Without realizing it, we’ve become a nation of self-teaching people. Everyone I know, including me, think nothing of getting online and looking up tutorials for everything from using new technologies to cooking, changing a tire, building things, learning to crochet, or cleaning a clogged drain. So I think it would
be safe to say that people really don’t dread professional continuing education (CE) either. They may panic toward the end of the period in which they must have taken a certain number of hours to maintain their licensure or specialty, but I believe they understand and appreciate the fact that the benefits go well beyond meeting a requirement. CE results in increased self confidence, self esteem, better trained staff, more efficient practice within the practice, and being held in higher regard for using the most current technologies and techniques, all of which result in more referrals from other practitioners as well as patients.
Today, CE resources are limitless! You used to have to travel far and wide, which may have prohibited taking the whole staff, or not going as frequently as you might have liked. Now there are many more regional meetings, not to mention webinars, virtual classrooms, podcasts, YouTube videos, instructors who will come to your office, and more, to which you have unlimited access.
The benefits of attending live educational events include lectures by the profession’s leaders, clinical hands-on courses, networking opportunities, and sharing ideas and best practices with peers. Many manufacturers offer online and live courses at different venues throughout the year. Carestream Dental, for instance, hosts the Carestream Dental Institute, an extensive collection of resources specifically geared toward learning to use their products. The Carestream Dental Institute houses hundreds of self-paced courses that can be taken anytime, 
anywhere, by you and your team members with no lost production time. Courses are available for both clinical and front office personnel. Carestream Dental also offers short video tutorials and online help for all of their products. This 24/7 accessibility is ideal whether someone is looking for a refresher on a topic, or a new employee needs to start building knowledge to speed up being a more productive member of the dental team.
Carestream Dental also hosts the annual Global Oral Health Summit and many live, limited-attendance, hands-on CE courses all over the country throughout the year. This gives practitioners the chance to try new techniques, assist during a live procedure, and develop new skills in real time. The insight gained from this proximity to a leading clinician may make it much easier to incorporate or enhance delivery of a procedure in your practice more quickly.
Visit Carestream Dental's training center for more information on the CE you can obtain.