American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Accreditation Workshop

Part 2 - Resources

Instructors:

Dr. Bradley Olson, DDS

Dr. Bradley Olson, DDS

Dr. Olson is one of approximately 300 dental professionals internationally to achieve Accreditation status in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. In addition, Dr. Olson has achieved the AACD’s highest credentialing honor by becoming the 39th member awarded Fellowship in the Academy.

Resources such as the Guide to Accreditation Criteria, AACD Journal of Cosmetic Dentistry, AACD Website/Credentialing staff will be reviewed.

The journal you get quarterly and when you get that journal, there's a center section there and if you haven't look at it recently, or you haven't seen one, you'll know there's an accreditation section in there. And in that center section, what we've done is we've gone back to a candidate who has passed a case and we asked them to expand a little further because when you present for accreditation, you don't need to go into lots of details. We want basically the main facts about what you did to achieve that result. For a written article we wanted a little more information in there and that makes it valuable for you as a candidate to go back and see what did the ceramist do, how did they get that effect, how did they layer that. Cause they're going to write that up in there. For the dentist, how did they layer that resin. What did they do to achieve that effect For their case type 2, how did they communicate with the lab to get that shade to match All valuable information that you have on those articles are available in the journal. The website you just open that up and you go on and you click accreditation. In accreditation, there's a whole list of resources available to you right there. So you have some of this information that was given to you in the packet but you've got your protocols in there. You've got your written exam samples in there. You've got your written report examples in there. So you have your templates to put your cases into for presentation or taking to advanced accreditation workshop. So you've got all this available to you by going on there. Credentialing staff is highly knowledgeable. Lisa, Kim, Doreen, all are there to help you. That's their job. They have lots of other job but their job there is to help you, help you understand the process, help answer your questions. Anything that they can't answer they move right on our accreditation chair right now is Fred Arnold and anything they can't answer they'll get it right to Fred. Fred will get an answer right back to you to help clarify any concerns or any questions you have about how the process is going along. Scientific session. We already talk about. It's invaluable in terms of what it offers in one location, in one setting of what you can go through and you can find the areas before you maybe weaker or some of the areas you need more work or more information. And there are specific accreditation track lectures in there. So you can go and you can pick out, you can go see Corky Willhite as he explains how he layers a resin. And what he's doing is not only is he explaining how he layers the resin but he's gearing it knowing that you're an accreditation candidate or thinking about moving in that direction of how he chose that case. Why he chose that case Why it would work for accreditation. Why the color of tooth there didn't require any preparation. All these things that come into play, they're helpful besides just working with the resin alone. He's taking those other things into account. So goes with case 1, case 2, case 3, case 4. Each of those lecturers know they're gearing it towards folks who are trying to go through this process. Okay. Mentorship. Again, going back to my historical perspective here but when I went through the process, mentors were mandatory. So I had to send my cases to a mentor who looked at them and then gave me feedback on my case and I couldn't submit it until he signed off on it. Now what wound up happening is that became problematic. We have a large number of people going through the process. Needless to say everything kind of rushes down at the deadline. I know I continue to mentor candidates now and here from the middle of October to the end of October, my computer is getting cases coming in all the time because November 1 is one of the deadlines. So cases are coming at me fast and furious. I give the candidate feedback. What I do is I go in and I type in to them what I think examiners would see with their case. I don't promise them whether they'll fail. I don't promise them whether they pass. I simply tell them what I think the examiner will see on there. It's up to your discretion to decide. So we don't have any sign off process. It's not mandatory anymore. But if you go on the website, you will find a list of mentors on there. You can pick somebody local if you like that somebody you could work with just right in your neighborhood or a town close by. But with email, you virtually can choose a mentor anywhere in the world, anywhere in the country. But we do ask you to work with a mentor who is a calibrated examiner. And the reason we say that is it's certainly valuable to ask somebody like Marilyn to look at a case for you, cause Marilyn is highly knowledgeable. She's been through the process. She can look at these things, she's got a great eye. However, she is not currently calibrated examiner which means she does not know necessarily some of the nuances on what some of the examiners may see in a case. So we want to get you that best information so there's no reason that you can't use mentors of people who are as talented as these accredited folks right up here in the front. But in terms of mentoring for your actual presentation of cases, there's a list there and they're happy to help you. If somebody on the list says no, don't be offended but it's usually means they're already mentoring a lot of people. And if you take somebody like Michael Sesemann who loves this process and he loves to mentor and he loves to examine. He also happens to be president of this academy right now. So his plate is just a little bit full. So, if you're having somebody like Michael say I really can't do that right now, don't take offense for that. It's simply a matter of that's what's on their plate. There will be somebody there who will help you. There's no question about it even if you're running an obstacle. Let's say it happens to you a couple of times. You know when you're starting to think, you know, is it me. What's going on here It's not you. You can call Lisa or you can call Kim and just say you know I'm struggling a little bit to find a mentor. They'll make sure they hook you up with somebody who is happy to look through cases with you and help you. Okay. Track lectures are also available on DVD sets. So you can go back and archive these or let say you are at a meeting and you know there's a track lecture going on but you absolutely want to see somebody else who's speaking at the same time, you can decided that I think I'm going to take this course but on DVD I'm going to get that course. So that's available to you not only for the courses coming up in Dallas. That'll be filmed there but also you have the courses that were done prior years and you can go back into the library of those and look those up. There's something that you're looking for. E-learning. You can go through the library, what's on the e-learning. What you have there is you have, again for example John Weston who is speaking next door. John just recently did case type 1, did he not Yes. That's available on e-learning. So John is a really talented guy who does some beautiful dentistry and he handles both medias very well. He's not only great with ceramic work but he's also great with resin. So there is a valuable resource when you go on e-learning if somebody who's going through and showing you he's accredited, he's a fellow, and he's showing you how he works with these materials. So certainly another place to connect as a resource on here. So my second tip for the day is use these resources. That's what they're there for. Again let's step back again to where I started. The credentials. We wanted to be approachable and we want it to be attainable. Now it's not going to necessarily make it easy. It's not going to be a straightforward just waltz through the process. Some of you may, some of you just have that talent in place right now and you just step right through it and that's wonderful. But it is a learning curve. There are steps that go along with it. Use these resources as you step forward and move along. The academy is very serious about wanting more accredited members. This is not some exclusive club that we're trying to just keep the numbers down, you know, that once we hit a number, that's as high as we go like a country club. You know we've got our full membership. You can get on the waiting list to see if you can get accredited cause we really don't want anymore accredited members. That's exactly the opposite. We want more and more accredited member. So we're not going to take the process and we're not going to simplify the process. That's not fair to the process. Number one, it's not fair to the folks who already went through a rigorous examination process and quite frankly as talked about earlier, you don't want that anyway. Youknow your not looking for something that's simple and requires very little effort. It's an achievement that goes along with education that's required in earning that achievement. OK, let's talk about the written exam. What we're doing is testing foundational knowledge in cosmetic dentistry. Go online, you will have a list of subjects that are there, it's also in your, did we put the protocols in these groups, the protocols are in here, but never the less, what is going to be tested on the written examination and they're administered at the scientific session we're looking from a year fromChicago to actually have it there. I would love to get it online one day, that would be great as well but that doesn't pertain to any of you because your all going to take the written exam in Dallas if you haven't all ready taken it. But we've talked about the written exam all ready so just quickly, one of the questions that I asked was that when you take, when you went in to take written exam and I hear this over and over again how did you feel when you came out of the written exam, the response was I'm not going to make it, I didn't pass. I know I didn't pass. There is some of that stuff I just blanked on and some of it I just wasn't ready. Again, you have to remember we're testing foundational knowledge in cosmetic dentistry and the pass rate you have to admit is pretty good when you're talking about 90 plus percent, that's pretty high. And your result was pass, pass. So my recommendation to you unless you are absolutely brand new to the concepts that go along cosmetic dentistry, you're ready to take the exam. Dive in, not only that, not only that, let's say you do happen to fail, that's not the end of your deal, that simply tells you, it comes back with areas of that examination that you may need to work on cause you didn't fail every section of it. There were probably just a couple of sections of it that you didn't do as well. You'll get feedback and that will be your opportunity to say you know what I really need to bone up on materials, I need to bone up on smile design, you know I need to bone up on the perio aspect of smile design some of the principles I need to go back and review and you take the exam again. Now something else to keep in mind is just because you have not passed the written exam, doesn't mean you can't start working on accreditation. That's a big one. OK, start working on it now, it just means you can't submit a case yet, it doesn't mean you can't start working in that direction so go for it, dive in and go for it, start working on your cases immediately. So how many have passed the written exam One, two. OK. Two are ready to submit cases after this workshop. But for the rest of you, start working on cases right away. Take the written exam when your in Dallas. But that doesn't mean you can't start moving forward in the process, you just can't submit them yet. That's the only thing that's holding you back. So there is a different membership level once you pass that written exam, you become a sustaining member in the Acedemy. So here's where the rubber meets road. And these are the steps of the clinical case examination. And what we're trying to do is we're testing both your clinical excellence and your diagnostic excellence. And what's so important about that is you'll see we're going to show the case types coming up here in just a moment. I'll review those with you and then we'll cover a little bit more in detail but it is really covering all facets of cosmetic dentistry. But here's the great thing about accreditation. Is what you put on the screen is what gets judge. It's not the story that went behind it. It's not the obstacle that you have to face. It's not where you went to school. It's not how old you are. It's not what laboratory you use. All of those are off the table. It's completely anonymous. The case is on the screen and examiner review each case in an identical fashion. So the bottomline of accreditation is what you show. Now prior to seeing my name outside there, how many of you know me internationally for my speaking and lecturing and my seminars and everything else that I, put your hand down Charles. Charles knows me of course but I asked this question almost every workshop and I get the same number of hands that come up. Usually it's a friend. You know somebody I've already know for accreditation or a friend somewhere put a hand out. But the bottomline is you don't know me. I'm just a wet-fingered, wet-gloved dentist who goes in and does this just like you do this. But yet I achieved accreditation through the academy. It wasn't for my background. It wasn't for my resume. It's what I demonstrated on the screen. That's what makes this process so outstanding is, and we also, and you know we also has some pretty high rollers in the academy as well. We got some folks who have pretty strong resumes in the field. But that's not the criteria for passing accreditation. It's what you demonstrate and that's what this show. That's what this is right here. Again because it's completely anonymous. You have five years. Okay. From the time you passed your written exam, your clock is going and you have five years to get it done. It's great to keep that five year timeline in place because it keeps you motivating, it keeps you moving forward. Now recently the board has given a little bit of sponge to this realizing that times can be a little bit tougher and some times cases move a little slower than you hope. You do have a single opportunity to come back and extend that to another five year period by retaking the written exam. You can carry over those cases one time. So you can certainly get in and find more information about that when the time comes but I'd say stick with this right here cause it's a great motivator in using that five year timeframe to get things done. Okay. Also your status in terms of membership, go from a sustaining member to an accreditation candidate member once you passed that first case. It doesn't matter which case it is. Case type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It doesn't matter. So here are the five cases. These are the five that you're going to submit over time or all at once and we'll talk about submission, timing and procedures. Six or more indirect restorations, One or two indirect. Tooth replacement either through an implant or through bridge. Anterior direct resin, which is either going to be closing a diastema or doing a class 4 restoration. And six or more direct resin veneers. Obviously, for our laboratory technician in house, take 4 and 5 off the table. However, what you will be doing is something a little bit different is on each of this three cases you will be going through a serious of bench side photography showing the different steps of how you achieved that end results. So and those are all laid out in the protocol exactly. I did not include it in here today but they are in there and they go through exactly the photos that you're going to need to take bench side. So you know when you're working through an accreditation case, you just stop and you're going to take a photo right there on bench side. And most of them are very straightforward shots. You know there are shots of the preparations. There's a shot of the preparation on articulator. There's an occlusal shot of the preparation. They'll show a layering shot. If you're doing case type 3 replacing a tooth, you're going to show the soft tissue replacement area of that. So you go through and document those on there. But otherwise case 1, 2, and 3 are done together. Well if case 1, 2 and 3 are identical what a fantastic opportunity for you to partner up with a laboratory technician and go through the bar with the dentist and go through the process because you can submit the same case. You can submit the same case on the same deadline. So you simply can put the case in together. You know you've done this beautiful single central incisor with a perfect shade match, great contour, great shape, everything is ideal. There's no reason both of you can't use that case for accreditation.