Credit for the introduction to the concept which I am about to write about must be given to Danny Buser (or Professor Daniel Buser of the University of Bern to you guys)
I was lucky enough to have Danny Buser to speak at my ITI Study Club in Nottingham two years ago and even luckier to wander around the Tate Modern in Liverpool with him at a conference where all he did was complain about how sore his knees were and how much he hated art, but that's not the influence he has had on me. The major influence relates to the bell curve.
When this was first presented in 2006 at Edinburgh Castle at the launch of the ADI Congress a light bulb switched on in my head and I went from being, what I thought was an outsider to being an insider. Let me briefly explain the curve.
The picture above shows a Gaussian distribution function (classical) it is also known as a standard deviation curve and it effectively represents a measurement of a population of people, let's say for example dentists providing implant treatment. The X axis represents competence and the Y axis represents a percentage split of the subjects. The vertical lines represent the lower 10% and the upper 10% of the population (are you still with me?)
I have lectured on this subject now many times and thought it was time to put it in a blog. Effectively in implant dentists (as with all other measurements of these types) there are around 10% who are unacceptable and 10% who are exceptional. For the rest of us (I hope i'm in the rest of us) we sit in the middle of the competent group. This has huge implications in all aspects of our work but none more-so than in teaching, where the pattern has been over many years for the exceptional clinicians to attempt to teach the competent clinicians. Frankly, that just doesn't work.
The reason it doesn't work is because the exceptional clinicians don't understand why the competent clinicians can't do the exceptional procedures. So we're left with conferences full of 'Porcelain Pornography' which we have no chance of recreating in our practices. It is also possible to suggest that this is even damaging as we go back to our practices and try to emulate these exceptional procedures. What we must realise is that to teach the masses, we must appeal to the lowest common denominator and provide teaching in systems which are reproducible in a competent environment, not just in an exceptional environment.
This in fact is why I always graduated towards the ITI and this is what the ITI's educational foundations were built on.
I do not suggest that immediate implants don't work. I do not suggest that many of the incredible procedures that I see at Master Classes and International Congresses are not entirely valid.
The question is "valid for whom?"
I guess another problem is that many of us would position ourselves in the top 10% when in fact we are nowhere near that. Very much worth reflecting on this as you get towards the end of the year and look to plan your CPD for 2016.
While it is wonderful to go an see James Bond at the cinema, I have realised that I am not James Bond.
Blog Post Number: 793