I often wish I could switch lanes in my life and move over to the slow lane, but there is always something that keeps me racing. When I look at my colleagues, I realize that I am not alone in feeling like this. We are told to strive for a work-life balance, but when an emergency patient comes in at 4:30 p.m. and your son’s soccer game starts at 5, it feels like the option of balance is often just out of reach.

We entered into dentistry with the goal of becoming role models in our communities by providing care and helping patients with their dental health needs. With this goal in mind, the question becomes how to be the best dentists we can and distinguish ourselves while still maintaining a good work-life balance.

I learned over the course of over 30 years of practicing dentistry that I need to prioritize my to-do list. If I don’t make each moment count, the hours and days will get away from me, leaving me feeling tired, frustrated and a bit defeated. With the desire of keeping a good work-life balance while still pursuing my professional goals, I decided to join AGD 27 years ago. The purpose of AGD is to advance the value and excellence of general dentistry, and its mission is to serve the needs and represent the interests of general dentists. In my life after graduating from dental school and starting my family, I knew that I needed to be particular with where I spent both my time and money. Joining AGD quickly became the logical choice, as it allowed me to be a lifelong learner and gave me the ability to stay current with new trends in dentistry.

I soon realized what distinguished AGD from other dental organizations was its PACE-approved dental education. PACE stands for Program Approval for Continuing Education, which uses a comprehensive application to objectively evaluate a provider’s education process of administration, design, planning and implementation. While the PACE Council does not review content, providers must present courses that fit AGD’s definition of valuable CE. By doing this, participants can be assured that AGD PACE-approved providers will offer courses that are meaningful and educational and will deliver the best value for their investment. Nearly all of the U.S. and Canadian licensing jurisdictions that have CE requirements for licensure renewal of dentists and allied staff accept credits from AGD PACE-approved providers.

PACE-approved courses also allow dentists to distinguish themselves in their communities by obtaining AGD Fellowship and Mastership. All of the benefits that I have mentioned, and many more, are reasons that I have opted to be a lifelong AGD member. I always look for PACE-approved courses and am enjoying becoming involved in AGD leadership programs. Although AGD can’t solve all of my work-life balance issues, I know that when it comes to getting the best bang for my time and money, AGD membership and PACE-approved courses have been a great answer in a world that has far too many questions.