Prof Glynn Buchanan of UP chats about why he left a private practice to enter academia.

When the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Prof Glynn Buchanan had his wisdom teeth removed when he was about 16 years old, it opened up a whole new world to him. Fascinated by the experience at the maxillofacial and oral surgeon, he was confronted with the possibility of a career he hadn’t really considered before – dentistry. Here was a branch of medicine that was different to being a doctor in a traditional sense. And coupled with a rapidly decreasing interest in accountancy and a last-minute switch to biology as a school subject, the scene was set for a future in oral health.

Dentistry also offered a challenge he couldn’t resist: “I had heard that the course was very difficult to get into, and to finish – that intrigued me as well,” he says. Prof Buchanan did not only become a dentist; today he is an adjunct professor in the School of Dentistry in the Department of Odontology, which is part of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UP. The word ‘odontology’ refers to the study of teeth, and the department has four disciplines: restorative dentistry, paediatric dentistry, endodontics and dental materials. Prof Buchanan heads the endodontic division, where he has been working since 2016 as a joint appointment between UP and the Gauteng Department of Health.

Endodontics is about the study, diagnosis and treatment of the dental pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of the tooth, and the most commonly known procedure – root canal treatment – literally refers to cleaning the canals inside a tooth’s root. Prof Buchanan explains that ‘endo’ is the ancient Greek word for ‘inside’ and ‘odont’ means ‘tooth’, so endodontics is largely about the treatment of what happens inside teeth, but includes surgical procedures to the surrounding bone if needed as well.

“What happens inside teeth has an effect on the surrounding structures and impacts your health,” he explains. “It is easy to forget that your mouth and jaw are part of the human body, and any problems there may affect other organ systems as well as your overall well-being. The management of dental diseases is therefore imperative to your general health.”

Prof Buchanan is an expert in endodontics but is not a registered specialist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). That is because this field cannot currently be studied as a specialisation in South Africa, although it does exist as an independent dental specialty globally. There is no four-year study programme leading to a specialist Master of Dentistry in Endodontics here. Prof Buchanan went with the only available option in the country: a postgraduate diploma in Endodontics, which he graduated with cum laude. Then he completed a master’s degree in Endodontics and last year, earned a PhD in the same field.

To the layperson, root canal treatment may appear generic, but even a cursory look at the YouTube videos Prof Buchanan has posted of clinical procedures show they are anything but routine.

“Those videos are the ones that don’t have blood and guts,” he says with a laugh. “They’re the clean ones. In general, root canal treatment is a relatively long procedure, so to condense it into little videos is sometimes quite tough. Theoretically, the idea of endodontics sounds like an easy concept, but the clinical work can be very difficult.”

Root canal treatment can be unnerving to experience, but the YouTube channel, created when he was in part-time private practice, has 348 subscribers and close to 63 000 views. No longer adding new ones at the moment, Prof Buchanan finds them a useful tool in the lecture hall to help explain concepts to students and colleagues.

He loves every aspect of his work at UP. He trains dentistry students, treats patients, supervises postgraduate students, does research, and is involved in administrative and management support. He is a member of several committees at the School of Dentistry. He is also the examiner of the endodontics component of the board exams for foreign-trained dentists, which UP presently administers on behalf of the HPCSA.

Apart from the two years that Prof Buchanan spent doing his postgraduate diploma at the University of the Western Cape (he was living in the province at the time), all his tertiary studies have been completed at UP.

“It’s been fantastic being able to come back and teach where you did your undergrad degree,” he says. “I’m proud to be part of UP, and I think we still offer very good training, on par with what you could get anywhere in the world. My department is especially great. I love working with my colleagues and my boss, Head of Department, Prof Zunaid Vally.”

In one way, Prof Buchanan is an anomaly in the dental school. He was awarded a National Research Foundation (NRF) C2 rating this year, which recognises him as an established researcher. This is a rare achievement in his discipline.

“I think I’m the only one in the building at the moment in the School of Dentistry [who has a rating],” he says, adding that he knows of only a few others in dentistry in the country who hold NRF ratings. “The rating indicates that you have built up some sort of standing and that you contributed significantly to the field. And it brings a bit of prestige to the school and to the university. It was a lot of hard work to get it. I'm glad it paid off. I was helped greatly along the way by many people that work with me – colleagues and co-authors. There is a giant support system of other people that take part in the journey with you when you do research, who I am deeply thankful for, but it is very nice to get the recognition.”

An active member of the dental fraternity, Prof Buchanan is on the editorial board of the Journal of Endodontics and Restorative Dentistry, and is a founding member and President of the Nexus Dental Group South Africa, a private commercial community programme in South African dentistry. Initially, it was established to support and mentor junior dentists to transition to private practice in the first five years following dental school.

“We’ve opened it up and made the community wider,” he says. “You can only learn so much theoretically about private practice and the real world of dentistry in a university setting, and lifelong learning and community are vitally important in the field.”

Prof Buchanan is in his element being so involved. It’s why he left a full-time private practice to enter academia in the first place. It’s not that he was bored.

“I craved more interaction, because your patients can't really talk to you in depth when you're a dentist, and it's often the same four walls and a constant environment. You’ve got a lovely assistant and the work is always challenging, but I felt I needed additional mental stimulation and new challenges, and I wanted to come back to the academic environment to teach and do research but also to interact with more dentists and colleagues in different fields.”

He has, however, maintained a part-time private practice. Right now, his research involves collaborating with an international group from 22 countries, including the Republic of Türkiye, where the primary investigator is based.

“We explore and describe root and canal morphology of the human dentition. It’s similar to what I looked at in my PhD, but now I do that as a South African branch of a much bigger, multinational collaboration, which is very rewarding and has led to some fantastic publications.”

When he is not thinking about teeth, its diseases and the challenge of endodontics, Prof Buchanan enjoys trail running, and playing squash and padel. He also plays electric guitar.

“I play 100% rock music,” he says, “with maybe a bit of blues and a bit of metal here and there too. When I was a student, I played in a few bands, but it was nothing serious, not anything that somebody would know or recognise today, but I did enjoy it a lot then and still do today.”

By Gillian Anstey