Having been a practicing dentist for thirty years, I can attest that dentistry is constantly changing and often improving in its techniques. If I practiced dentistry the way I was taught in 1980 and had not evolved in my techniques, I would not be a very good dentist!
Continuing Education courses play a large part in helping a dentist stay current. At the moment, New York State requires that every three years a dentist complete 60 hours in dental continuing education. Some courses such as CPR, and Infection Control are required but other courses are probably equally important for a dentist's skills to remain sharp and upto date.
Currently I am taking a 'dry' online course named "Differential Diagnosis of Soft Tissue Lesions". It is hard slogging but it is a worth while course and is sponsored by dentalcare.com (Crest/Oral B). Last Friday I attended an interesting course entitled"Surgical and Non Surgical Periodontic, An Interpretation of the State of the Art 2010. The Lecturer, Dr James B. Fine , a periodontist and an associate dean at Columbia, gave an informative and thought provoking presentation.
With the new inventions nowadays, especially on gadgets I could say that dentistry has changed. Anyway, the gadgets are for easier dentistry procedures that's why they are really nice. They contribute well to the society especially to the work of a dentist.
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