Taking CE courses while in school

[informatique]

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I'm an incoming D1 and have been skimming over some posts on dentaltown. There are those who think that it would be beneficial to do an AEGD or GPR and a few have mentioned that they got more out of working as an associate immediately upon graduation while taking as many CE courses as possible. I cringe at the thought of being in school for another year with barely any income as a resident yet do not want to be ill-prepared by immediately going into private practice.

I'm aware that I probably won't even learn half of what I need to know in the clinics at school during D3/D4 year. Is it possible to take CE courses during your D3/D4 year? If the answer is yes, I guess the only problem would be making room in your schedule to take them and having the finances.

I know I'm getting ahead of myself since I've yet to begin school, but I really want to avoid doing an AEGD or GPR.

 

[Saddleshoes]

informatique I have an important word for you......

....R E L A X...

CE courses would be a waste while you are in school. These courses are designed for dentists that have completed school and worked in the real word for a little while.

 

[JamesOSU]

I've actually heard great things about taking CE while in 4th year. It's significantly cheaper for students to take several CE courses (I assume there are student-discounts?), and it can really help your clinical repertoire. Do it on weekends!

 

[Turnerjo13]

if you can take CE courses for cheap then I would do it. You will learn a lot about what is going on in the real world of dentistry and not just what they tell you within the confines of your school. Next week is the Oregon dental convention and students get to take all of the classes they want for free.

 

[Rube]

I think CE courses are a good idea at anytime during dental school, but you won't get CE credit. The more you take, the more you will learn and be exposed to be it practice mgt or denture making or implants, which can only help with experience and perspective in dental school. However, don't get too ahead of yourself, CE courses are more real world and often times better than the way things are done in dental school. As an example, you'll see better materials and shortcuts done in CE, but you still need to go back and focus on the "dental school way" while you're in dental school.

 

[mrlantern]

I'll tell you this. Most CEs are a waste of time. I know many folks who aren't placing implants even after shelling out $10K for implant CEs. Ditto for the $15k ortho CEs.

The problem with CEs is that the instructors won't be there when you're trying a procedure for the first time on a real patient.

 

[DrJeff]

I'll tell you this. Most CEs are a waste of time. I know many folks who aren't placing implants even after shelling out $10K for implant CEs. Ditto for the $15k ortho CEs.

The problem with CEs is that the instructors won't be there when you're trying a procedure for the first time on a real patient.

Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in the above. Also, unfortunately for many CE courses given today, this is the basic outline of your standard full day 7 to 8 CE credit hour courses:

Start of CE course until coffee break - the speaker telling you how great he/she is and how wonderfull his/her institute is

Coffee break until lunch - the speaker telling you what topics he/she will talk about, and MAYBE actually talk about 1 or 2 of them briefly before lunch. Once again you'll likely hear how great his/her institute is and they'll start broaching the topic of their multi-day hands on courses held at their institute

Lunch

After lunch to mid afternoon snack break - the speaker will lightly hit on another 2 or 3 of the likely 30 topics they told you before lunch that he/she would talk about - more pitching for their hands-on courses at their institute and/or gratuitous self promotion of an instrument/material they helped design and get some $$ for everytime you buy it

Afternoon snack break to the end - he/she will recap the 2 to 5 topics they actually hit on and tell you once again that you should really goto their institute for the 1st weekend course in the series of 20 that they offer at their institute where they'll talk about the stuff that they "didn't have time to talk about today"🙄

Unfortunately nowadays the most you may get out of many CE lectures is the chance to find out what one of your d-school classmates has been upto lately when you have lunch with them😳

 

[informatique]

What are your opinions on residency programs? My fear is that I'll graduate from school thinking that I'm equipped with all the knowledge and skills that will be necessary for private practice, only to find otherwise. I believe around 20-25 grads of 105/110 students at the school that I will be attending continue on and do a residency, which is quite a lot.

From the perspective of a senior dentist who owns his/her own practice, when hiring an associate wouldn't they prefer someone with an AEGD or GPR under their belt so not too much hand holding will be necessary and production would be higher as a result of more repeat exposure during residency?

If CE courses are just a bunch of self promoting shams, then is there any way to weed out these types and find reputable CE courses where you actually learn something?

 

[JamesOSU]

If CE courses are just a bunch of self promoting shams, then is there any way to weed out these types and find reputable CE courses where you actually learn something?

Ask about them on dentaltown, or find good ones this way as well

 

[DrJeff]

What are your opinions on residency programs? My fear is that I'll graduate from school thinking that I'm equipped with all the knowledge and skills that will be necessary for private practice, only to find otherwise. I believe around 20-25 grads of 105/110 students at the school that I will be attending continue on and do a residency, which is quite a lot.

I'll admit that I'm VERY pro-residency. I did a 2 year GPR right out of d-school and loved it! What I learned there and the skills I picked up really made a difference in how I practice today, if for no other reason than my GPR time showed/convinced me that there very well might be other/better ways to do certain procedures than what you learned in d-school. However, not all GPR/AEGD programs are the same. There are some where you'll end up spending a good percentage of the year being nothing more than an oral surgeon, instead of a well rounded general dentist. My rule of thumb, and what I tell the students that I teach who may be thinking about a GPR/AEGD is that after an interview, if you don't feel atleast a little nervous/scared about if you'll be able to handle the workload, then you don't want to go there since you won't puch yourself and hence take your dentistry to new levels.

BTW, as for percentage of grads going into residency(and I'm talking ANY type of residency here now, not just GPR's/AEGD's) - my class at UCONN graduated 39 and 36 out of 39 went onto some type of residency.

From the perspective of a senior dentist who owns his/her own practice, when hiring an associate wouldn't they prefer someone with an AEGD or GPR under their belt so not too much hand holding will be necessary and production would be higher as a result of more repeat exposure during residency?

If I'm looking to hire an associate/potential future partner, personally I'd prefer someone who did a GPR/AEGD over a fresh out of school grad. Hand holding is one big reason, and pure experience is another. No if's ands or buts about it, dentistry is a profession where you continue to evolve how you practice over your ENTIRE career - sometimes this evolution is due to new materials, sometimes its a new treatment philosphy and sometimes is because of knowledge you learned from watching your work(both succeed and FAIL) overtime. So experience very often is a plus.

If CE courses are just a bunch of self promoting shams, then is there any way to weed out these types and find reputable CE courses where you actually learn something?

ask questions to colleagues, friends and in places like dentaltown and dr. bicuspid, etc as mentioned already. Plus, what may be a cr@ppy CE course/topic to one person and their intersts/experience level may be the GREATEST CE course ever to another person.