Some years ago now we invited Thomas Von Arx from the University of Bern to present a master class on surgical anatomy.
It was one of those situations where you think you’ve developed something brilliant and nobody else seems to be interested in what you’re doing.
I think in the end we had maybe 12 people at the master class in anatomy to explain to us what he’d discovered and remembered and learnt from spending 6 months at the University of Hawaii restudying surgical anatomy in his 50’s.
We did a similar sort of thing with local anaesthetic with Professor John Gibson where we tried to get back to basic subjects that we all learnt at dental school but forgot and then couldn’t reapply in the modern world.
That’s the point of some of the master classes, a group of people getting together on a peer review, non-threatening basis to be able to discuss a subject and fill in the gaps that are missing from their learning.
Everyone has huge gaps missing from their learning.
I’m reminded of a story by Stephen Fry when he turned up at Cambridge to study English and only after getting to know some of his classmates was able to discuss openly the books that he ‘should’ have already read.
When they all compared notes they realised that if they put together all the books they all ‘should’ have read, they were all missing all the books that had ever been written.
We’re all missing massive chunks of information but are too scared to admit the fact that we’re not perfect.
The master classes that we provide at these levels help us not only to learn from people who know better but to talk to each other about the gaps that we have and how we apply them.
This is learning in a different way. It’s not sitting at home watching a webinar on your own and ticking it off for the CPD so the GDC don’t come and get you.
It’s actually self-directed invested learning to make yourself better at what you do, which ultimately will make you more valuable.
On the 3rd of November Ian Dunn presents a Contemporary Periodontal Update Master Class and as always, there’s 16 places (although some of those are already gone). He will review periodontal disease and discuss modern treatment strategies, make sure that you’re diagnosing things properly and understand everything that’s available to treat it.
He will discuss in relation to teeth and dental implants and it will be an eye-opener for me and I’m sure for anybody else.
If you’re not aware of Ian, he’s one of the loveliest guys you could possibly hope to meet in dentistry. He’s a specialist in periodontal disease and has tirelessly run the British society of periodontology for the benefit of patients and colleagues.
He’s speaking with me at the ITI Congress to the dental hygienists but we have a date for ourselves here on the 3rd of November and if you’re interested then we look forward to seeing you.
The link for more information is here!
Blog Post Number - 2858
Leave a comment