Dental Continuing Education

Continuing education is a requirement for some fields and it is necessary in some states for dentists to pursue some dental continuing education in order to renew their license to practice. Continuing education programs award credit hours or a certificate and are pursued by professionals who are already working. Continuing education requirements may be fulfilled by taking some university or college courses or by attending conferences or seminars.

Why Enroll in Dental Continuing Education

The foremost reason to take up dental continuing education may be that it is a state regulated requirement in order to renew your license. However, continuing education is a wonderful opportunity even when it is not a necessity.
Health care is a very rapidly evolving field. With rigorous research going on in it, new techniques and treatments keep on emerging one after the other. Thus, dental continuing education is very important to keep abreast of these developments in dentistry. Dentists who pursue continuing education tend to attract more patients because of their knowledge of the new developments in the field. Of course, that also means they are able to help out their patients better.

Dental continuing education also serves as a common platform for dentists and helps in developing the dental community. The more contacts a dentist has in this community, he would receive more recognition for his contribution to dentistry and patient care by virtue of knowing more dental professionals alone.

Some dentists may also want to take up some dental continuing education if they want to diversify their scope as a dentist and want to expand their scope. For instance, dentists may choose to take special bone grafting classes to further develop their expertise.

Dental Continuing Education Online

Some college and university dental continuing education courses are also offered online. These are very feasible because dentists can simply log on and study for these courses after their work hours. They also have the flexibility to take as much time as they need to complete them.

A lot of continuing education programs are based on distant learning, usually over the internet or by coursework delivered on CD-ROMs. It is always advisable before joining an online dental continuing education course that the state dental board is contacted and their affirmation is taken as to whether the online course you are taking will actually count towards your continuing education requirements or not. Also, ascertain that the online college offering the courses is duly accredited before you join.

Dental Continuing Education Courses

There are many courses that may constitute dental continuing education. Some of these courses are:

• Endodontics
• Orthodontics
• Periodontics
• Sports Dentistry
• Orthodontic Management
• Transitional Dental Implants

The above mentioned courses are only a few out of the many more dental continuing education courses. These courses are not usually basic level courses because these courses are specially designed to develop and refine a dentist’s knowledge and skill and building upon their previous knowledge and experience rather than introducing new ideas. However, where a technology in question is relatively new, some dentists may also want to enroll in comparatively more basic courses to come up to the level of understanding the new technology and its underlying principles.