What Makes Us Different?

Dental continuing education is one of the most critical components to consider in selecting a dentist for care. Every dentist took a similar set of programs in order to become a dentist, however from graduation the paths that are taken are very different. The reality is that on graduation the dentist has displayed proficiency in the basics of dentistry – sort of like learning long division. That is necessary, but not sufficient to become an exceptional dentist and unfortunately far too many dentists don’t pursue their continuing education aggressively enough. Most dentists are required to accumulate 20 hours of education a year while in the case of the exceptional dentists, that number is easily five to ten times greater! Exceptional dentists are not created with only 20 hours a year of advanced education; it simply isn’t enough! In fact, most programs at LVI are actually more hours than the annual requirement!

In addition to the quantity of education and dental training to which the dentist devotes their time is the quality of that education. There is no question that anyone can learn something by watching someone speak, however the reality is that on average simply watching someone else talk about new procedures the amount retained in a few hours is barely half and at the three day mark it is just less than 10%! Knowing this, the programs at LVI are integrated education where the dentist not only attends a lecture, but actually participates in a hands-on format and literally teaches their hands how to master the concepts. Dentistry in particular is a very tactile profession and the dentists who get training that includes hands-on learning are well ahead of those who simply sit and listen.

This combination of dedicating enough time to assimilate new dental training information along with hands-on and live patient programs makes LVI an institution unlike any other. Every dental continuing education program at LVI is engineered to ensure competence in the conceptual learning as well as being adept with the motor coordination and teaching your ‘fingers to do the walking’. In order to take this back to the practice, there still remains one more hurdle. The productive practice is only created with optimizing the team and their performance and that is based on systems.

The clinical skills taught at LVI are delivered and practiced in both didactic and hands-on format, but in order to use them and make them routine in the practice it requires the team to not just understand, but to embrace the new protocols. Every dentist has returned charged up from a dental continuing education program and ready to make changes in the practice only to be met with lack-luster enthusiasm from the team. The issue is that it is impossible to deliver a few hours to a few days worth of material in a pow wow meeting the next morning back in the practice. In fact, as often as not, the team will roll their eyes and groan about the new protocol as soon as the dentist walks away! The key to changing the practice for the better and for good is to make sure the team is driving the charge!

The programs at LVI include a broad base of topics among the more than 40 different programs, but the one that creates the most success in the practices are always the Team programs. The LVI education is complete in that it offers sufficient quantity and quality to make change happen supported by the systems and communication skills to make it the new reality. The LVI education is a powerful experience and can catapult a practice to unheard of heights!