CE courses such as implant seem a great investment for GPs but they cost tons of money. I wonder if the military will pay for them when we sign up for CE as a veteran. Someone also mention that air force is better than the other two branches in terms of educational benefit. Could anyone care to elaborate? thanks
will the military reimburse us for CE courses
- Thread starter iLuvDAT
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Once you are active duty the Army, and I assume there is something similar in the other services, will pay for you to attend one 5 day "short course" a year. The short course is a 5 day lecture series and there is one for Endo, Oral Surgery, General Dentistry and I believe Pros every year. Each is held at a different base, some are actually just off post somewhere. They pay for your travel, food and lodging.
The catch is, it is a military program, and unlike the relaxed atomosphere of a conference you are expected to wear your Class B uniform, and the last one I went to the hours were from 7am to 5pm everyday. Once you are a specialist you no longer have to attend the short courses and you can attend one conference (of reasonable price, it has to be approved by your commander) at the Army's expense.
You also are allowed 5 days permissive TDY (Temporary Duty) to attend CE. This means you can take the time off work without it counting against your 30 days of leave. During this time you can go to whatever conference you'd like, but you have to pay for food, travel, lodging, and conference fees out of pocket. You can combine the TDY with leave, say if you go to LA for a conference and want to stay a few days afterwards it's not a problem.
The Army won't pay for an implant course, they won't let anybody but a periodontist or oral surgeon put them in, and won't even let a captain whose done the one year program restore them without supervision from a proshodontist.
Comparing what I learned in my 1 year to what Snozberries (another member here) learned in the AF 1 year, the AF program is far superior, the ortho residency in the Army is colocated with the Air Force residency, I can't say how othe resdiencies compare across branches.
The catch is, it is a military program, and unlike the relaxed atomosphere of a conference you are expected to wear your Class B uniform, and the last one I went to the hours were from 7am to 5pm everyday. Once you are a specialist you no longer have to attend the short courses and you can attend one conference (of reasonable price, it has to be approved by your commander) at the Army's expense.
You also are allowed 5 days permissive TDY (Temporary Duty) to attend CE. This means you can take the time off work without it counting against your 30 days of leave. During this time you can go to whatever conference you'd like, but you have to pay for food, travel, lodging, and conference fees out of pocket. You can combine the TDY with leave, say if you go to LA for a conference and want to stay a few days afterwards it's not a problem.
The Army won't pay for an implant course, they won't let anybody but a periodontist or oral surgeon put them in, and won't even let a captain whose done the one year program restore them without supervision from a proshodontist.
Comparing what I learned in my 1 year to what Snozberries (another member here) learned in the AF 1 year, the AF program is far superior, the ortho residency in the Army is colocated with the Air Force residency, I can't say how othe resdiencies compare across branches.
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I have been on three CE TDY's over the last two years. As for implants, although I placed a lot during my AEGD-1, the AF only lets OMS, perio, and comprehensive general dentists (AEGD-2) place implants unsupervised. It would be really hard to justify sending you to an implant CE course if you are not credentialed to place them. And no you would not get credentialed if you attended a CE course.
