Especially when you're an associate dentist, you have to start out with foundational principles. Dental school is amazing. It's taught us a lot. However, it didn't teach us everything.
Learn how systems relate
We have a lifetime of learning, and the best way to start is investing in yourself and your education by doing a program, such as The Dawson Academy's Core Curriculum. This is where you learn the anatomy, the function, and how the system plays together. You learn how to treatment plan cases to make sure that that system works efficiently so that the patient has comfort, they have a great smile, and they're happy. And so it's predictable and long-lasting. They can maintain it.
Break it up into pieces
So I really feel like having a foundational program is the core on which to build. And then from there, depending on your practice and your likes and your preferences, what I have found very successful is picking a topic a year and doing one or two courses on that topic.
So if you're in a place where endodontics is going to help you be successful and you enjoy doing it, I would pick my courses in that year from some of the best speakers in the country to learn about endo. Then I try to just focus for that year on endodontics. So then the next year, it might be surgery or implant placement. But by doing it kind of in year chunks, it's almost like you're doing a mini residency, and you can really synthesize a lot of information and grow quickly. So good luck.
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