The True Rewards of Fellowship and Mastership
An essential yet commonly forgotten element of being a good general dentist is staying up to date on your knowledge of all ten dental disciplines. Excelling at endodontics is great, but what if many of your patients are requesting orthodontics? Maybe a new school has opened close to your practice, and you now have an influx of pediatric patients. As with most fields, dentistry requires the ability (or, more correctly, the drive) to keep up. When you run a comprehensive practice, falling behind in any discipline isn’t an option. For you and your business to succeed, you must be able to serve your patients no matter their concerns.
You must steadily strive to better your dental knowledge by attending continuing education (CE) courses, stay abreast of current technology and work toward fellowships. This all sounds like an exorbitant amount of work for doctors who have already graduated from dental school, but don’t let the terms “CE” and “fellowships” scare you. Excelling as a dentist year after year isn’t easy, but — thanks to the AGD Fellowship and Mastership programs — it’s something every dentist can achieve.
Becoming a Fellow (FAGD) or Master (MAGD) requires 500 and 1,100 CE hours, respectively. To become a Fellow, dentists must pass the Fellowship Exam. For the MAGD, at least 600 CE hours must be obtained in specific categories to ensure that the dentist is well-rounded. There are additional requirements for each as well, such as attending an AGD Convocation Ceremony.
Because of the rigorous requirements, taking CE courses and trying out new technology at the AGD scientific session becomes an annual tradition. Once you attend a few, you’ll stop seeing them as obligations but instead as insightful necessities.
The true reward of obtaining Fellowship or Mastership is a fresh outlook on how you view your work as a dentist. Attending CE courses bolsters curiosity. Walking up and down the aisles of the AGD exhibit hall nurtures your desire to see what’s new. You will help your practice become more comprehensive. You may even find a new appreciation for a dental discipline that you struggled with in the past. Armed with an FAGD or MAGD, you’ll see near-instantaneous results in your practice.
That was certainly the case for me when I recently earned achieved Fellowship. My continual involvement with AGD was a driving force behind Britegums, my periodontic invention. The treatment gently removes melanin from the gums using a radio surge device and a patent-pending electrode.
Were it not for AGD scientific sessions, I would never have purchased a radio surge in the first place, and I would not have thought of new uses for it.
The only way you can come up with new ideas is if you have all the tools to put them together. If you want to build a house, you need a hammer, wrench and screwdriver. It was AGD’s encouragement to master periodontics, anesthesia, oral surgery and general dentistry that helped me put all the pieces together when developing Britegums.
To be a great dentist and to contribute to the industry and to your patients, it’s incumbent upon you to constantly strive to broaden your horizons, and that’s what the FAGD and the MAGD provide.
You must steadily strive to better your dental knowledge by attending continuing education (CE) courses, stay abreast of current technology and work toward fellowships. This all sounds like an exorbitant amount of work for doctors who have already graduated from dental school, but don’t let the terms “CE” and “fellowships” scare you. Excelling as a dentist year after year isn’t easy, but — thanks to the AGD Fellowship and Mastership programs — it’s something every dentist can achieve.
Becoming a Fellow (FAGD) or Master (MAGD) requires 500 and 1,100 CE hours, respectively. To become a Fellow, dentists must pass the Fellowship Exam. For the MAGD, at least 600 CE hours must be obtained in specific categories to ensure that the dentist is well-rounded. There are additional requirements for each as well, such as attending an AGD Convocation Ceremony.
Because of the rigorous requirements, taking CE courses and trying out new technology at the AGD scientific session becomes an annual tradition. Once you attend a few, you’ll stop seeing them as obligations but instead as insightful necessities.
The true reward of obtaining Fellowship or Mastership is a fresh outlook on how you view your work as a dentist. Attending CE courses bolsters curiosity. Walking up and down the aisles of the AGD exhibit hall nurtures your desire to see what’s new. You will help your practice become more comprehensive. You may even find a new appreciation for a dental discipline that you struggled with in the past. Armed with an FAGD or MAGD, you’ll see near-instantaneous results in your practice.
That was certainly the case for me when I recently earned achieved Fellowship. My continual involvement with AGD was a driving force behind Britegums, my periodontic invention. The treatment gently removes melanin from the gums using a radio surge device and a patent-pending electrode.
Were it not for AGD scientific sessions, I would never have purchased a radio surge in the first place, and I would not have thought of new uses for it.
The only way you can come up with new ideas is if you have all the tools to put them together. If you want to build a house, you need a hammer, wrench and screwdriver. It was AGD’s encouragement to master periodontics, anesthesia, oral surgery and general dentistry that helped me put all the pieces together when developing Britegums.
To be a great dentist and to contribute to the industry and to your patients, it’s incumbent upon you to constantly strive to broaden your horizons, and that’s what the FAGD and the MAGD provide.
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