What’s the best dental CE course to take to advance your career? It’s a question I get asked constantly. But after years of taking courses, I’ve realized it’s the wrong question entirely.
Early in my career, I equated attending CE with progress. More courses meant I was getting better. But this is a dangerous illusion, one that costs dentists a fortune in time and money with very little to show for it.
Many of us treat CE like a shopping addiction. We get a temporary rush from signing up and attending a course, feeling like we’ve accomplished something. But the hard truth is that, most of the time, the binder just ends up on a shelf collecting dust.
Today, we’re going to reframe how you think about continuing education. We’ll shift the focus from “Which course should I take?” to “What am I trying to accomplish, and what is my complete plan to make it happen?” This is how you ensure your CE investment leads to real skills, real practice growth, and a real return.
The Hard Truth: Most Dental CE Fails
The entire point of CE is to implement new skills and services into your practice. Attending the course is a tiny part of that process.
Here’s the problem with the traditional model: most courses are academic. They teach you the “what” and the “why,” but not the practical, real-world “how.” A concept that makes perfect sense on a PowerPoint slide often falls apart in the chaos of a busy private practice.
These courses give you a fraction of the knowledge but fail to provide the comprehensive system needed to bridge the massive gap between the lecture hall and your operatory. They don’t teach you how to find patients, what equipment to buy, or how to handle the inevitable complications.
Let me propose a statistic from my experience: For every five CE courses the average dentist attends, they only truly implement the skills from ONE in a meaningful way.
That means 80% of our industry’s CE is incredibly expensive and highly ineffective.
Watch the full breakdown of this strategic approach to CE.
The Master Plan: Your New CE Prerequisite
Stop thinking about CE courses. Start thinking about comprehensive projects.
Let’s say your goal is to add dental implants to your practice. Before you even look at a course, you need a master plan. This is a business and clinical project, not just a weekend lecture.
Your master plan must answer all of these questions:
- Clinical: What are the technical skills? What equipment and inventory do I need? What are my sterilization and post-op protocols? What are my case selection criteria (what I will treat vs. what I will refer)?
- Business: How will I market this new service? How will I present it to patients for high case acceptance? How will I price it to be profitable?
- Complications: What are the common complications, and what is my exact protocol for managing them?
You must map out this entire plan and figure out how you will accomplish every single one of these things.
THEN, and only then, do you start looking for a CE course.
When you evaluate a course, you can now measure it against your master plan. Does it check most of your boxes? Or does it only cover one small piece? If you don’t have a clear plan to fill in all the other missing components, do not take the course.
Seriously. Taking a course without a comprehensive implementation plan is a complete waste of money. You are better off saving your money and just going to Hawaii. Don’t get caught in the “dental vacation” trap—the worst of both worlds where you spend the time and money but get no real return.
The Realistic Pace of Growth
It is difficult to properly implement a new skill in a busy practice. A realistic and highly successful goal for a busy clinician is to implement one significant new clinical service per year. ONE.
If you try to do more, you’ll likely lack the focus to do any of them well.
There is absolutely nothing more expensive than a CE course that does not fundamentally change the way you practice. Choose wisely, plan thoroughly, and make your investment count.
