in [00:48:10] dental school. They, we did a lot of time on full dentures. A lot of time I was, I was in Wales. [00:48:15] Wales. They used to I don’t know if it’s a myth or not. Yeah, but they used to say, uh, for [00:48:20] the wedding present, the parents would buy a full clearance for their.

[TRANSITION]: I’ve heard about their children. [00:48:25]

Payman Langroudi: I’m not sure it’s real or not, but but there were a lot of [00:48:30] patients, full, full patients in Wales and a big bit of alcohol, I think Dental course in the UK, a big bit [00:48:35] of it is full, full dentures. Yeah. Was yours.

[TRANSITION]: As well. I heard about.

Alex Buciu: It.

[TRANSITION]: In Romania. [00:48:40] No, no.

Payman Langroudi: So, so so I think a lot.

[TRANSITION]: Of.

Alex Buciu: Children.

[TRANSITION]: Man. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Don’t [00:48:45] pull out their teeth for 18th.

[TRANSITION]: But I used to think, I used to.

Payman Langroudi: Think all the time. Yeah. Of like, [00:48:50] you know, I mean at least full dentures was teeth. But we spent so much time doing things in [00:48:55] dental school that didn’t apply to your once you become a dentist and then [00:49:00] so little time on stuff that you know is quite important, right? You [00:49:05] can come out of dental school now and not have a single little bit [00:49:10] of knowledge on implants, ortho, even even silly [00:49:15] things like whitening. Yeah. They don’t discuss in dental school.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: In [00:49:20] Romania again, I was fortunate. My sister was six years. She [00:49:25] is six years older than me. Yeah. And, um, she. When [00:49:30] I went to uni, she she graduated the the [00:49:35] dentistry. Six years in Romania.

[TRANSITION]: Mhm.

Alex Buciu: And she got the job at the wealthiest [00:49:40] dentist in Romania. Um, because [00:49:45] we recorded I want to tell you some things about, uh, this guy off [00:49:50] the record. We might talk about more, uh, but this [00:49:55] guy kept investing into this, uh, his practice, and, uh, he would come, [00:50:00] like, this weekend. We’re gonna invest. I don’t know, 200 grand, like, no problem. Three months later, like, [00:50:05] yeah, there’s a new generation of whatnot. Strip everything out, just get another [00:50:10] two. So when I went in his surgery, uh, and [00:50:15] coming from, uh, uni, uh, so after, after [00:50:20] classes, I felt like in Star Trek. So literally, if you go now on a spaceship, [00:50:25] that that was the closest I can describe the feeling. Okay. So they would [00:50:30] teach us about, uh, impressions with the copper ring. If you know [00:50:35] that old style, how do you take impressions? And I go, him and I had, like, uh, a silicone. [00:50:40] It’s like. What? Yes. They would teach us about the composites [00:50:45] that our self, uh, cure. That was the top of. Yeah. I would go [00:50:50] to him, he would have light cure and, uh, point for it was that he [00:50:55] would have only politicians and, uh, uh.

[TRANSITION]: Celebrities. [00:51:00]

Alex Buciu: Celebrities. So I met lots of musicians and, uh, um, that [00:51:05] was in the first year. Second year. I already done my first [00:51:10] feeling. Yes. And that was on one of his nurses. Um, third [00:51:15] year, I was already doing feelings and small treatments, [00:51:20] extractions, simple extractions, dentures for family and friends. Fourth [00:51:25] year I already had my endo kit and stuff like this and in the [00:51:30] fourth year we would just start. In the first three years you do more general medicine and the following [00:51:35] three years focus on dentistry because first you need to know the patient and then [00:51:40] focus on the teeth. Teeth are attached to someone. You don’t treat teeth. We treat patients with [00:51:45] teeth problems. And uh uh, one [00:51:50] when my colleagues would start to see how to do a feeling I [00:51:55] already had like a thousand fillings under my belt, you know?

[TRANSITION]: Wow.

Alex Buciu: Um, in the fifth year, [00:52:00] we opened up the clinic. And sixth year. Yeah. So the, [00:52:05] uh, what we were taught in uni, unfortunately, [00:52:10] was irrelevant, and 90% was irrelevant. Yeah, very, [00:52:15] very little. Even the teachers were, um, how they, [00:52:20] um.

Payman Langroudi: Behind the times.

Alex Buciu: Well, behind the [00:52:25] times.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Well behind. So the real dentistry, I was taught by [00:52:30] private courses, uh, courses that don’t give, like, the equivalent [00:52:35] of Cpds or something.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: Yeah. And, uh, the the biggest [00:52:40] mistake you said that uni doesn’t teach this and that, but but [00:52:45] the biggest one, I would say communication.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So if I were to start again or [00:52:50] if there’s any newly graduates listening [00:52:55] to your podcast, uh, I would say in the first few years, [00:53:00] 70% invest in reading about patients psychology and [00:53:05] communication courses, not the sales. Sales is a dirty word and shouldn’t [00:53:10] be like sales. Sales should be like an ethical part of sales. But [00:53:15] communication how to talk to the patient. And I am, uh. Guilty [00:53:20] of not knowing how to talk to my patients. For many years, I would talk [00:53:25] like. Yes, you have, uh, generalised periodontitis, stage four, [00:53:30] grade C, unstable. You understand how bad it is?

[TRANSITION]: They’re like, what [00:53:35] the hell? It’s like.

Alex Buciu: So. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So how did you learn?

[TRANSITION]: Read. [00:53:40]

Alex Buciu: Read a lot. And, uh, from with patient interactions. And I understood [00:53:45] after it. It took me a good few years. Five, [00:53:50] ten years maybe.

[TRANSITION]: So you just experience.

Payman Langroudi: Itself.

[TRANSITION]: To experience.

Alex Buciu: Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: And [00:53:55] when.

Payman Langroudi: You say go on a course, did you go on a communications course or read it.

[TRANSITION]: Something? I’ve been to a.

Alex Buciu: Few, like [00:54:00] ash letters.

[TRANSITION]: Uh huh. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Really really good. Course. But, um, I’m gonna [00:54:05] tell you in a bit about, uh, we keep in contact. Um, it’s. [00:54:10] You have to do a crown for a patient. It’s a completely different chat [00:54:15] you have with a 21 year old young girl and [00:54:20] a 50 year old male engineer. You do a [00:54:25] crown, but they will have a completely different set of questions and priorities. [00:54:30] Yeah, so you have to gauge, you have to adjust your conversation [00:54:35] to who you have in front of you. And if you’re like a broken [00:54:40] record and you say you have like 20 speeches for everything in dentistry, this [00:54:45] is not communication and you’re gonna, uh, end up in trouble. The [00:54:50] if you if you’re like a six out of ten delivering dentistry, six out of [00:54:55] ten, but ten out of ten, uh, communication. They’re gonna love you. You’re [00:55:00] gonna be the best dentist in the world. But if you’re ten out of ten, dentistry wise, clinical [00:55:05] wise, and five out of ten communication, you’re gonna end [00:55:10] up in lots and lots of trouble down the line.

Payman Langroudi: So what’s your top tip then? I mean, it’s quite interesting [00:55:15] because when you say there are some people who who naturally have [00:55:20] it, you know, they when they walk into a room, they’re the life of [00:55:25] a party and they naturally have wonderful communication skills. And you’d imagine [00:55:30] if you want to find out the answer to these questions, you need to ask them. [00:55:35] But what I’ve noticed is often those people, they don’t realise that they have [00:55:40] it. They’re just they’re just being themselves. They’re just a natural. And so they can’t they can’t [00:55:45] pin it down. But someone like you who says you had problems in communication and [00:55:50] now you’re a good communicator, maybe someone like you can pin it down to, you know, what [00:55:55] are key points? Now, listening to people I think is.

[TRANSITION]: Be generally.

Payman Langroudi: Important generally. [00:56:00]

[TRANSITION]: So it took.

Alex Buciu: Me years to understand this, but I put it in a few words. Be genuinely interested [00:56:05] in the person you have in front of you. So generally not so how was your day? And turn around and [00:56:10] start to type on the computer.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Alex Buciu: It’s like, uh, no, I’m genuinely interested in my patients. And [00:56:15] I remember saying, oh, I don’t know. My, uh, I don’t know, [00:56:20] uh, I had a bad back or something. Yeah, I see them six, six months [00:56:25] later. It’s like, first thing I. Hey, John, how are you? How’s your back? Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: So how [00:56:30] were.

Alex Buciu: You? Remember? It’s like. Yeah. Remember? Because again, I don’t treat it. I [00:56:35] treat the patient that has teacher attached. Yeah. So no tooth has ever [00:56:40] worked in my surgery. Someone said someone saw no tooth has ever walked into my surgery. [00:56:45]

Payman Langroudi: You put it in the notes, these things sometimes.

Alex Buciu: Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: It’s a weird.

Payman Langroudi: Or are [00:56:50] you very good with remembering people’s.

[TRANSITION]: Details.

Alex Buciu: But not.

[TRANSITION]: Difficult.

Payman Langroudi: Dentists with [00:56:55] hundreds of patients to remember.

Alex Buciu: I’m not doing NHS though, [00:57:00] so I don’t have so many. And again, the if it’s [00:57:05] patients that I only see them once for emergency or stuff we’re going to focus on their pain [00:57:10] or swelling or whatever. But if they’re patients that come back, we start, you start to get friends with [00:57:15] them.

[TRANSITION]: And by the.

Payman Langroudi: Way, listen, I think it’s good advice to put things like this in the notes. Yeah. [00:57:20]

Alex Buciu: Not in a clinical. Yeah. Just put it on a pop up there or something. But, uh, it’s. [00:57:25]

Payman Langroudi: It’s not a bad thing with the there’s nothing there’s nothing wrong with putting it in the [00:57:30] notes.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Nothing wrong with putting in it. But my, my point is this that you see [00:57:35] a lot of dentists put like, uh, where the guy went on holiday in the notes, [00:57:40] and then six months later.

Alex Buciu: How was.

[TRANSITION]: The how was Italy? Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: People love that. [00:57:45]

[TRANSITION]: Right.

Payman Langroudi: But but it’s I if I was a dentist again. Yeah I would [00:57:50] put all sorts of information in marketing terms. They say you need to know the name of the guy’s dog [00:57:55] as.

Alex Buciu: As long as you don’t write their pain in the ass. You know, there was a case, [00:58:00] uh, I saw.

[TRANSITION]: Online a few years back.

Alex Buciu: You’re like.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, like, what [00:58:05] does it mean when the.

Alex Buciu: Gdc is, like, pain in the ass.

[TRANSITION]: Oh, Jesus.

Payman Langroudi: No, [00:58:10] I wouldn’t do that.

[TRANSITION]: No. Just positives. Yeah. Focus on.

Alex Buciu: The positives.

Payman Langroudi: I [00:58:15] want to talk about. I’m quite interested in having come from a country with issues [00:58:20] politically in your childhood. Ceausescu. [00:58:25] What you remember about that society.

[TRANSITION]: Compared.

Payman Langroudi: To afterwards. [00:58:30] And still, you know, Romania is a kind of country that’s gone through so [00:58:35] much like upside from that time till now, [00:58:40] joining the European Union that, you know, as I understand [00:58:45] everything you’re saying about corruption, you know, but overall a much richer society now than back [00:58:50] then.

Alex Buciu: I can give you my own perspective. [00:58:55]

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Um, Romania unfortunately, is [00:59:00] they’re still. In the present days, even [00:59:05] though the communism in 89 was, uh, thrown [00:59:10] out the window and everything. Many of the people that, [00:59:15] uh, were leading then still live now, or their friends and, [00:59:20] uh.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Children and stuff. So the is not [00:59:25] 100%, uh, Democratic or open. And yeah, [00:59:30] there’s still some structures that are from the old days, unfortunately.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: But [00:59:35] I can tell you my experience is, uh, uh, because I was 11 [00:59:40] when the big revolution was. And Ceausescu was, uh, shot on Christmas [00:59:45] Day, that, uh. Anyway, uh, my my, uh, [00:59:50] childhood was amazing. Okay. And we we were [00:59:55] poor, but we didn’t know we were poor because everybody was poor. Okay, so, you know, the comparison [01:00:00] is the thief of joy. It’s like everybody was poor and that’s it. Yeah. Um. [01:00:05] The electricity would be cut off. [01:00:10] So life was tough in the evenings to save money. So when I was doing my homework, [01:00:15] uh, I had to do it by the faint light of a campaign.

[TRANSITION]: What time was this?

Alex Buciu: Uh, [01:00:20] 5 to 7 or 4 to 7. Something like.

[TRANSITION]: This. Three hours?

Alex Buciu: Yeah. Yeah. [01:00:25] Every evening, uh, they would do this and recognise the food and everything so [01:00:30] they can, uh, pay the external debt.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And I understand [01:00:35] at some point, 88 or 89, Romania was the only [01:00:40] country in the world that ever repaid fully their external debt.

[TRANSITION]: Right. [01:00:45]

Alex Buciu: So that’s amazing. Everybody has external debt. Yeah, they they manage to do this [01:00:50] again. I don’t mean it in a good way, but they, they in a good way. [01:00:55] I mean, that is a good way. But that was a good thing, you know, being able to, Um, [01:01:00] shops were empty. Food was rationed, [01:01:05] like one person was allowed half a loaf of bread, a quarter pack of butter and half [01:01:10] a litre of milk a day. Meat was a rare treat, and our [01:01:15] parents would sometimes queue for 12 hours. Uh, for basics at the grocery [01:01:20] store, for example, oranges only appeared at Christmas time [01:01:25] as a luxury product, and even then just a few per persons were allowed and [01:01:30] only if you’re in front of the queue. So sometimes you would queue up not knowing what they’re gonna, [01:01:35] uh, sell, you know? Uh, as children, we [01:01:40] weren’t affected, uh, by, uh, this too much because, okay, we [01:01:45] were unaware of what’s going on.

Payman Langroudi: No. What, you didn’t know?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: About the hardships and, [01:01:50] uh, everything. And, uh, we didn’t know what we were missing, so, uh, [01:01:55] very late, uh, few years afterwards, we started to see like. [01:02:00]

[TRANSITION]: Proper.

Alex Buciu: Sweets and junk food and stuff. Like we ate [01:02:05] the same thing. We dressed the same, more or less because like, there were like three types of [01:02:10] shirts and.

[TRANSITION]: That’s.

Alex Buciu: It. You either have A, B or C, you know.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Um, but, [01:02:15] uh, we were kids and we had like in the summer, uh, three [01:02:20] months of summer school. And as we lived on the beach, we would [01:02:25] leave at 8:00 in the morning and come back maybe at 10 p.m. it fruits off trees [01:02:30] and drink water from the hose garden hoses. And we only [01:02:35] had, like, the, uh, swimming trunks. That’s it. No slippers, no towel, no [01:02:40] nothing. Yeah. So bare feet.

[TRANSITION]: The.

Payman Langroudi: Best life, right?

[TRANSITION]: Go to the beach. The beach was [01:02:45] wild beach.

Alex Buciu: We would swim far into the sea, and the sea was, uh. [01:02:50] Sometimes it was calm, sometimes it was restless. And, uh, this is [01:02:55] how we learned how to swim. Same, uh, most of the times unsupervised. So [01:03:00] we were 30, 31, I think children in our, [01:03:05] uh, area. Yeah, it was a block of flats.

[TRANSITION]: Yes. [01:03:10]

Alex Buciu: One plus minus one year. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So nice.

Alex Buciu: When we go with 30 [01:03:15] people.

[TRANSITION]: Are you still.

Payman Langroudi: Friends with some of those.

[TRANSITION]: People? Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, I.

[TRANSITION]: Still keep in.

Alex Buciu: Contact. Yeah, yeah, we’re [01:03:20] still close friends.

Payman Langroudi: When. When the revolution happened and Ceausescu [01:03:25] was killed and all that, why was there a period where things were very uncertain?

[TRANSITION]: Yes, [01:03:30] yes.

Alex Buciu: My father was high in the Navy.

[TRANSITION]: Uh-uh.

Alex Buciu: Uh, so, [01:03:35] uh, during the revolution, they kept saying that there’s terrorists. So they they kept getting [01:03:40] these. And my father was stationed and they had guns and probably every other 3 [01:03:45] or 4 days he would come home and had guns with him. And this is I remember the smell [01:03:50] of, uh, of a gun, you know, and, uh, Um, uh, [01:03:55] we are very afraid because he’s he might be shot. And, uh, it proved years [01:04:00] down the line there were no terrorists. And they would shoot. They we were. So, uh, the [01:04:05] fear was so induced that they were paranoid. Okay, so there are [01:04:10] the different military groups, and they say, oh, I spot something, but there’s another military group [01:04:15] from another unit, and they start to shoot each other and they kill each other.

[TRANSITION]: And like.

Alex Buciu: So, so silly, they never caught any [01:04:20] terrorists or any.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And um, there was like, [01:04:25] uh oh, there was a terrorist in Bucharest. They had like, uh, uh, trainers, like, [01:04:30] okay, like 100,000 people have trainers, you know, like.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So [01:04:35] silly things like this, uh, it’s, uh.

[TRANSITION]: How long did.

Payman Langroudi: It take before it got [01:04:40] better? Things got better.

[TRANSITION]: Years. Years? [01:04:45]

Alex Buciu: Yeah. 4 or 5 years. When, uh, [01:04:50] the first president that, you know, the president can be re-elected twice. [01:04:55] Yeah, he got re-elected three times. Uh, I think it says a lot.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:05:00]

Alex Buciu: He was a close confidant of Ceausescu and one of in his inner circle.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:05:05]

Alex Buciu: So that was the first president in the Free Romanian [01:05:10] Republic afterwards. So what does he say?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: Um, and, [01:05:15] uh, it the party, the ruling party transformed [01:05:20] and renamed, and it’s still, uh, number one in the country. [01:05:25] So what what can you say about this? You know, it’s sad. Um, [01:05:30] it’s still restless. It’s still. It’s a little bit [01:05:35] more westernised.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: But still lots of the [01:05:40] old ways.

[TRANSITION]: Uh, so you.

Payman Langroudi: Were 11 when he died? When he. When when he [01:05:45] went. And then you saying it take five, six years before there was any sort of improvement?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So you’re [01:05:50] now around 1617, deciding to become a dentist. Why [01:05:55] dentistry?

Alex Buciu: Honestly, I cannot answer to this question I always knew. [01:06:00]

[TRANSITION]: Is going to be good at school.

Payman Langroudi: Were you top of your class or whatever?

Alex Buciu: Pretty good, [01:06:05] pretty good. Not the top one.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, but.

Alex Buciu: Among, um.

[TRANSITION]: I [01:06:10] dentists.

Payman Langroudi: In the family.

[TRANSITION]: I have.

Alex Buciu: I have a auntie [01:06:15] that she’s a dentist. But that wasn’t the influence. I have lots of other [01:06:20] doctors in the family, but biggest for me, it [01:06:25] was one of the two. And if we talk more about this topic, you’ll understand why. [01:06:30] So either dentistry, but no idea why. Uh, so I [01:06:35] always thought, I don’t know, maybe when I was sleeping somebody would come and subliminals like dentist.

[TRANSITION]: Dentist, [01:06:40] you know.

Alex Buciu: Do this and wake up in the morning. He’s like, I’m gonna become a dentist. I don’t know why. Yeah. Or. And [01:06:45] the second was the, uh, any, like, uh, Um. Emergency [01:06:50] doctor. Um, the. Again, [01:06:55] going back to the communist era. Not that now is a big difference. [01:07:00] The the streets are very unsafe driving wise. Okay, so they don’t follow the rules. [01:07:05] They don’t respect on red lights. Cut you off. Lots of road rage. But [01:07:10] in the 80s was worse because there are no emergencies. There were the emergencies, but [01:07:15] just with the name. So you call an ambulance. Might might not come if they answered the phone, if they’re not sleeping [01:07:20] or.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And my mother was, um, a top [01:07:25] consultant, uh, paediatrician, uh, in the hospital. [01:07:30] Uh, but we when we drove around and we go places, [01:07:35] we would, uh, many times meet, uh, car crashes, okay, [01:07:40] with victims. And she would jump off the car, and we had, like, a small improvised, [01:07:45] uh, first aid kit Doing CPR. Stopping the bleeding. [01:07:50] Triaging. Assessing. There was no phone, no mobile phones you can call. So you had [01:07:55] to ask somebody else to drive to the nearest. So that one really, [01:08:00] really affected you. Made a deep mark [01:08:05] in in my, uh, child’s mind, uh, when [01:08:10] I was, uh, 14. Uh, so I was like, uh, [01:08:15] first aid. And it’s so important, like basic life support, first aid [01:08:20] before the first aiders come, you know?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: Uh, when I was, she was [01:08:25] working crazy hours, uh, and, uh, she [01:08:30] started to have some, uh, high blood pressure and some medical issues. Uh, [01:08:35] and she was 48, and I was 14. And one afternoon I came from [01:08:40] school and we were lying in bed and we were talking, and then she stopped answering, And [01:08:45] I turned around. I remember exactly I had my first pair of [01:08:50] blue jeans. Yes. And I saw someone on the street. It was like purplish [01:08:55] colour. And that was like, you know what? Can I dye them? Can I make them? [01:09:00] I just and she didn’t answer. Like what’s going on? It was very mummy’s boy. I was like, [01:09:05] my son is to my wife. And, uh, she was [01:09:10] looks like she was sleeping. And I tried to wake her up. It was not right. And we were alone [01:09:15] at home, but she. She had a massive stroke, and she slipped into a coma. [01:09:20]

[TRANSITION]: Wow.

Alex Buciu: It took about ten minutes. Uh, just [01:09:25] by then, my father was supposed to come home. And, uh, I didn’t know what to [01:09:30] do. Like you can imagine.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: What a shock. And, uh, my [01:09:35] father called, uh, the doctor. Doctor was was living pretty close. [01:09:40] She she came in 15 minutes or something. Think we took her to the hospital, [01:09:45] but she died in the next couple of days. So I [01:09:50] was. You can imagine. Shocked by this.

[TRANSITION]: How old were you?

Alex Buciu: Uh, 46 now? [01:09:55]

Payman Langroudi: No. Back then.

[TRANSITION]: 14.

Payman Langroudi: 14.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. Wow. So, uh. [01:10:00]

Alex Buciu: Everything crumbled in my family afterwards. So she was [01:10:05] the cement?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So things started to get worse [01:10:10] afterwards. Um. And I. My mother [01:10:15] was a saint. I, I say it with my full heart. [01:10:20] Uh, I every day, I think [01:10:25] how my life would have been if she would be around. So there’s no five hours in [01:10:30] a row when I don’t think about my my mother and how it [01:10:35] started. The domino effect, you know.

[TRANSITION]: Mhm.

Alex Buciu: And, uh, we went through [01:10:40] some really bad patches like poverty wise. And, uh, [01:10:45] my father stood up to the, uh, occasion for that time, [01:10:50] and, uh, sorry, I get a bit, uh, and we [01:10:55] had moments when it’s like, okay, we only have this amount of money, [01:11:00] we can buy bread or we can send you for tuition, you know, so I can [01:11:05] get into dentistry. So what do we do? Okay. And we ended [01:11:10] up, uh, either, uh, getting food from, uh, grandparents [01:11:15] even though they are poor as well, or, uh, borrowing [01:11:20] some money. But he always gave me money to go to private tuition so I can [01:11:25] become a dentist. And there was no second chance. Like, if [01:11:30] you don’t make it now, he would retire next year. So it’s like, I’m not going to be able to even do [01:11:35] that.

[TRANSITION]: Wow. So your.

Payman Langroudi: Sister.

[TRANSITION]: Was in.

Payman Langroudi: Dental school at [01:11:40] this point, right?

[TRANSITION]: Sorry.

Payman Langroudi: Your sister was already in dental school.

[TRANSITION]: Yes, yes. So.

Alex Buciu: Uh, [01:11:45] many of the choices I had to do and things I had to go [01:11:50] through my life was like, you only have, like, one opportunity. There’s no safety [01:11:55] net. You either do it or you don’t do it. So, yeah. [01:12:00] Um, after what happened to my mother, I kept thinking, like, [01:12:05] everybody should know how to do the basic. Not that I could have done anything for her. So in [01:12:10] that small. I’m opening a small parenthesis. Um, in [01:12:15] the hospital, even though everybody knew her. It’s a big regional hospital, and, [01:12:20] uh, everybody knew her. They still wanted bribe to [01:12:25] in the first hour. If you inject some sort.

[TRANSITION]: Of.

Payman Langroudi: Heparin or [01:12:30] something.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, it can be, uh, not heparin. Uh, anyway. [01:12:35]

[TRANSITION]: Doesn’t matter. Something like that.

Alex Buciu: Uh. It can reverse [01:12:40] or limit the damage. Uh, and they wouldn’t, uh, [01:12:45] give it to her for about a day and a half. They wanted bribe. And my father said, [01:12:50] I’m not gonna bribe you. You know who she is. And you know. And you have it here. And they said, no, [01:12:55] we don’t have it.

[TRANSITION]: Wow.

Alex Buciu: And then after a day and a half [01:13:00] again calling in favours and stuff, they, uh, give it to her. But [01:13:05] what’s the point? It’s one hour, not 36 hours. Anyway, uh. [01:13:10] After this again, I started to see, uh, that [01:13:15] first aid is very important and, uh, uh, throughout. [01:13:20] So up until when I left, uh, Romania, I kept trying and I talked. [01:13:25] I ended up in some situation when I talked to top politicians, uh, guys from [01:13:30] the education minister, uh, guys who had power [01:13:35] and they could with a cold. They could make it happen. Yeah, I said, I’m gonna do it for free. I [01:13:40] have some friends that work in the emergency services. I know how to do this. [01:13:45] I’m gonna go and teach them for free. First basic life support and then dental [01:13:50] education.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Lots of promises and nothing happened. Nothing? Nothing, nothing. [01:13:55] I said I’m doing it on my own time and with my own resources. [01:14:00] And it’s like, yeah, but, you know, it’s complicated. If you do it for one, then you have to do it for everyone. It’s [01:14:05] like, do it. I’m showing you and I’m giving you the know how.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Anyway. [01:14:10] Nothing happened. I take it as a big failure this time because I tried [01:14:15] for so many years, I couldn’t make it.

[TRANSITION]: Sure.

Alex Buciu: The only thing I could do is at the same hospital where my [01:14:20] mother was admitted, and later she died. I volunteered as [01:14:25] a doctor, and for a few years, I was a volunteer [01:14:30] there. Uh, the major trauma and resuscitation. Um, uh, [01:14:35] room uh, again with calling in favours. [01:14:40] So I offer a volunteer and they are short staffed and they still couldn’t go through unless [01:14:45] I. And uh, it was again another moment of growth [01:14:50] where, um, you realise your daily struggles are nothing compared [01:14:55] to the, the, the tragedies you see there. So I [01:15:00] don’t want to turn this podcast into something dark, but I have some examples [01:15:05] or one example, if you want to say you can edit it and cut it [01:15:10] afterwards, you know.

[TRANSITION]: This is quite dark podcast.

Alex Buciu: Um, it, uh, so [01:15:15] I it’s okay. Um, again corruption. Yeah. 18 year old girl [01:15:20] received for her, uh, birthday the driving license from her father without taking any [01:15:25] classes or anything. So like. Yeah. There you go.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And, uh, Porsche. [01:15:30] Okay. 200, 300 horsepower or something. First thing, she [01:15:35] floors it with three other people in the car, right into a concrete [01:15:40] pillar. Yeah, they all die.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And, [01:15:45] uh, they start to bring them in bags. Yeah. The black [01:15:50] bags and bags. Yeah, yeah, black. Uh, you know, [01:15:55] the. And the father comes with a suitcase, like huge suitcase. [01:16:00] The one that you would check in. Yeah, full of euros. I don’t know how many millions were there. Like, [01:16:05] we’re talking millions.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: And brought it to the. And he said, like, save my daughter. [01:16:10] Say like your daughter is in three bags. They brought it here. But literally there’s [01:16:15] like Lego. Yeah. There’s not much. Please, please, please. And then started to [01:16:20] realise what? Because she died of his stupidity.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: He gave [01:16:25] her.

[TRANSITION]: The. Yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: Car and the driving license. Like. And she killed [01:16:30] herself within an hour. Yeah. And he fell on his knees and he started to pull his [01:16:35] hair. So when you say like I’m pulling my hair.

[TRANSITION]: Like.

Alex Buciu: That was literally. Yeah. When [01:16:40] he realised this. So they have the money. Just save my daughters. Like money [01:16:45] is nothing.

[TRANSITION]: For.

Alex Buciu: For for this situation. It’s too late. [01:16:50] And I had other things. I think when I would leave there, I stayed in my car [01:16:55] like I’m so fortunate. I’m so grateful for my life. I would drive on [01:17:00] the very, very slow, like it was 2 or 3:00 at night. First lane, like [01:17:05] a like an old man, like.

[TRANSITION]: Oh.

Alex Buciu: My God, I just want to get safely to my to my family. You know. [01:17:10]

Payman Langroudi: You told me you nearly died twice.

Alex Buciu: Ah, yeah. Yeah. So once [01:17:15] when I was 15, um, I [01:17:20] was, uh, first time, uh, with some [01:17:25] irresponsible adults, uh, that knew how to ski like a professional. [01:17:30] Yeah. And, uh, they say top of the mountain, and they chose the, [01:17:35] you know, they have, like, colour coding. Black would be like.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Are you really [01:17:40] sure?

[TRANSITION]: Are you like, it’s like this.

Alex Buciu: For experts only. They chose the black one and [01:17:45] say, yeah, it’s very simple. I literally had a 32nd training. It’s like, yeah. So you keep the skis [01:17:50] like this, you lean on this side to lean on the other side. And if you want to stop, [01:17:55] you do this. It’s like okay, okay, like okay. And they left. It’s like okay. [01:18:00] And I tried a little bit a little bit. And after about half an hour [01:18:05] it was a very narrow path, like literally the two skis stuck together. Yeah. Uh, [01:18:10] Cliff and, uh, big fall on the right hand side and and, [01:18:15] uh, big rock on the left. Yeah. And I went and this [01:18:20] one started to slip, and then the other one slipped, and then, like, 150m down.

[TRANSITION]: It was [01:18:25] like fell.

Alex Buciu: Vertically Nearly. And then he started to go sweet like this. And [01:18:30] at the end there was a tree fallen. And in I went with my [01:18:35] butt first into the tree in between two big branches. So that was really lucky. [01:18:40] Otherwise I would have been impaled, you know.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: And, uh, I was like. [01:18:45]

[TRANSITION]: Were you okay? Nothing.

Alex Buciu: No scratches?

[TRANSITION]: No nothing.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, but it felt like I fell for [01:18:50] hours. You know, like, it felt like a really, really long fall. So look from one. Anyway, [01:18:55] they they were somewhere in front. They stopped. Are you okay? Yeah. Okay. On the. [01:19:00]

[TRANSITION]: Left. It’s like, what the hell, man? It’s like. Really?

Alex Buciu: And [01:19:05] the second time was after Covid, which was extremely stressful for, um, for [01:19:10] me because, again, we, uh, lived paycheque by paycheque, and, uh, [01:19:15] I didn’t know what to expect. And I took what the government said seriously [01:19:20] and literally done everything by the book and try to [01:19:25] be good while others didn’t care. I regret [01:19:30] being that type of person now. Um. And, [01:19:35] um. There were two other things that happened [01:19:40] in 45 minutes. One, uh, fight with, uh, an area manager because [01:19:45] I had booked a trip to Romania after 1 or 2 years, something [01:19:50] like this, and say, no, no, we’re going to open the doors in June. So, [01:19:55] um, you have to be here. It’s like I worked alone for 12,000 [01:20:00] patients in the, uh, during the lockdown and everything. I think I deserve [01:20:05] a week off. And I was like, no, no, no, uh, we didn’t get to an agreement. [01:20:10] And immediately afterwards, there was a very famous among dentists [01:20:15] in UK, a financial advisor who’s a crook. And, uh, I [01:20:20] paid him to, um, sort. Some income protection [01:20:25] for me. Some, uh, months just before the, uh, Covid [01:20:30] started, and, uh, he didn’t give me any proper, [01:20:35] uh, offers like we talked about. And, uh, I lost a [01:20:40] big amount of money, uh, to him. I said, look, you didn’t give me what you [01:20:45] promised.

Alex Buciu: Either you give me the money back or give me the offers or something. It’s like, now what? You’re gonna do that [01:20:50] type of attitude. Anyway, that was. Both of them were in 45 [01:20:55] minutes, you know? And, uh, I started to feel my ears popping and, uh, nothing [01:21:00] hurt or anything, but I felt like, okay, I think I have high blood pressure, and I measured. [01:21:05] I had a monitor. It was, uh, 19 over [01:21:10] 14, something like, okay, I’ll stay in bed a bit and then, uh, 21 [01:21:15] over something like, okay, that’s not good. I called the GP, they said, go [01:21:20] to the hospital. I went to the knee again. They were just opening [01:21:25] after the first lockdown. Were still freaked out at this point and [01:21:30] 16 hours in the knee. And they kept [01:21:35] popping pills and injections and stuff. And the consultant comes. It was about 12:00 at night [01:21:40] and uh, said, uh, well, we tried [01:21:45] everything. So from the legal point of view, I need to inform you that in six hours, [01:21:50] either you die, you go blind, you lose a limb or your kidneys, [01:21:55] uh, fail because nothing is working. So I’m sorry to say this, but there’s [01:22:00] not much we can do. We tried everything.

Payman Langroudi: Was it? Blood pressure was the problem?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So [01:22:05] they.

[TRANSITION]: Kept.

Alex Buciu: Giving me these drugs, and they kept on growing. Going up. [01:22:10] Yeah. Uh, six hours later, they put me into a [01:22:15] research room. Is preparing for the worst. I was extremely [01:22:20] tired, so that’s the only thing that I felt. So I really want to sleep. I would sleep on my feet. It’s like [01:22:25] they wouldn’t let me sleep. And then a nurse came and said, look, we can get you. [01:22:30] What religion are you? It’s like, that’s a weird question to ask, you know, but I didn’t [01:22:35] realise at the moment. And, uh, she said, we want to [01:22:40] bring a priest to you just to talk to someone. And it’s like, this is when I panicked. This [01:22:45] is when I said, okay, that’s that’s pretty severe, you know? So I took my phone [01:22:50] and messaged my wife, this is my pin to the car. This is the bank account, username and [01:22:55] password, uh.

[TRANSITION]: Everything.

Alex Buciu: Do this today. I mean, get the money [01:23:00] out of my account today. Because if I die, you don’t have access. It’s not a joint account. And then [01:23:05] I recorded a voice message on WhatsApp for my kids. I said, [01:23:10] yeah, yeah, that was really. Yeah, that that this is when I thought, that’s it, end [01:23:15] of the line. And, uh, they kept putting things [01:23:20] into me. And at some point, about two hours later, it started to go [01:23:25] down a bit.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. So was it stress?

Payman Langroudi: It can’t be.

[TRANSITION]: Just just [01:23:30] stress.

Alex Buciu: So it’s genetic. I’m predisposed to this. Again, my mother [01:23:35] had it, and, uh, she died young. Uh, and, [01:23:40] uh, also the Covid, [01:23:45] uh, stress, the stress that was going to happen. Are we going to die? Is it.

[TRANSITION]: Really before.

Payman Langroudi: We [01:23:50] know the vaccine? Right.

[TRANSITION]: Sorry.

Payman Langroudi: The vaccine. Covid vaccine.

[TRANSITION]: What [01:23:55] about.

Payman Langroudi: All sorts of, uh, people said they had issues with the Covid. [01:24:00]

[TRANSITION]: Vaccine? Yeah, I had the Pfizer. I had the.

Alex Buciu: Pfizer, the [01:24:05] second dose as well. First and second. I haven’t done it afterwards. Uh, [01:24:10] not with Pfizer, understand, with others, other brands. So [01:24:15] it was fortunate that way. Uh, but yes, I had patients coming and they say, [01:24:20] look, ever since that, it was instantly I mean, they had it and.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, well, [01:24:25] what a story, man.

Alex Buciu: I don’t want to accuse [01:24:30] anyone of anything, but once you see so many cases, you [01:24:35] you start to see a pattern. You know.

Payman Langroudi: Normally at this point I would say let’s get to the darker part [01:24:40] of the board.

[TRANSITION]: But we’ve been.

Payman Langroudi: We’ve been to some.

[TRANSITION]: Dark parts.

Payman Langroudi: And really, I want to ask [01:24:45] you a question about mistakes. We asked this question all the time. Yeah. Um, so [01:24:50] that we don’t all have to make the same mistakes. What comes to mind when I say clinical errors? What [01:24:55] clinical errors have you had?

Alex Buciu: We talked about one clinical the communication. [01:25:00] That was my top one I would say.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah but.

Payman Langroudi: What case I wouldn’t like a case where [01:25:05] you made a mistake.

[TRANSITION]: Um.

Alex Buciu: Not the [01:25:10] no particular one comes to mind. I’m very critical with all of my cases [01:25:15] or the conversations I had in the first part of my career. I know [01:25:20] I could have done much better. Um, there wasn’t a case where [01:25:25] something happened or led to a complaint or nothing like [01:25:30] this, but maybe I could have explained it in a better way. So the patient [01:25:35] understand, uh, the gravity of the situation. You know, [01:25:40] uh.

[TRANSITION]: I’m not going to.

Payman Langroudi: Let you get away with this.

[TRANSITION]: Sorry.

Payman Langroudi: I’m not going to let you get away with that.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:25:45]

Payman Langroudi: Look, you’re an experienced dentist. Yeah.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What does that mean? You’ve [01:25:50] made many mistakes.

[TRANSITION]: In.

Alex Buciu: Communication wise. I’ve been many mistakes in all. [01:25:55] All sorts of my life.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, mistakes. Okay. Another one.

Payman Langroudi: And it doesn’t have to [01:26:00] be communication.

Alex Buciu: Not leaving. Giving too many chances to a place. Giving [01:26:05] too many chances to a clinic or clinical mistakes. Clinical [01:26:10] mistakes?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: I didn’t pull [01:26:15] out the wrong tooth. I didn’t do that. Very common. Maybe a file broken [01:26:20] into the canal, which.

[TRANSITION]: Is.

Alex Buciu: A.

[TRANSITION]: Feeling. [01:26:25]

Payman Langroudi: I’m not accepting it.

[TRANSITION]: Okay.

Alex Buciu: Okay. Let me think. And mistakes of [01:26:30] veneers that patients were happy with them but weren’t.

Payman Langroudi: Go and tell me [01:26:35] that story.

[TRANSITION]: Tell me that story.

Alex Buciu: So some veneers I did for, uh. That was my first veneer case.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:26:40]

Alex Buciu: But back in Romania, they were okay. She loved [01:26:45] them, but they were too bulky. I keep looking now. I still have the photos, and I go back like, oh my [01:26:50] God, they look like the the orbit, you know, um.

Payman Langroudi: In [01:26:55] Romania though, the people just accept it and move on.

[TRANSITION]: She was happy. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: She started from a [01:27:00] bad place anyway.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, but.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, I have other.

[TRANSITION]: Cases that were brilliant.

Payman Langroudi: On reflection, [01:27:05] what did you do wrong there? You didn’t prep enough or you used the wrong technician or National.

Alex Buciu: Recognition was [01:27:10] good that the condition was better than I was he? He [01:27:15] was a crazy technician, uh, and he taught me. He was the first one. He gave me [01:27:20] books like, uh, porcelain laminated veneers. Yes. Like, look, Alex, you have to read all [01:27:25] these. You have to do this. Uh, he was the one that, uh, pushed me into [01:27:30] magnification, and he said I had money saved for an apartment, and I bought a microscope, [01:27:35] and my wife flipped. You know, like, it’s like I said, I bought my unhappiness, [01:27:40] and I keep remembering. I bought mine because now I’m never happy with, uh, how [01:27:45] my work. So I been the crown, and I get another one, and I been that one. And I had the. [01:27:50] So maybe he he put this one in my head as well. The perfectionist type [01:27:55] which.

[TRANSITION]: The mistakes.

Payman Langroudi: Come to mind.

[TRANSITION]: Mistakes, mistakes.

Alex Buciu: I’m trying to think. Treating, [01:28:00] uh discounting [01:28:05] severely. Discounting counting for friends and family prices. [01:28:10]

Payman Langroudi: Do you think that’s a mistake?

Alex Buciu: Yeah, because I ended up at a loss and I didn’t appreciate [01:28:15] it anyway.

[TRANSITION]: Mhm.

Alex Buciu: And in Romania they all my patients had my private number. [01:28:20] They would call me like 11:00 at night. It’s like Alex, I was thinking [01:28:25] do you remember what I told you. He’s like look man, is it urgent. No. It’s like, why would you call me Saturday at 11:00?

Payman Langroudi: When [01:28:30] I was a dentist, I’d give my number to all my patients and they’d never call.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Never [01:28:35] call. Um, so you don’t want to go down any further [01:28:40] errors?

[TRANSITION]: No, honestly, I’m not. I’m not trying to.

Payman Langroudi: Without mistakes.

[TRANSITION]: No, no, no, [01:28:45] I look.

Alex Buciu: If I’ve done some mistakes, maybe.

[TRANSITION]: The patient didn’t return and I.

Alex Buciu: Wasn’t aware of.

[TRANSITION]: That. [01:28:50]

Alex Buciu: Um, taking on patients where I knew I didn’t click [01:28:55] in with them. And I knew.

[TRANSITION]: Something was telling you not to do it.

Alex Buciu: So I now [01:29:00] I’m very filtering much better red flags. [01:29:05]

[TRANSITION]: But never mind.

Payman Langroudi: Let’s move on to other questions. What [01:29:10] stands out to you as a lecture memorable lecture that you went to? Maybe the most [01:29:15] memorable lecture that you.

[TRANSITION]: Uh.

Alex Buciu: The I [01:29:20] mentioned already, uh, jazz and, uh, Sonny’s. [01:29:25]

[TRANSITION]: Did you ever go to lecture?

Payman Langroudi: For me, it’s one of one of the one of the ones that I remember. [01:29:30] I mean, brilliant lecture.

Alex Buciu: No, it’s on the to do list at some point, but I [01:29:35] want to go shadowing him. It’s for days ten, ten.

[TRANSITION]: Grand or something.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: Amazing. [01:29:40]

[TRANSITION]: Uh.

Alex Buciu: But I did went to, uh, Dominic [01:29:45] Domenico Massironi, which is the. I think these two are the top guys [01:29:50] in porcelain veneers anyway.

[TRANSITION]: Is that good?

Alex Buciu: Yeah. Yeah, it [01:29:55] was just a one day. Yeah. Theory. And, uh, at lunchtime [01:30:00] again, I asked questions. He took me by the shoulders and, like, come with him. And he went [01:30:05] to the front when they were selling his books. Do you have this book? Yes. Do you have this book? No. Okay. You have to buy this [01:30:10] one. Uh, so Alex will buy this. Okay. They’re they’re like twice the price. They will buy [01:30:15] them normally, you know, it’s like, do you have this new set of birds like. No. Okay. He wants this as well.

[TRANSITION]: No way. [01:30:20]

Alex Buciu: So I paid for in that ten minute break more than I paid [01:30:25] for the course. You know.

[TRANSITION]: Like I couldn’t say no, you know.

Alex Buciu: But no. Lovely, lovely [01:30:30] guy. And. Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: What stands out as your favourite Dental book? Get [01:30:35] up girls, a good book.

[TRANSITION]: No [01:30:45] I can’t no.

Alex Buciu: No, honestly, it’s a blank, uh, about [01:30:50] about, uh.

[TRANSITION]: For me, the lecture.

Payman Langroudi: Did you ever come across Mike wise book that [01:30:55] it’s out of print now, but it’s management of failures and restorative dentistry.

[TRANSITION]: Very [01:31:00] brilliant. You have to WhatsApp.

Alex Buciu: Me.

[TRANSITION]: The.

Alex Buciu: Cover.

[TRANSITION]: Or something.

Payman Langroudi: He was he was the undisputed [01:31:05] number one dentist in the UK when I was just qualifying. Everyone like everyone had said [01:31:10] it. He’s a top guy and he’d written this giant book. Contestants on [01:31:15] failures and, you know, like post crown failures. Those just failures, man. Excellent. [01:31:20] Excellent book. But go on. You said.

Alex Buciu: About the lecture.

[TRANSITION]: The.

Alex Buciu: I [01:31:25] think the word Eureka again, a type of moment [01:31:30] I try to understand bonding long time and [01:31:35] try different systems and try different that. And again you have a better system. [01:31:40] It’s more forgiving to your mistakes. Okay. So it helps you with up to a point. [01:31:45] And the best one was in Romania. And it was a free [01:31:50] presentation by a guy that was very misunderstood. So again, [01:31:55] very niche and very he kept going to international [01:32:00] congresses and bring, uh, information from there. [01:32:05] Um, so it was I think that was a very [01:32:10] memorable, uh, when everything again fell into place, it’s like, oh, so [01:32:15] this is how you actually edge, this is how long you can. It’s like, yeah, [01:32:20] you keep the edge. 20s. It’s not 20s. Uh, it’s 20s for a young [01:32:25] child, let’s say enamel or for a old man’s [01:32:30] enamel, you know, like there’s no there is no. Forget about time. You have to look [01:32:35] and know what to look when you do this. That’s interesting how you bond. You bond this. And how long [01:32:40] do you scrub which. How? Yeah. So the [01:32:45] wet, how wet do you want the dentine to wet. Is there a two wet. Is there [01:32:50] two dry is there. So he put everything and I would have paid a fortune [01:32:55] if I knew the value of that lecture? Yes, but [01:33:00] he was like, for free.

Payman Langroudi: You get yourself into the biomimetic kind of dentistry as [01:33:05] well.

[TRANSITION]: I’ll [01:33:10] take that as a not really. I’m.

Alex Buciu: I’m [01:33:15] trying to think of myself as a good general dentist. [01:33:20] Nothing too crazy. Nothing.

[TRANSITION]: The reason I’m asking is.

Payman Langroudi: Those guys tend to be some of the happiest dentists [01:33:25] I come across, and who obsess about the amount of wetting of the the dentine, the way [01:33:30] you’re saying. Of course, biomimetics isn’t about that. It’s about everything else they obsess about. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Even [01:33:35] again, I think there are some, uh, like, waves or currents [01:33:40] in dentistry.

[TRANSITION]: Fashions.

Alex Buciu: Fashions, yeah. Then they are for three, four, five years, [01:33:45] and then they die.

[TRANSITION]: Off a little bit.

Alex Buciu: So I try to look long term and see what works. Long [01:33:50] term.

[TRANSITION]: And.

Alex Buciu: Evidence based dentistry long term.

[TRANSITION]: Sure, sure.

Alex Buciu: Um, [01:33:55] Even with the, uh. Yeah, [01:34:00] the like the stains in the fissures. I’ve done this, and it’s for me. It’s not for [01:34:05] the patient.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, absolutely.

Alex Buciu: And, uh, some patients actually.

[TRANSITION]: Say, like, [01:34:10] well.

Alex Buciu: I paid lots of money, and I want the white tooth. He’s like, yeah, but it matches all [01:34:15] the others. Yeah, but this is white. I want to know that I paid. Uh, okay. Give me the [01:34:20] the rubbers. You know, like, but even [01:34:25] the design, the there are some occlusal, uh, shapes [01:34:30] that you need to do. I wouldn’t go crazy with tertiary [01:34:35] anatomy or stuff like this.

Payman Langroudi: Even in anterior I wouldn’t, man.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:34:40]

Payman Langroudi: Even in anterior.

[TRANSITION]: And go.

Alex Buciu: To, like.

[TRANSITION]: Even.

Payman Langroudi: Secondary anatomy most patients don’t [01:34:45] like. You know.

[TRANSITION]: Just a little.

Alex Buciu: Bit depends on the age. Depends on.

[TRANSITION]: The.

Alex Buciu: Yeah you have to gauge [01:34:50] it. But I would maybe do a secondary anatomy. Just a.

[TRANSITION]: Hint.

Payman Langroudi: Again for you. [01:34:55]

[TRANSITION]: Maybe.

Payman Langroudi: I mean, there’s some dentists who tell me I [01:35:00] firstly educate my patient on secondary anatomy, and then then we put it [01:35:05] into the veneer, for instance. Yeah. And okay, I get it. But if [01:35:10] I could push a button and dentists could learn primary anatomy. Yeah, I’d [01:35:15] be over the moon.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: You know, because that’s the one.

[TRANSITION]: That’s the key.

Alex Buciu: First thing. Yeah, the first thing.

Payman Langroudi: Sometimes [01:35:20] people obsessing over secondary and primary wrong.

[TRANSITION]: Or.

Alex Buciu: Shade.

[TRANSITION]: Over.

Payman Langroudi: Shade. Yeah. Yeah, [01:35:25] yeah.

[TRANSITION]: So if you.

Alex Buciu: Get the.

[TRANSITION]: Right.

Alex Buciu: Shape, you get away with.

[TRANSITION]: A.

Payman Langroudi: Lot. [01:35:30] You get away.

[TRANSITION]: With it instead of a three. Absolutely.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, absolutely. It’s been a massive pleasure having you, man. [01:35:35] I’m gonna move on to the final questions.

[TRANSITION]: Lovely.

Payman Langroudi: The final questions. It’s about dinner party. [01:35:40]

Alex Buciu: Dinner party.

Payman Langroudi: Three guests, dead or alive. Who would you have? [01:35:45]

[TRANSITION]: Yes. Um.

Payman Langroudi: Your mum.

[TRANSITION]: First. [01:35:50] You got it. What are you gonna say For.

Alex Buciu: First time, I get asked this question. I saw that you [01:35:55] ask your, uh, guests. So. Yeah, with my mother. Yes. Uh, even though it’s 30 [01:36:00] something years, uh, odd years since she passed away. Uh, [01:36:05] yeah, I still think about her and, uh, keep wondering how life would [01:36:10] have been if she’d be around, but definitely. And I [01:36:15] would want her to see me how I am now and to see my, uh, [01:36:20] evolution over the years.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: But, uh, yeah, [01:36:25] probably, definitely, definitely. This would be my first choice, the second dinner. So [01:36:30] I go into the past. I want to go into the future. I would take my kids for dinner and see. Have [01:36:35] I been a good father to you?

[TRANSITION]: Your future.

Payman Langroudi: Kids?

[TRANSITION]: My kids? Your current in the future? [01:36:40] Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: My future kids. Your future kids.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah, yeah.

Payman Langroudi: So that’s a.

[TRANSITION]: Future.

Alex Buciu: Version.

[TRANSITION]: Of my kids.

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. [01:36:45]

Payman Langroudi: That’s interesting.

Alex Buciu: Just to.

[TRANSITION]: See.

Alex Buciu: Have I done right by you have my teachings. [01:36:50] Uh, uh, helped you in your life [01:36:55] or have they traumatised you? You know, like, my experience is because I had a pretty [01:37:00] difficult life.

[TRANSITION]: Are you the.

Payman Langroudi: Good cop or the bad cop at [01:37:05] home?

Alex Buciu: I’m the realistic cop.

[TRANSITION]: Bad cop? [01:37:10] Yeah. Are you the.

Payman Langroudi: Are you the enforcer? [01:37:15]

[TRANSITION]: Yes.

Payman Langroudi: And your wife’s the kind of less.

Alex Buciu: She’s tried to be as well, but she. [01:37:20]

Payman Langroudi: She doesn’t.

[TRANSITION]: Know how much.

Alex Buciu: I love them.

[TRANSITION]: Too. Don’t get me wrong, but. Father [01:37:25] figure. Father figure.

Payman Langroudi: I’m not. I’m not.

[TRANSITION]: Father figure.

Payman Langroudi: My wife’s the enforcer in our [01:37:30] house. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.

Alex Buciu: No, they need to know the limits. Because otherwise.

[TRANSITION]: My.

Payman Langroudi: Wife sets [01:37:35] those limits.

[TRANSITION]: Lucky man, lucky man.

Alex Buciu: Uh, [01:37:40] for the third dinner again, it’s very, very difficult to to [01:37:45] choose. I’m gonna have, a, uh, options [01:37:50] either I again, I reflect on my own life, and either I go [01:37:55] for Aristotle and go for trying to find the right balance in [01:38:00] life and median life, and not stress as much because I am, uh, [01:38:05] stressing sometimes too much for things that I cannot [01:38:10] control and I cannot accept things that, uh, I should I cannot change, [01:38:15] uh, or the Stoics, you know, the Marcus [01:38:20] Aurelius or Socrates or Epictetus or, uh, just [01:38:25] to be, uh, more resilient to the hardships of [01:38:30] life and take it to the chin and move on, you know, or, [01:38:35] uh, uh, Mike Tyson.

Payman Langroudi: Mike [01:38:40] Tyson.

[TRANSITION]: Mike Tyson.

Payman Langroudi: What a combination of people we’ve had there. [01:38:45]

[TRANSITION]: Yes. Your mum, your children.

Payman Langroudi: That makes sense. Marcus [01:38:50] Aurelius and Mike Tyson.

[TRANSITION]: Do you see?

Payman Langroudi: I saw Mike Tyson on Joe Rogan. Was [01:38:55] very interesting. 3.5 hour conversation.

[TRANSITION]: Really?

Payman Langroudi: Yeah, very. You should look it up.

[TRANSITION]: You should look it up.

Alex Buciu: Do [01:39:00] you see why the third dinner? Is there any common? [01:39:05]

Payman Langroudi: No.

[TRANSITION]: It’s the.

Alex Buciu: Discipline.

Payman Langroudi: Discipline? [01:39:10]

Alex Buciu: Discipline and honour. Honour. Again, Mike Tyson, the evolution from [01:39:15] chaos to control. From animal to philosopher. [01:39:20]

[TRANSITION]: Yes.

Alex Buciu: Um.

[TRANSITION]: It’s interesting. I.

Alex Buciu: I didn’t [01:39:25] do boxing. I done other martial arts, and I trained with [01:39:30] some later in life, uh, some very dangerous people that I’m [01:39:35] gonna tell you offline. Uh, but, uh, Mike [01:39:40] Tyson, if you saw his.

[TRANSITION]: Face. [01:39:45]

Alex Buciu: After he got released from that longer term prison. [01:39:50] He was not a human. He was something else. Yeah. Don’t. [01:39:55] Don’t remember. He was a fighting a white guy. Peter. Something. And [01:40:00] his eyes were crazy man’s eyes. So the guys I was training in, [01:40:05] uh, fighting, they taught me about the crazy eyes. And they say, you [01:40:10] look on the street and you’ll find if you know what to look for, you’re gonna see crazy eyes. And he had crazy [01:40:15] eyes.

[TRANSITION]: Mhm.

Alex Buciu: Um, so yeah, he, he [01:40:20] had discipline and I don’t know, I really need to watch that, uh, interview. You said [01:40:25] um, he said Mike Tyson when he is at his peak, he say [01:40:30] he cried before he said this in the interview. He would cry in [01:40:35] the locker before going into the fight.

[TRANSITION]: He said.

Alex Buciu: Once I go into the ring, I [01:40:40] cannot control myself and I know I’m gonna make them suffer. I might kill them and their family [01:40:45] is gonna suffer as well.

Payman Langroudi: Whoa.

Alex Buciu: So he was beyond. [01:40:50] Yeah, but he controlled it later. Towards [01:40:55] retirement.

[TRANSITION]: Yes.

Alex Buciu: So this is what a good man he became. [01:41:00] He was a bad man.

[TRANSITION]: I like to start with.

Payman Langroudi: I liked.

[TRANSITION]: Him, but.

Alex Buciu: At the end. This [01:41:05] is how you are. Good. When you have the monster inside of you, you’re capable of violence. [01:41:10] Yeah, but you refrain it.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: This is how you are a. True [01:41:15] man. When you can control it. Otherwise, if you’re weak, you cannot be good. [01:41:20] There’s no virtue in that. I saw a very nice podcast [01:41:25] about this, uh, this topic. Very nice. If you’re weak, there’s no choice. You [01:41:30] have to be good. There’s no kindness in that. You’re just weak. But if you’re [01:41:35] capable of violence, capable of, uh.

Payman Langroudi: And you choose kindness.

[TRANSITION]: Yes. And you.

Alex Buciu: Choose. [01:41:40]

[TRANSITION]: This is when you have.

Alex Buciu: You’re a good man.

Payman Langroudi: You’re interesting.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, I definitely [01:41:45] we can talk for many more hours.

Payman Langroudi: What [01:41:50] about the final question? Is a deathbed question?

[TRANSITION]: Deathbed?

Payman Langroudi: Three pieces of advice [01:41:55] for your loved ones, for the world.

Alex Buciu: Be kind. [01:42:00] Yeah. I wanted to say more things about [01:42:05] my thoughts about religion and racism and stuff. But next time.

[TRANSITION]: Next [01:42:10] time.

Alex Buciu: No no no no no.

[TRANSITION]: Go on.

Alex Buciu: So, uh.

[TRANSITION]: Do you believe.

Payman Langroudi: Do you believe in God?

Alex Buciu: I [01:42:15] believe we’re part of something greater. I [01:42:20] don’t want to put a name to it or something. And even [01:42:25] if I would believe in God, why would my God be the real God when there are 5000 others? [01:42:30] And, you know. So I’m. I’m right, and 4999 are wrong. Yeah. [01:42:35] Um, but there’s definitely more to it. The complexity [01:42:40] of the DNA structure, even the, uh. Way [01:42:45] the amino acids, uh, mix [01:42:50] in a single cell bacteria, it’s [01:42:55] extremely, extremely, uh, how to [01:43:00] say difficult to get through evolution. So [01:43:05] the the chances of this happening is extremely slim.

[TRANSITION]: Why, though.

Alex Buciu: There, [01:43:10] there is like hundreds of millions of combinations and [01:43:15] only one would work. You know, and.

[TRANSITION]: Then.

Payman Langroudi: Infinite solar [01:43:20] system. So.

[TRANSITION]: Yes. [01:43:25] And I.

Alex Buciu: I think there’s something.

[TRANSITION]: Bigger than I think there’s something I [01:43:30] don’t know.

Payman Langroudi: There’s something bigger than us because we don’t understand.

[TRANSITION]: It. Other people have tried for.

Alex Buciu: Millennia.

[TRANSITION]: To.

Payman Langroudi: Understand [01:43:35] everything.

[TRANSITION]: You’re completely right.

Payman Langroudi: You’re completely right. And, you know, depending [01:43:40] on on the kind of adventures you go on, you realise quickly things, things [01:43:45] are not exactly as they seem in the moment. Yeah. Is there a dimension of it [01:43:50] that is good and bad and moral and immoral? That’s [01:43:55] the question I’m asking. I mean, when I say God, I’m not saying, do we [01:44:00] know everything about everything because we don’t.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: But is there something, something moral or [01:44:05] ethical, or do good things happen to good people and this sort of effort? [01:44:10]

Alex Buciu: I would love to think so.

[TRANSITION]: Unfortunately, I.

Alex Buciu: I’m [01:44:15] a strong believer in long term karma, but sometimes [01:44:20] Payman I wish it’s instant karma for some people.

[TRANSITION]: Like you should be struck by [01:44:25] lightning now, you know.

Alex Buciu: But the difference [01:44:30] between a believer in God, whichever religion and a The non-believer. [01:44:35] Is that or a scientist that the scientists are happy when they’re wrong?

[TRANSITION]: That’s [01:44:40] true.

Alex Buciu: So this is how science evolves? Yes. Like, well, I’m happy. [01:44:45] Yeah, we were wrong for 50 years. Yes, but I’m the one who discovered that we’re wrong, so they’re [01:44:50] happy. Um. It’s inside of you. What [01:44:55] was instilled in you? The environment, the family, the family believes. [01:45:00] Uh, we all have a internal moral [01:45:05] compass. And you know what is good and what is bad?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. [01:45:10]

Alex Buciu: You you see something going on or see, it’s like, that’s not right.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: What [01:45:15] happens next is you choose to ignore it. You look the other way [01:45:20] or you do something. This is what makes it good or bad. But, uh. [01:45:25]

[TRANSITION]: I’m quite interested.

Payman Langroudi: In the question of should there be God?

[TRANSITION]: Should [01:45:30] there be God just to make one.

Payman Langroudi: Know as an.

[TRANSITION]: Entity.

Alex Buciu: Responsible. [01:45:35]

[TRANSITION]: For everything.

Payman Langroudi: As should there be third party oversight on [01:45:40] your life, or shouldn’t there be?

[TRANSITION]: Because do you want to [01:45:45] go on the Nietzsche’s? It’s much.

Payman Langroudi: More interesting. I wasted the first 45 years of my [01:45:50] life saying, is there God or isn’t there God? Now, now I’ve kind of changed my idea. Changed that. [01:45:55] Should there be or shouldn’t there be? I mean, if if we knew that everything we did was literally being watched [01:46:00] by AI or whatever call it God, would [01:46:05] that make the world a better place or not?

Alex Buciu: I’m going to answer with another question [01:46:10] is great philosophers struggled for so.

[TRANSITION]: Many.

Alex Buciu: Years [01:46:15] to to find the answer for this, but another [01:46:20] was the, uh, the drama. I’m trying to, uh, translate [01:46:25] it, I know it, I read, I read in Romanian. So the the tragedy of [01:46:30] the human being is the option to choose. Okay, so if [01:46:35] there would be a god and give you guidelines and give you, yeah, you are born, you will have to do this at this [01:46:40] age. You’re going to do this at this age, you’re going to do that. And here you’re going to end of the line, I [01:46:45] think would be very happy. And uh, yeah. That’s it. We [01:46:50] know what’s going on. We know how long the string is.

[TRANSITION]: And yeah.

Alex Buciu: I [01:46:55] think it would be happier. The unknown, however, gives you advantages [01:47:00] and disadvantages. So you can be more happier than you would be with a predestined [01:47:05] life. But when it goes bad.

[TRANSITION]: It goes terribly bad.

Payman Langroudi: Highs and lower.

[TRANSITION]: Lows. Yeah. That’s [01:47:10] it, that’s it, that’s it.

Alex Buciu: But definitely we’re part of something bigger. [01:47:15] I don’t know what it is. We’re probably too small [01:47:20] to see this. But first thing I felt, I’m part of something bigger [01:47:25] when I was out in the sea. And I still, if I go in a big pool, I’m not talking.

[TRANSITION]: A. [01:47:30]

Alex Buciu: Jacuzzi. Yeah, uh, a big pool or in the open sea [01:47:35] and restart everything. It moves and you start like I’m just a.

[TRANSITION]: Part [01:47:40] of. Yeah.

Alex Buciu: In the in the whole space there. And, [01:47:45] uh, life is more than what we probably can [01:47:50] comprehend.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: And we confuse ourselves, right, with, uh, lighting [01:47:55] at night, and you know that, you know how people say, oh, they want to go and do yoga [01:48:00] and meditate. And a lot of that is to get back to, you know, out of the, [01:48:05] the, the sort of artificial ness of our life.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Just to reconnect. [01:48:10]

Payman Langroudi: Yeah. Like when you say lying in the sea, you’re just doing what you were supposed to be doing. Right. [01:48:15]

[TRANSITION]: I discovered this when I was very young.

Payman Langroudi: The same as holding a phone in front of your face.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Payman Langroudi: It’s [01:48:20] a.

[TRANSITION]: Different. It’s it’s.

Alex Buciu: Um. Again, I discovered this when I was young, [01:48:25] and this is when I first realised, like, there’s more to it, you know, like there was like ten or [01:48:30] something. Like it wasn’t. The sea is like the world is big. And but there’s something [01:48:35] even bigger than that is it cannot be. Or maybe it’s our wishful thinking that we want. [01:48:40]

[TRANSITION]: To go back.

Payman Langroudi: To. The three pieces of advice.

[TRANSITION]: Is.

Payman Langroudi: Be kind, be kind. What was the second one?

[TRANSITION]: Um. [01:48:45]

Alex Buciu: Fight constantly [01:48:50] and keep moving. Okay, so do not put the head down if you [01:48:55] know it’s right. And if you know it’s, uh, fair, it’s worth fighting. And, [01:49:00] uh, held your head up high and, uh. [01:49:05] Yeah. Trying [01:49:10] to see everything revolves about kindness.

[TRANSITION]: What?

Payman Langroudi: About what? About something [01:49:15] that, you know, you wish you were more, like.

Alex Buciu: More [01:49:20] relaxed? I wish I was more relaxed, I wish, I wish, I wish I would be [01:49:25] able to, uh, switch.

[TRANSITION]: Off.

Alex Buciu: There are many, many [01:49:30] colleagues. 5:00 literally different person.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So, [01:49:35] yeah, but you had the complaints like, I don’t care. Like, how can you, like, have [01:49:40] a, uh, friend that he got sued [01:49:45] and, like, pretty bad and like, ah, I asked him recently, [01:49:50] what have you done with, uh, what happened with this case? Like, I don’t know, the the solicitor [01:49:55] sent me some, uh, the from the indemnity. They sent me an email. I haven’t even opened them.

Payman Langroudi: Water [01:50:00] off a duck’s back.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: So is that that kind [01:50:05] of. So it’s me on one.

[TRANSITION]: End of the.

Alex Buciu: Spectrum, and he’s just like, ah, he. They sent me. [01:50:10] I didn’t even open the emails to see.

[TRANSITION]: He’s like.

Alex Buciu: Yeah, I would have died ten [01:50:15] times.

[TRANSITION]: You know, like.

Alex Buciu: I wish I would, uh, switch off. So yeah, [01:50:20] probably the third advice would be to, take care again, [01:50:25] talking to my children to take care of themselves.

[TRANSITION]: Each other, each.

Alex Buciu: Other, take.

[TRANSITION]: Care of each other. Yes. [01:50:30]

Payman Langroudi: Good advice.

Alex Buciu: Um.

[TRANSITION]: Good advice. Yeah. [01:50:35]

Alex Buciu: Choose their friends wisely. Um, you [01:50:40] know, when they go out, don’t add to the population, don’t subtract to [01:50:45] the population, don’t end up in the news. Don’t end up in jail. So [01:50:50] normal advice.

Payman Langroudi: How would you like to be remembered?

Alex Buciu: Alex [01:50:55] was family man fighting [01:51:00] for their family. Going through the hardships [01:51:05] of life and still marching on. Resilient. That [01:51:10] that was a what I would like. But again, I’m not, uh, vain [01:51:15] to.

[TRANSITION]: Know.

Alex Buciu: Know that, uh, somebody’s gonna remember me 50 [01:51:20] years if the kids remember.

[TRANSITION]: That’s enough.

Payman Langroudi: It’s. It’s an interesting [01:51:25] thing. They say hardly anyone knows the name of their grandmother’s grandmother. Yeah, [01:51:30] yeah. Which is only your grandmother’s grandmother. Like loads of people know, their grandmother might have had a conversation, [01:51:35] but hardly anyone knows the name of their grandmother.

[TRANSITION]: I had a secret.

Alex Buciu: You [01:51:40] know the secret question. They ask the bank or what was it?

[TRANSITION]: Information? Yeah.

Alex Buciu: And [01:51:45] it was, uh, my wife’s, uh, was like, uh, uh, [01:51:50] surname.

[TRANSITION]: Before.

Alex Buciu: Maiden. Maiden name?

[TRANSITION]: Yeah. It’s like I. [01:51:55]

Alex Buciu: Said it so many years ago.

[TRANSITION]: It’s, like.

Payman Langroudi: Forgotten.

[TRANSITION]: No ideas. [01:52:00]

Alex Buciu: I cannot log into my bank account now because I don’t know your mother’s, so I wouldn’t know there. [01:52:05] It’s, uh. Yeah, if you remember. [01:52:10] That needs to be remembered for good things. Not, uh, you.

[TRANSITION]: Know, definitely.

Alex Buciu: You remember Hitler. You [01:52:15] remember Mussolini, you remember Attila the Hun. You remember, but not necessarily for good [01:52:20] things.

[TRANSITION]: Yeah.

Alex Buciu: Usually the ones that are remembered are for for bad things.

Payman Langroudi: It’s [01:52:25] been a massive pleasure, man.

[TRANSITION]: Oh. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming all.

Payman Langroudi: The way down to the office. Finally. [01:52:30]

Alex Buciu: Always a.

[TRANSITION]: Pleasure. Good to see you again, buddy.

Alex Buciu: Thank you. Thank you so much.

[VOICE]: This [01:52:35] is Dental Leaders, the podcast where you [01:52:40] get to go one on one with emerging leaders in dentistry. Your [01:52:45] hosts, Payman Langroudi and Prav Solanki. [01:52:50]

Prav Solanki: Thanks for listening, guys. If you got this far, you must have listened to [01:52:55] the whole thing. And just a huge thank you both from me and pay for actually sticking through and [01:53:00] listening to what we’ve had to say and what our guest has had to say, because I’m assuming you got some value [01:53:05] out of it.

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