A regular topic of conversation with colleagues in dentistry, is CBCT, how it’s done in the practice and the systems we have designed. One of the many reasons we run our CBCT Essentials Masterclass every year at The Campbell Academy.
What’s important for me to do for anyone who might be interested in this Masterclass is to set out what the features of this course are and why it might be different to other courses you might look at. So here goes…
1. The course is provided in conjunction with Michael Bornstein. Michael has been involved in the production of many of the worldwide guidelines associated with CBCT, in particular those for the AO (Association of Osseo-integration USA) the EAO (European Association of Osseo-Integration) and the ITI (International Team for Implantology). He has sat on consensus conferences and reviewed the literature related to CBCT. He has encyclopedic knowledge of the subject and also happens to be an extraordinary Oral Surgeon. It was with Michael’s input, when we had him for one day to teach us at the clinic, that we designed this course as what he described as ‘the ideal CBCT course’.
2. We cover the full range of indications for CBCT and considerable discussion relating to these including Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Endodontics, trauma, implant dentistry, implant complications and other applicable aspects to practice.
3. We provide instruction and teaching on reporting of scans on two different platforms (Carestream and Sirona) We can also provide DICOM files and instruction on how to report on other third-party platforms, e.g. Nobel guide, Simplant and Co-Diagnostix.
Following delegates reviewing the 20 scans we provide them they will report them and return them back to us at the academy for marking and signing off and competency-based teaching.
4. The course has its own closed online discussion forum for delegates to discuss issues related to CBCT and individual scans and appearances.
It runs over three days with an initial two days and a final day later on in the year.
The faculty includes myself, Andrew Legg, Michael Bornstein and Taimoor Kamran. There is also an introduction to guided surgery aspect on this course to show how applicable CBCT is in these areas (although it’s not entirely extensive due to the time available) People on this course have reviewed and reported thousands of CBCT scans between them.
Finally, though and most importantly, it’s really critical to decide why you might want to do a CBCT course. If you’re looking to tick a box in the easiest possible way to say that you are ‘legal’ to see CBCT scans that’s fine - this is almost certainly not the course for you.
In our practice all our CBCT scans are free, even scans referred in. Every patient gets their CBCT scan for nothing.
The punch-line is though that reports of scans in our practice are £386 because we are experts at reporting scans. The most important aspect of a scan is not the visual image that’s on CD or online, it’s the interpretation of the scan.
If you want to be able to explain to your patients that you are in a position to appropriately report scans and therefore charge accordingly for the skills that you have then it’s perhaps important that you consider the teaching you undertake in order to be able to do that.
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