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Across the Pond

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Categories: Orthodontics;
Across the Pond 

A look inside Dr. Farooq Ahmed’s multifaceted career

Photography by Andrew Mason

 

“I was fortunate enough to visit the office of Dr. Farooq Ahmed on a recent trip to London. In my opinion, Farooq is one of the biggest givers in our profession. He is a champion of evidence-based practice and promotes thoughtful and healthy discussions on the most important topics in orthodontics. I hope you enjoy this special international office visit!“ —Dr. Chad Foster, Orthotown Editorial Director
 
OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS
NAME:
Dr. Farooq Ahmed

GRADUATED FROM:
University of Manchester, U.K.

PRACTICE NAME:
Treehouse Dental, London, U.K.


PRACTICE SIZE:
6 surgeries

TEAM SIZE:
21

For many orthodontists, the road to practice is straightforward. For Dr. Farooq Ahmed, it began in restorative dentistry. A mentor’s advice changed everything. While listing his reasons for advanced training, which included multidisciplinary care, improving function and aesthetics, precision, an evidence-based mindset, and even, he joked, “wanting a new car,” his mentor broke the news that he should consider being an orthodontist. “Looking back, restorative dentistry was a gateway,” Ahmed says. “But orthodontics was the calling.”

Today, Ahmed’s professional life is as varied as it is demanding. He serves as a consultant across two NHS Trusts in London: one focused on orthognathic and complex dento-alveolar patients, the other at one of Europe’s largest dental schools, where he leads hypodontia treatment planning, oversees aligner education and trains residents. He also sees patients two days a week at Treehouse Dental, a six-surgery specialist referral practice where he manages interdisciplinary cases. Evenings often include recording episodes of his global podcast, Orthodontics in Summary. “My week is structured chaos of clinics, chairside training, teaching sessions and emails that start as ‘just a quick question’ but end in a research project,” he says. “Each day has a different flavor, somewhere between a bonding agent and an espresso.”

Building an international educational platform
Like many innovations of recent years, his podcast Orthodontics in Summary was born in lockdown. Overwhelmed by the flood of webinars, Ahmed began summarizing content for colleagues. “A few exaggerated compliments later, the podcast was born,” he recalls. Initially recorded between patients, then from his spare room, and now from a home studio, the show has grown into a global platform with more than 20,000 subscribers and 600,000 plays.

The goal has always been the same: to make orthodontic education more accessible. The format is straightforward, key clinical takeaways condensed into short episodes, often accompanied by notes and blog posts. For many listeners, its impact has been tangible. Orthodontists from across the world have told him the podcast helped them pass board exams, made long commutes bearable, or reminded them of the profession’s shared community. “It’s humbling to know something created in a spare room in the U.K. is played in the U.S., Egypt, India, even bathrooms in Brazil,” he says.

Lessons from the chair
Not every lesson has come easily. He recalls one patient early in his career who complained about bracket debonds, demanded refunds and eventually left his care only to return years later after being dissatisfied elsewhere. He declined to take her back. Later, the same patient sued another orthodontist despite excellent outcomes. The experience was formative. “The lesson was that orthodontics will always lose against some patients,” Ahmed says.

That realism underscores his broader philosophy. Complex cases, he insists, require contingency planning. “Always have a Plan B, Plan C, sometimes even a Plan D. There is no appliance or auxiliary that replaces communication with the patient. Compliance makes or breaks the case.”

Guiding the next generation
As a trainer, he distills his philosophy into three key principles. First, build everything on evidence. “Orthodontics is full of trends, opinions, and new tools,” he says. “If it’s not backed by sound evidence, it’s just noise.”

Second, never lose sight of the patient. “In the maze of cephalometrics and mechanics, there’s a real person at the other end. We can get so caught up in the ‘perfect plan’ that we forget what the patient actually needs.”

Finally, be critical of the literature, your colleagues and especially yourself. “You should be able to explain why you’re doing something with sound reasoning not just because ‘Dr. Ahmed said so.’”

He passes similar advice to those who want to present or teach. For Ahmed, teaching is the natural outcome of deep learning. He recommends a structured approach: research thoroughly, distill into subheadings, build more slides than you’ll use and then refine. He urges presenters to translate paragraphs into visuals, revisit slides after a break to ensure flow and, most importantly, speak on what excites them. “Enthusiasm is contagious,” he says. “And don’t be afraid to say, ‘I don’t know.’ It’s oddly powerful.”

Practice, philosophy and the bigger picture
For Ahmed, efficiency begins not with spreadsheets but with culture. Each morning, his teams run short huddles to flag potential bottlenecks, time crunches or difficult cases. “It’s the cheapest, most effective efficiency hack out there,” he says. But he’s quick to note that no workflow tool can make up for poor culture. “You can have the fanciest scanner and the sharpest distal end cutters, but if your team culture is off, everything suffers.”

His clinical philosophy is equally pragmatic. “We sometimes over-romanticize complexity,” he says. “Simplicity isn’t lazy; it’s elegant. Some of the best treatments are straightforward and efficient, but we glorify the baroque cases that look like orthodontic Jenga. The patient doesn’t want a case study; they want a result.”

When asked what he would change about the field today, he points to digital technology. He argues for a pause, not a rollback: “I’d press pause, have all orthodontists train in digital design, then press play. Technology is a tool, not a trophy, and it needs to be grounded in fundamentals.”

Advice for rising orthodontists
For those just starting their careers, Ahmed’s advice is to lean into discomfort. “Say yes to opportunities, even when you feel out of your depth. Growth rarely happens when you’re comfortable.”

Mentorship, humility and transparency about failure are also key. He recalls a presentation by Professor Carlos Flores-Mir at the AAO, where the focus wasn’t on perfect outcomes but on treatment failures. “It was honest, reflective and more instructive than a dozen success stories.”

He also sees social media as a growing platform for professional exchange. “Yes, it has its share of ‘look at me’ posts,” he says. “But it’s becoming a space for meaningful conversations, sharing evidence and building a global community. Use it not just to be seen, but to contribute.”

A life outside orthodontics
Despite his demanding schedule, he treasures time with his children, ages 9 and 7, who now regularly beat him at board games. He enjoys audiobooks often on productivity and jokes about his “buy high, sell low” stock market strategy.

At heart, though, his outlook is simple: be useful, be honest and never lose sight of the patient. “At the end of the day, it’s about contributing something meaningful to the profession and to the patients we serve,” he says. 
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