As the year draws to a close, it’s naturally a time for people to reflect back on their experiences. It’s also a perfect time for dentists to evaluate their past year in practice. What worked and what didn’t? Is your practice on a path of growth or are you just treading water? What changes could you make to improve your practice? When asking yourself these and other tough questions, it can help to have your finger on the pulse of what your colleagues are doing. Inside Dentistry can help. Every year, we conduct readership surveys to gain insights into current industry trends in the areas of practice management, clinical practice, and product/technology adoption and present them in our annual Trends in Dentistry feature. As you’ll learn in the article, this year saw a continuation of many of the new realities of practice, but these were made further challenging by a storm of economic uncertainty. Gaining treatment acceptance and maintaining profitability became more difficult for many, and the data reflects a variety of approaches that dentists are using to achieve success.
One trend that I’d like to highlight is the increasing availability of online CE offerings. More and more quality CE opportunities can be attended live remotely or streamed on demand from online platforms. For example, the Kois Center has recently begun offering its first ever online CE. You can see the classroom with John up front, and it feels like you’re with him at the facility. If you want, you can even experience it through a virtual reality headset. Some dentists prefer online learning, particularly younger ones, but being able to attend more quality CE opportunities online benefits everyone. In-person courses often fill up and close due to space limitations or require dentists to travel great distances. Online learning solves both of these problems.
Technology adoption has been a significant trend in dentistry for some time now. In this month’s Inside Pain Management article, Graham Garber, DMD, PhD, discusses and demonstrates the use of electronic dental anesthesia. I adopted this device and use it in my practice, primarily as a preanesthetic to numb injection sites but also to treat pain related to hypersensitivity and other dental treatments. There is even a version of the device that patients can acquire for at-home use. It only seems to be limited by what you are willing to try.
Robert C. Margeas, DDS
Editor-in-Chief, Inside Dentistry
Private Practice, Des Moines, Iowa
Adjunct Professor • Department of Operative Dentistry
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
robert.margeas@conexiant.com
