HOF Postgraduate Student: This Dentist Is an Example of Dedication

Livia Maria Liberali is a dentist who graduated 11 years ago. She has always liked aesthetics and skin care, which is why she began seeking training in Orofacial Harmonization as early as 2017. Livia is currently a postgraduate student in HOF.

Even after the injunction that temporarily banned dentists from using injectables for aesthetic purposes, Livia kept improving her skills and waiting for legal permission to practice. She is an example of dedication to her own career, always studying to stay current and be the best professional she can, and she says:

“The more specific your practice becomes, the more time you devote to it and to your studies. You have more autonomy, which is what I mean in terms of studying, because these are fields where you need to be constantly up to date.”

The dentist's journey

But before finding herself through Orofacial and Surgical Harmonization (HOF), Lívia went through other areas of dentistry. She says her first in-depth study was in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and that she felt passionate about the field. “But it wasn't love, it was passion,”she says.

She also worked in Endodontics, performing root canals, cases that involve dealing with acute pain. It wasn't what Lívia wanted; she was far more interested in offering beauty to her patients, even though she sees every path she has taken as essential to forging her career.

Then, after experiences that were important for her training but incompatible with her greatest professional ambition, Lívia moved into Orofacial Rehabilitation, at first working only with prosthetics and later expanding to ceramic contact lenses. To these services, which are more focused on aesthetics, the dentist is adding Orofacial Harmonization.

As mentioned earlier, she started in orofacial harmonization back in 2017 and took several standalone courses specific to each area, which prepared her to offer procedures with fillers, injectables and PDO threads. Now, as an HOF postgraduate student, she has the opportunity to update her know-how in these and other procedures.

Beauty integrated with the smile

Having seen many cases in different patients, the HOF postgraduate student recognizes that the smile is not an isolated part of the face. Although it is considered a person's calling card, the smile appears together with the structures of the face, so it can be much more satisfying when this whole set is in harmony.

The dentist and HOF postgraduate student explains why this is so important: “not just because the patient wants better aesthetics, but because it's a professional opening for them, it's an emotional opening, and over time we have to learn to read the patient.”

And she gives the example that in many cases a patient has whitening or contact lenses done and then envisions their future smile with lip filler as well. With the HOF specialization, the dentist is able to meet that kind of expectation.

Emotional support in HOF

As an HOF postgraduate student, the dentist sees the specialization as a way to help her patients emotionally, so they feel better about themselves, and she says, from experience: “before, something that made them depressed, that they thought had no way out, they manage to regain that opportunity through harmonization.”

On top of all this, Lívia points out that dentists can also perform procedures without the patient having to go through such painful experiences, since anesthetics are used, or the procedures are done in less sensitive layers of the skin. A properly trained dentist can also conduct the appointment in a way that conveys confidence to the patient.

The sun shines for everyone who…

To gain these skills, Lívia says the road is long, requires study and constant updating, but it is through this effort that a trustworthy professional is built, valued for what she does.

During the specialization, experiences in clinical immersion are essential to establish yourself as the professional described. It is through clinical immersions that you learn in practice how to guide the patient, understand their needs and perform procedures in an exemplary and humanized way.

On career and the market, the dentist offers us her view:

“My philosophy: the sun shines for everyone, don't hide in anyone's shadow. I think the market is open to everybody, there are opportunities for everybody, and it's up to you to stand out, and to how you conduct your appointments and how you present yourself to your patient as well.”

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