This week, on Friday, I'll be presenting my Aesthetic Masterclass, which is usually presented in the second half of the year, to a special audience.
It's a bit of a "sorry we didn't get things right" for one of the courses that we provided, and the feedback we had was less than we would expect.
To try to pay back and to say sorry about that, we decided to put on an all-day Aesthetic Masterclass at a lower level than that which is usually provided for a special group of individuals. The reason we wanted to do this was to explain the difference between the different types of implant placement, particularly at the front of the mouth: type 1 immediate, type 2 delayed immediate, and type 3 delayed.
The thing about teaching this type of stuff (and I've taught anterior implants for about a million years) is that there are different degrees of complexity related to this. Just because someone shows you on a social media platform that they've done something, doesn't mean you're able to do it; it doesn't even mean you're allowed to do it.
Currently, in implant dentistry, everything is immediate (we've been here before and we'll be here again). The truth is, the one option and doing the only one option all of the time, is never ever the right thing.
Implant surgeons who provide complex treatment have many different tools in their box; sometimes they do a type 1, sometimes a type 2, and sometimes a type 3. Really great implant surgeons that I've seen completely understand when to do one or the other, and never ever say "I only ever do it this way".
Always be careful of the person who says, "I only ever do it this way", they're usually talking sh*t.
If you want to be a complex implant provider, you have to learn how to provide complex implant treatment; you were never born that way, and you didn't learn how to do complex work in a year or 2 or 3. There's a pathway to go through, which is filled with wonder and heartache and expense and emotional investment and without travelling through that, you will never get there.
This is not a transferable skill from other parts of dentistry; it's a skill that has to be learned.
For us here at The Campbell Academy, we set up The Year Three course ages ago now to introduce people to complex implant dentistry, and the best way to learn how to do it. It's a combination of world-class masterclasses from genuinely globally accepted people to peer-to-peer learning and specific days related to the discussion, integration and implementation of complex implant dentistry into your practice.
The pathway goes like this:
1) Straightforward implant dentistry, taught and mentored to be safe.
2) Advanced implant dentistry - a journey into more advanced cases, understanding the limitations of the practitioner.
3) Moving towards complex treatments in collaboration with colleagues.
The collaboration with colleagues is clear; you're not taught complex implant dentistry, you learn it in collaboration with others who are travelling on the same road. It's colleagues together, peer to peer, a totally different approach than being spoon-fed education, online or in your face, where you're supposed to learn on a Friday and apply on a Monday.
The Year Three details are here. It's a year of integration into complex implant dentistry, if you're interested.
Blog Post Number - 4220