AGpO MEMBERSHIP NEWS 10 Pearls: Surround Yourself With The Best People & Organizations To Grow Your Knowledge and Practice 3. Stage 0 is diagnosis, and it starts before you place a bracket. It is the most important stage through-out your treatment. At the beginning of my orthodontic journey, I was not aware of the importance of record-keeping or how important it was to do a very thorough diag-nosis. At times, I found myself during treatment hoping the wire would be my salvation in a case that was starting to head south. I thought "hopefully" the case would turn out just right. Most of the time that was what happened, but there were some cases where I wasn't so lucky. One case in particular made my heart jump every time I saw that patient was in the schedule for that day. I should have known better; I started to doubt myself and asked myself, “Why had I chosen to tackle this case and how could I fix it?” At that point, I was ready to give up and did not want to do orthodontics any more. Then I realized my mistake. I had been trying to do it all on my own. I realized that I needed to surround myself with the right mentors and colleagues who could reacquaint me with diagnosis again and show me the correct way to address my cases. Here are a few of the pearls I’ve collected and want to share with you: 1. Perfection is the biggest enemy of finishing; we are in the business of improving people smiles not making then perfect. 2. The quality of your records is a reflection of the quality of your treatment. Humberto Nunez-Gil, DMD AGpO President 4. A non-extraction case is not necessarily easier than an extraction case. 5. No one is smarter than all of us together. 6. You do not have to own a Cephalometric X-ray machine to practice orthodontics, but you "want" to have one. 7. Always choose the pain of discipline over the pain of REGRET. 8. A bracket check will save you a lot of problems and headaches, going faster does not mean going right. 9. Microwave mentality vs. real cook mentality. Understand the why. 10. You may lose money learning at the beginning, do not focus on the dollar, focus on the knowl-edge. As the knowledge and experience grow, so will the money. Humberto Nunez-Gil Popular Three-Day Dental Assistant’s Course This Summer in Memphis Dr. Charles Young will be teaching the Academy’s three-day Dental Assis-tant Course again this summer. The course will be held in Memphis, TN from July 27-July 29, 2023. Registra-tion began earlier this year, so mark your calendar and call to reserve your space. The hands-on lab portion of this course makes it important to continue to offer it as an in-person course. In addition to the course, you will have a chance to discover beauti-ful Memphis with Beale Street, blues, barbeque and, of course, Graceland. This course is intended for assis-tants with little orthodontic training as well as a refresher course for more experienced assistants. The course will give the chairside dental assistant a along with typodonts from the Academy. Assistants will learn how to apply brackets, bands and auxiliaries using the Tip-Edge System. Dr. Young will cover the Tip-Edge stages of treat-ment, tracing cephalometric x-rays and model analysis for the diagnosis of arch length discrepancy. The Academy will supply a T.P. Orthodontics supply kit that includes bracket kits, archwires, and a carousel dispenser. A list of additional supplies that will be needed from your office will be sent with course confirmation. Set time aside now and call the Academy at 1-800-634-2027 and speak to Adam or Jennifer to reserve your space for this popular yearly course. better understanding of orthodontics and the Differential Straight Arch (Tip-Edge) Technique. Dental assistants will be working in pairs on study casts from your office www.orthodontics.com Winter 2023 31
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Winter 2023: Page 31
