Choosing a direction to follow after a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) can become a tough and often daunting task. Some graduates will pursue MDS, many will enter clinical practice of dentistry, and yet others will pursue governmental applications. Graduates often feel limited to clinical roles alone. My name is Dr. Sabana A. Nazar, and my own journey will illustrate the shift I am referring to, from the dentist chair to global medical communications. I have built my career upon multiple pillars that blend science, research, writing, and leadership. I have been fortunate to thoroughly or comprehensively engage my passions with the help of CareerInPharma to navigate my transition from dentistry to medical writing, regulatory affairs, and pharmacovigilance. I can successfully illustrate how I got a terrific opportunity to build my career, and today I work on empowering others to do the same. In this blog, I will share the challenges I encountered, the experiences that shaped me, and the lessons I learned along the way to improve my career journey.
From Dentistry to Broader Possibilities
During my career, I have always had an interest in healthcare, sciences, and supporting patients. I remember, during my studies, I had the opportunity to treat a lot of patients and finish thousands of clinical procedures during BDS, and got a special award for my performance. I had organized and conducted oral health awareness and community service programs. I also had a small part in establishing a Guinness World Record Oral Health Screening Camp that served over one lakh people across India, worked with hundreds of students and volunteers. I also received the Best Poster Award at a National BDS Students Seminar focusing on Basic Medical Sciences. During my studies, I finally published my first review article in the journal. I especially remember that during my internship, I realised that dentistry is more than treating patients. I became more interested to know how prevention, awareness, research, and continuing education could serve in the field and that serve as the foundation for my future non-clinical health care career.
Expanding My Knowledge Base Through Education
I took a few postgraduate diplomas, which expanded my role and knowledge. Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Cosmetology (PGDCC), Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Clinical Research and Pharmacovigilance (PGDACR-PV), Good Clinical Practice Guidelines- NIDA Clinical Trials Network – The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and Trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation CPR (Save a Life Movement).
These milestones, among others, allowed me to shift out of traditional dentistry and into the evolving landscape in aesthetic medicine, clinical research, and pharmacovigilance. My early years as a Dentist and Aesthetic Physician have come with experiences in dermatology, cosmetology, and treatment focused on the patient experience. At the same time, I became increasingly knowing about consent form, drug safety, regulatory frameworks, and scientific communication during my clinical practices, an area which actively led me into medical writing and eventually pharmacovigilance.
From Clinical Practice to Non-Clinical Career
Like many BDS graduates, I thought, like most dental professionals, only two choices. Practice OR Higher education. I got all the pressures of work, no work-life balance, low salary, pushing me toward non dental work, like IT kinds of work. But I also started to hunt for a future in non-clinical, and to my surprise, all my clinical experience and skill sets around that were very transferable to non-clinical positions.
Dentistry had prepared me in many ways:
Technical writing – Research documents, clinical notes, case reports, and documentation while in college, and of course transitioned to current role as regulatory documents, development documents, and medical reports.
Research and critical thinking/analysis – Using prior literature to evaluate and interpret the complete body of patient data, and digestion of the underlying scientific literature are all invaluable skills transferable to medical writing and substantiated to regulatory drug safety evaluations.
Prioritization and time management – Balancing patient care, pre-clinical education, clinical education, professional expectations, and practice discipline, which now assists with juggling five projects or delivers all due within the same week or a day deviation. I now professionally manage similar but lesser level of pressure deadlines to produce quality work, yet I am now likely to do so without the stress!
Collaboration-Ability to work together and within the teams helps me to work alongside various disciplines of health care providers – surgeons, dental pathologists, clinical teams, and cooperate multidisciplinary teams – CRO, pharmaceutical, etc.
That foundation built with my BDS to find other opportunities in research, medical writing, regulatory affairs, and pharmacovigilance.
The Turning Point: Discovering CareerInPharma
My passion was very clear for non-clinical roles. However, to enter a career in the pharmaceutical industry requires some structured training and career guidance. Then I found CareerInPharma in 2019, an institute focused on preparing healthcare graduates for careers in pharmacovigilance, clinical research, clinical data management, regulatory affairs, and medical writing.
The training given by Dr. Neema Bisht for my career shift:
- A comprehensive understanding of drug development and clinical trials
- Information about regulatory guidelines (ICH, GCP, FDA, EMA)
- Experience with pharmacovigilance and causality assessments
- Experience with scientific and regulatory documents
- Interview preparation and career candidate mentoring, CareerInPharma became the connection to help me bridge to a medical writer position from being a dentist.
Professional Growth: Roles I Took On
My career has transformed into many different roles over the decades, which have helped me grow in my expertise and leadership/management of others:
- Since my beginnings as a Dentist and Aesthetic Physician – I started my training in patient care in dentistry and nurturing new services of cosmological treatments.
- Regulatory Affairs Specialist – which involved working in compliance and assisting Indian health authorities with the registration of Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical products.
- Medical Writer – developing and writing regulatory documents, investigator brochures, Patient Leaflets, and other publications.
- Medical Communication Manager – overseeing and developing medico-marketing content/testing materials, and medical communication framework documents.
- Vice President – Business Corporate & Medical Writing Trainer at CareerInPharma – developing projects to design training programs, mentoring, and working with CROs, pharmaceutical companies, and academia.
Each of these roles have strengthened my expertise as a regulatory affairs specialist, pharmacovigilance, medico-marketing, and interpreting clinical data while also adding contributions to the Indian healthcare ecosystem.
Leading the Next Generation
At CareerInPharma, I primarily focus on empowering healthcare graduates to explore careers outside of traditional clinical roles. I develop medical writing programs, mentor early-career professionals, and cultivate collaborative projects with industry leaders for students’ placements, job referral, and job assistance.
My Mission:
- To make complicated medical science simple through the provision of exciting content and education.
- To educate and mentor graduates to build exciting careers in pharma and clinical research.
- To bridge the divide between academia and industry, so that graduates can seize global opportunities.
This opportunity to lead the CareerInPharma work program has given me the opportunity to contribute not only as a professional but also as a mentor and trainer at a pivotal stage of developing the future of healthcare communication.
Why BDS Graduates Should Consider Non-Clinical Careers
As a dental graduate, I would encourage you to explore beyond your dentistry training. There are many opportunities outside of clinical-practice-compatible areas.
You should consider the possibility of a career in medical writing, pharmacovigilance, clinical research, Clinical Data Management or regulatory affairs. These are all growing areas of stability with broad-based global opportunities.
On a broad scale, these areas of work offer excellent:
- Different career paths (e.g, entry-level to senior management)
- Less emotional stress and work/life balance than practice
- Opportunity for global collaboration
- Opportunity to change healthcare internationally
For me, medical writing was right for me, however, each graduate will have their own interests and strengths for their own career paths.
Conclusion
My professional transformation from Dentistry to Medical Writing through CareerInPharma has been a life-long pathway of personal development, skill acquisition, and consequence realization. Today I work in a position that allows me to integrate my training in clinical practice, scientific research, as well as distributed regulatory knowledge with a leadership-type role in Business Cooperate, medical communication, and training. If you are a BDS graduate agonizing over potential career paths, rest assured that your field is not exclusively limited to clinical practice or higher studies. It is possible to successfully build a career in Medical Writing, pharmacovigilance, in clinical research, or Clinical data management with the appropriate education and mentorship as well as perseverance. For me, CareerInPharma was the tipping point that opened the door to this transition. For you, CareerInPharma could be the launchpad to a fun and enjoyable new career chapter in the healthcare sector.
