ORTHO BITES CONTINUING By David Jackson, DDS, FAGD, IBO Education: Make Yourself A More Complete Practitioner H ave you ever left your office and had the “glazed eyes -burned out look”? I cannot begin to tell you how many times I came home from my office over the past 30 years, looked at my wife, and said, “I am not going back tomor-row!” As a general dentist, we face many challenges. We attempt to run a profitable business; mechanically yet medically treat our patients; attempt to make them happy, pleased and satisfied with our dentistry; realize that the patient thinks what we did to them is permanent and forever; deal with upsets of some patients, staff and suppliers; and, at the same time, attempt to keep current in the rapidly-changing profession of dentistry. I did not have a clue dentistry would be so challeng-ing. I graduated from dental school in 1978 and I drilled, filled and billed my first five years. I soon real-ized I had chosen a profession that could be monotonous and a bit mundane. And I began to ques-tion if I had made the right professional choice. In 1983, I signed up for my first continuing educa-tion (CE) course sponsored by Dentsply. The weekend topic was esthetic dentistry innovations. And yes, we had some innovations in esthetic dentistry back then. I recall it was a two-day course. But I immediately real-ized that I was learning things I had not been taught in dental school. I came back from the course renewed and ready to modify my drilling and filling techniques. I figured out quickly that CE courses stimulated my 12 May/June 2011 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society May-June 2011: Page 12
