Continuing your dental education is key to helping you retain your current patients and attract new ones. When patients trust you—when they sense that they are not just numbers to your practice—they become loyal patients who are likely to refer you to family and friends. That’s how to grow a dental practice.

Why Continuing Education Is Essential for Dental Practices

As a professional, you’re responsible for providing the best possible dental care for your patients. To keep pace with the best practices and techniques in oral health, continuing education (CE) is a must. Moreover, every state has established minimum continuing education requirements for maintaining professional dental licensure.

The CE process gives dentists a way to keep up with new techniques and trends, learn about exciting new developments, expand their knowledge on the best dental practices and current technologies, and increase their service offerings to best meet the needs of patients and grow their practice.

There are numerous benefits of continuing dental education online, but the here are the Big 4:

  1. Improved complex care - While dentists may already have a sound knowledge base, building on this foundation will bring immense value. Continuing education allows dental professionals to grow and gain a better understanding of complex care, such as overdenture, and other implant procedures involving oral surgery.
  2. Professional growth - CE affords opportunities to connect with other dental professionals. You’ll meet others in a similar circumstance and create meaningful connections with instructors who can become valuable members of your personal and professional network. These contacts can prove helpful your professional career, so creating and nurturing these professional network, is crucial.
  3. Elevated patient care - The level of care you can provide to your patients is a direct result of the CE options you pursue. By keeping yourself informed of the latest advances in treatment modalities and dental technologies, you’ll be better prepared to provide high-quality care and build a growing and loyal patient-base, as well as provide treatment that helps build your practice.
  4. Convenient and flexible - Although there are excellent CDE opportunities available, many busy professionals have difficulty finding wiggle room in their schedules to attend. Online continuing education courses held via live or on-demand webinars can be taken from anywhere in the world (distance/remote learning). Technology has revolutionized the face of dental education, making CE as convenient and flexible as possible for busy professionals.

To get the most out of CE, though, consider these factors. Is it affordable, convenient, and with insights that you can immediately apply in your profession or practice? What are the reviews saying about the course? Is the instructor a true expert in the field, with relevant and recent experience? Make sure the course has been approved by the American Dental Association or the Academy of General Dentistry, through the CEUs awarded.

education to grow your dental practice

Top Dental Continuing Education Topics

Continued education means continued growth for you and your practice. That said, it’s important to choose your courses wisely, investing in skills and knowledge that support in demand patient care that drives growth. Here are several of the most popular subjects for CDE (continuing dental education):

1. Trends in the dental industry - Perhaps the most popular CE options are those that dive into current trends in the dental industry. These include artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing technology, digital dentistry, tooth remineralization, augmented reality (AR), and teledentistry: patient-centric technologies that are projected to grow the most in 2022. Dentistry was a $15.57 billion industry in 2020, and it is predicted to double by 2027. One of the most significant drivers of growth is an increased demand for new patient-centric technology.

2. Patient engagement - It is important for dental professionals to learn how to better engage and interact with their patients to create pleasant experiences. While not a new concept, we’re in an era of ever-evolving patient demands and expectations. More meaningful connections, through patient-centered care, will significantly help in patient retention, and by extension, practice growth.

3. Patient communication – When you talk to your patients instead of at them, they will feel truly part of the decision around their dental treatment options. Provide as much information as necessary for the patient to consider. Post-treatment, make the request for a referral and a review, an standard part of your team’s patient conversations.

4. How to minimize team stress - Creating a less stressful work environment can be challenging for any dental practice or laboratory, with 79% of dentists saying staff stress management has been a challenge over the past 19 months. Stress affects the staff and this directly impacts their patient intake and communication experience. Clearly, an area that needs intervention.

5. Anesthesia and sedation - Anesthesia and sedation are broad subjects in the dental industry, making them excellent CE course considerations.

6. Dental radiography - Increase your knowledge of radiographic interpretations and promote radiation safety. Here, you’ll stay up-to-date with current FDA recommendations for ordering x-ray examinations while minimizing radiation exposure.

7. Oral surgery - Meet your patient’s oral surgery needs confidently, efficiently, and safely. These courses are designed to teach minimally traumatic tooth extraction techniques, grafting concepts, pain management, suturing techniques, dental implant installation, patient aftercare, and more.

8. Infection control and OSHA - We’re in a pandemic era so protocols must be rigorously enforced. Beyond that, each member of your dental team must understand how to protect themselves from exposure to other potentially infectious agents in the workplace. CE courses on infection control and OSHA demonstrate ways to reduce risks in your practice.

9. Practice management - Encompasses numerous subjects surrounding the skills of running a business, including financial management, HR, marketing, diversity inclusion/cultural competence, training and development.

10. Implant dentistry - A modality that is consistently evolving so it is essential to keep yourself informed on the best possible practices and latest developments. Topics typically cover conventional and mini (small diameter) implant placement, extractions, suturing, bone grafting, sinus lifting, and more.

11. Social media marketing - Learn how to leverage the immense power of social media platforms to engage, attract, and retain patients while driving practice growth.

12. Online review management - Monitor and respond to every review—the good, the bad, the downright ugly—and look for ways to improve.

13. Pediatric dentistry - CE courses dedicated to pediatric dentistry including helping children accept dentistry, behavior management, pediatric special needs patient care, trauma and pain management, as well as identifying and reporting child abuse.

Want to Gain Ideas on Growing Your Practice Sooner Than Later?

From CE-credited seminars to free live and on-demand webinars, Sterngold offers dental professionals the ability to stay informed of best practices in restorative dentistry, as well as practice building ideas. These courses are not limited to the clinician but also includes a few for the entire practice team.

We help you achieve professional growth by leveraging the expertise of practicing Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), who use our products with success, as well as internal experts who have vast experience and knowledge in the areas of implant, digital dentures, and dental supplies and equipment.

Check out the list of courses we offer here.

Sterngold: The Best Partner in Growing a Dental Practice or Laboratory Business

At Sterngold, we believe in affordable access to a better quality of life by staying relevant, pursuing excellence, and helping practice and dental lab owners stay up-to-date on rapidly evolving developments in restorative dentistry. Through our dental continuing education courses, your dental laboratory business can continue to thrive and exceed the expectations of practice clients. We enable you to stay competitive in the changing landscape of dental technology by providing courses on digital workflows using existing products. Our CE courses are delivered either live or on-demand, to be taken at your convenience. Be sure to check out our courses on digital dentures, attachments, and more.

Whether you are planning to take CE courses for skill improvement or for business or practice building, Sterngold Dental has a course for you.