The ways in which you deal with people around you matters more than the amount of skills that you have. Being empathetic and loving in your life will earn you a lot more rewards than high grades ever can.
Born and raised in Rajkot, a small town in the Western part of India, Sahil Gagnani has previously practiced as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in India. Having moved to Canada in 2018 with his family, Sahil is now 34 years old and in the third year of his dental studies through McGill University’s Degree Completion Program for graduates of international dental programs. This Degree Completion Program grants students direct admission to the second half of the second year of the otherwise four year Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) program.
Describe yourself in one sentence.
I am a loving dad, ambitious student, passionate surgeon, party animal and peace-loving human.
There are multiple facets of your life. I feel like there are 5-6 different roles/personalities that I play in my life. I have an ‘adjustable personality’ when I interact with different people.
Tell us about your journey to dental school.
For my training, I finished my dentistry undergraduate studies in India in 2009. I then worked for 3 years as a junior resident and then I was fortunate to score rank third in the whole country to be selected to complete my Masters from 2012 to 2015 in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. It’s a bridging branch between dentistry and medicine, so in case of any medical complications or emergencies in the dental building, the Maxillofacial Surgeon will be the first on call. We have a certain knowledge about handling emergency department cases, and we do facial operations under local and general anesthesia. But, a lot of people don’t prefer to specialize in this branch because ultimately after specializing in [oral and maxillofacial surgery], you need to compete for patients with Ears, Nose, and Throat (ENT) and plastics surgeons, because of the overlap in practicing domains.
After completing my Masters, I went to Germany for a 6 months fellowship in Aesthetic Medicine, where I learned about hair transplants, facelifts, rhinoplasty, and artificial dimple creation. I was more into the aesthetic practice, so after returning to India, I started my dental clinic with my wife who is a pediatric dentist and I practiced for three years from 2016-2018 before we decided to move to Canada. I moved over here with my wife and 6 months old kid, and now she is three and a half. We are enjoying our time over here!
What made you come to Canada?
I did my Masters in India, in a program that was ranked one in India. So there was a very fierce competition for it; there were 25 000 candidates ‘fighting’ for the 3 positions in the program. Since my childhood, I [thought that] people in India who are more respected are the people who study more. We don’t have a parallel life like people over here in Canada, like skiing, hiking or playing some musical instruments. The competition is so fierce that whoever wants to become a doctor, they need to sit at a chair and table for hours on end. I was always told that if you do this, life will be perfectly fine.
But when I entered private practice in 2016 in India, I observed that my profession was not regulated. How I had developed my way of thinking was that, given we have 24 hours in a day, I spend 8-9 hours in my profession, I spend 8-9 hours sleeping and doing my other work, and I spend the remaining 5-6 hours with my family. If I'm not happy in those 8-9 hours of my professional practice which consume the majority of my life, I won't be able to sleep properly and I won’t be able to give my family the things that they need. I had that confidence inside me that I could do so much in my life, so I don’t want to sit at the age of 60 years and think that I could have done more. So I thought ok, let me try it, and I was confident that within a year or two, I would be able to get into a Canadian dental program. I was fortunate enough to get a call from McGill after almost spending a year in Canada.
I wouldn’t say that I was not satisfied back home, but I felt that I was a misfit in that society, where my profession was not regulated and my talent was not valued. When I came down to Canada, even though I started off by driving Uber and doing some sales jobs, I was treated with more respect than how I was treated as a doctor back home. So it was confirmed that it was the right choice to move here.
I am very happy here, and we are expecting our second kid also, with a due date of the 6th of May. She will be a Canadian! I am very happy that I made the right move at the right age. I am seeing differences in my health and mental state as well. So yeah, I’m excited!
The best part of Canada is, as a general dentist I get to do 70% of the procedures I used to do as a Maxillofacial Surgeon, because most of them can be performed with local [anesthesia] or sedation. But for the bigger procedures performed under general anesthesia, I am planning to open up a practice in Dubai and in India, and I will practice the major maxillofacial surgery cases over there. I also want to continue performing the hair transplant and the cosmetic procedures that I am good at. Combining my emerging skills at McGill Dentistry with the skills I learnt back home, I’m well equipped to do what I want.
What has been your most impactful or memorable experience since starting dental school?
Every human is very much evolving. In life, I think that whatever happened 6 months ago would not happen the same way if it were to happen again today. If I gave you a pen and paper and told you to write down how you want your future to be in 1 year, if you see the same paper at the end of the year, you’ll be like, “Oops, I have a better life than that.”
Such an incident occured when I joined the dental cohort in December 2019. All the people in my cohort are pretty young. Before COVID, they used to think that they were getting less lab time, and they stressed a lot as they needed more practice (which is true as the program is fast-paced). I still remember the day we were sitting in the pre clinic lab, and there was an announcement that from now onwards, there would be no pre-clinic [because of the COVID-19 public health measures]. Pre-clinic is one such part of our training where we get to do all the procedures but on plastic teeth models, where there is no tongue, no saliva, no pain, and no complications. So people are excited to practice more during pre-clinic so that they can give their best in the clinics.
The same people, when they listened to this news, were all the more heartbroken. They were like, “Oh, what will we do? We are the unluckiest cohort of McGill. We won’t get to practise.” But when I saw them after 6 months, those 6 months of lockdown made them realize that whatever the trouble is, humans will adapt to it. None of them ever complained because all of them enjoyed the time free off school, all of them invested into their fitness, [and] all of them were happy with the online classes. Most of us bought the home [dental practice] units and we started practicing from home.
What I learned from this experience was that whatever troubles come, instead of cursing myself or cursing the situation, I would start by thinking what I could do next. So now my mentality is, whenever things are thrown at me, I try to respond as soon as possible instead of sitting and brooding. Because I’ve seen how people can change their mind and perceptions on the same situation according to the circumstances. That’s how humans are!!!! So that was one such experience that was very memorable.
In your opinion, what has been the most impactful discovery in dentistry?
According to me, the discovery of the use of scalpel for the betterment of mankind was the most impactful discovery in dentistry. Before this discovery, the knife or scalpel has always just meant harm. Trust me, I always used to wonder how a person can kill someone or commit a crime, knowing that the other human will get hurt.
But when I took up maxillofacial surgery and started loving surgery, I realised the fact that you can give an incision on a person when you know you will ultimately do good for them. So the use of the same knife or the scalpel for surgeries is one such discovery which I think has changed the world. Because not every disease can be cured by medicine, as after a certain time you need surgical intervention. Similarly, for our life and our relationships, you can put on band-aids first, then you can give medicine to certain relationships if they are not working out. But at the end of the day, if you are still unhappy, you need to do a surgical intervention and depart from those toxic relationships. So, that is why the discovery of the scalpel for the betterment of mankind is the most impactful discovery in dentistry in my opinion.
What is something little known about you?
I have stayed for 4 days without talking. This is despite the fact that I'm a very talkative person. My dad used to tell me that I have lots of energy, but I waste it because I talk a lot.
I wanted to challenge myself, so I sought an opportunity in India to understand the spiritual side of things better. Accordingly, I got to go to an ashram for a course where they teach you meditation. Following a vegan diet and practicing silence is a part of the whole program as the energy of speech is slowly transmuted into spiritual energy. You can read books, as many as you want, but speaking is completely forbidden. If you try meditation and try listening to your inner voice it seems very difficult in the beginning as thoughts pertaining to the umpteen number of things happening in our life, family and friends, student life, professional life, etc. keeps running in our minds, causing a hindrance to [our capacity to] listen to our inner voice. And by the end of the second day, I was so overwhelmed that I broke down. Amidst this grief, was the time when I started thinking about my childhood —what are the things I did, and things that I could have done better. And during this time of grief and introspection my inner conscience got cleared, I started listening to my gut feelings more, and this helps me even today to set my priorities right. Because for me, it’s more important to know when to say ‘no’ to an opportunity than ‘yes’. Since we don’t have all the time in our life, it is important to recognize when to say no to opportunities. This is what I learnt from the 4 days of staying silent.
What is one experience that you have had that you feel others can learn from?
I have one experience that has taught me that you have to live right here right now, and that you cannot bank on things that will happen in the future. So how did I realize that? My friend and I both got invited for McGill’s Faculty of Dentistry multiple mini-interviews (MMIs). The degree that I was being interviewed for would be one of the best degrees of my life. That was a great moment for me, and it must be for every one of us out here, when we got a call inviting us to attend the MMIs. [I give] thanks to the Almighty for the interview that went very well.
We had to get back to Toronto the same day. Since I was exhausted, I told my friend that I would not be able to drive back, and my friend volunteered to do so. I was sitting beside him and he was driving the car. Being tired, I don't know when I dozed off. After one and a half hours of drive, I felt something strange and I got up with a jolt. I was shocked to know from my friend that he had fallen asleep while driving.
The car [had driven out] of the highway and had got stuck inside the trench between the opposing lanes. In front of me I saw [all] those moments where I could have died. Then I wouldn’t have ever known that I would ultimately get a call from McGill to study dentistry here. My wife and kid were waiting for me at home in Toronto, and my dad, mom and whole family did not [even] have Canadian Visas at that time. So, you can imagine what could have happened, right? Nothing could have been done, but what this taught me is that one day I might not even come back home so I have to enjoy each and every moment of my life.
It’s very important that whatever you do, take up each activity in your life as if it were your last moment, and enjoy it to the fullest. For example, if I’m talking to you and I have my phone out —that is an insult to you, because perhaps I might not see you again. So if you are meeting your friends, or even playing games, just focus entirely on it so that you can put in your best. If you are in a relationship, if you are with your dad, mom or anyone, if you meet them, meet them with a full heart. If you are in the clinic, your entire focus should be on patient care and not thinking about the family or fun. This I feel is the key to be efficient and productive.
What is something you wish you knew before entering dental school?
I wish I knew that the dental education here at McGill is so advanced and less stressful than my previous experiences back in India and Germany. If I was aware of the professional stability of dentistry in a beautiful country like Canada, I would have moved here earlier.
Do you have any advice you would like to give to future cohorts of dental students?
My advice to them is to focus on learning from day-to-day experiences. The ways in which you deal with people around you matters more than the amount of skills that you have. Being empathetic and loving in your life will earn you a lot more rewards than high grades ever can.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
I want to travel at lightning speed so that I can reach places quickly, just like the Flash. For example, rIght now I'm missing my mom and dad, so with this superspeed superpower, I can have dinner with them in India, have lunch with my wife in Canada, and then go perform a dental operation in Dubai.
If you had a magic wand with one wish to change this world, what would you wish for?
Peace. With the things happening right now in the world, I want to leave a peaceful world for my kid. Peace is the most important factor of living a happy life and letting others live happily as well.
What is the most "useless" talent you have?
I can whistle the tune of entire songs if I like the song. Although it is a ‘useless’ talent, I find it very useful when playing with my daughter, as I can whistle the songs she likes.
What is the funniest way that you’ve been injured?
It happened this winter in fact, when there was some black ice. I was dropping my daughter off to the daycare, I was trying to protect her from the black ice and I fell while trying to do so. It was so funny that she started laughing because she thought I did it intentionally.
What is your favorite way to pass time in Montreal?
Hiking in Mont Royal, in any weather, alone or with any friend. It is so serene, it is like a nature walk to me. The look of it, the vibe, the atmosphere is amazing! I don’t think that this kind of hike is available in the downtown of any other city in the world. Particularly in the autumn when the leaves fall and you can see the entire city from the Mont Royal Belvedere! I am really happy that I got this opportunity to study and stay in Montreal!
Note: The above is a direct transcript from a live interview with Sahil Gagnani conducted by the Resonance Humans team.