The Art of Lecturing

I have had a better week. I have had a chance to catch up on a lot of things this week. I still have a long way to go, but I am calming down a bit.

Took the kids to see a Movie in the Park last night. It was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was pretty nice. We jumped in the car and brought snacks, bug spray, drinks, blankets and chairs. And got there at 8 p.m. and waited for dark. And waited, and waited. It didn't get dark enough to watch the movie till about 8:30.

Couple of issues....it is still 90 degrees out at 8:30 p.m. Then at 10:15 p.m. they paused the movie to let this train go by. Well, the train stopped and they never started the movie. Then there was another train. So I was thinking there was still 35 minutes left in the movie. They will start the movie in 15 minutes, plus 35 more minutes of the movie, a 15-minute car ride home....too late. I have my 7 year old who turns into a pumpkin at 9:30.

So we had to leave. I am not complaining, it was free. But these are the great family things that the kids will remember for the rest of there lives. "Remember the time we went to that Movie in the Park and watched half a movie?"

Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about my lecture I saw week. I saw Gordon Christensen on Friday. I have to tell you that I have seen him twice already, but I love his delivery and couldn't wait to see him again. I was also looking forward to hanging with Drew (my future associate who is in his third year of dental school) who got to go to the lecture for free because he is a student.

Anyway, left my house at 5:30 a.m. and drove to Gainseville. I got there with just enough time to get a cup of coffee and see a couple of friends. Then the lecture got started. He is a very friendly chap, and this day he was a bit to friendly. Meaning he spent quite a bit of time talking about Utah and his horses and his motorcycle. For me, I came in with my pencil sharpened waiting for him to hit the ground running.

Let me back up. I was assuming all of you know who Gordon Christensen is. Well, he runs Clinicians Reports (use to be called CRA). This is a large company that evaluates all products in dentistry. From sealants to impression materials, from curing lights to different types of porcelain, from Glass Ionomers to MTA. So you can imagine how much this guy knows.

I wanted him to tell me everything he knows in six hours. I was like READY....GO!!!

The lecture started at 8 a.m. and I wrote my first note at 10:30 a.m. That means he didn't say anything that I cared about for one and a half hours. We took a break shortly after and I talk to a couple of older guys and they were like, "This guy is so awesome." I said, "I love his delivery, but he hasn't told me anything yet." They said, not listening to a word I said, "I know, isn't he just great?"

I mean, he talked about things like getting the resin off of teeth after ortho and what burs and polishing methods he uses. Now it may be me, but I don't spend a good part of my day taking old resin off of the facial of teeth post ortho. I mean, it happens but it ain't worth 35 minutes of time during a lecture.

He talked about curing lights. I get that. Maybe he could say, "You need to have a good curing light and here are the ones that I like and why." Not 25 minutes on how the light emits or how important it is to clean off the end of the turbo tip. He talked about implants. And he told us how "mini" implants are taking over Europe.

Do you think he talked about his favorite cement? No.

Do you think he talked about impression material? No.

How about digital x-rays? No.

Did you think he talked about the research that is going on with materials for pulp exposures? No.

But he did mention a couple of times how they are doing it over in Europe. He did say something that I enjoyed and that I wrote like crazy, just they were few and far between. He talked about the generations of bonding agents. And blew me away with a couple of statements. He said there really is no such thing as dentin bonding. Let that settle in. No dentin bonding. He says the bonding you do to dentin, because of the temperature changes, is almost nothing after a couple of months. So all the bonding is to enamel. Now I don't know if I buy that, but he definitely had some tests to back it up. I bond plenty of build-ups to all dentin and I don't see all my crowns falling off.

He finished strong and talked a lot about porcelains. Did you know that the five-year failure rate to a PFM crown is 1 percent? Wow. And tell me again, why are we changing from this? Anyway, he likes all porcelain. In 1997, PFM's were 72 percent of all crowns compared to 16 percent all porcelain. In 2010, PFM's are now 44 percent of all crowns and 49 percent are all porcelain. Very interesting. If I needed a crown in the back it sure as heck would not be all porcelain.

Now if I need an onlay or an inlay/onlay, I would for sure do all porcelain. That is why I think that trend is changing. More all porcelain esthetic crowns in the front and more all porcelain onlays. This makes sense.

And lastly he said there are only 7 percent of dentists that have a CEREC machine. This blows my mind. I tell you Patterson does an awesome job of marketing. I tell you as much stuff as I get with CEREC on it....I would feel pretty inadequate when I thought about not having this thing. I get magazines devoted entirely to CEREC. There are lectures only for CEREC users. There are articles and forums and the like all for CEREC users. SEVEN PERCENT. I don't feel so inadequate anymore.

Have a great weekend. Talk to you Wednesday,

john