Two Benefits of Advanced Clinical Education

I am sure nobody is surprised that I feel strongly about the virtues of advanced clinical education for dentists. There are obvious reasons why having a progressive ongoing clinical education is a good idea—a sense of professional fulfillment and improved clinical care for patients being foremost among them.

But there are other reasons to go deep with clinical education that are less obvious but are very real, and can have life-altering implications. For instance, if you devote yourself to continual self-improvement, you will live longer and feel younger. I am not kidding.

Reaping the Benefits of Clinical Education

Okay, I can't actually promise that you will add years to your life, but you can make the time you have left stretch out, and that pretty much amounts to the same thing. You know that feeling you get as you get older that time seems to go by faster and faster? Cognitive scientists have shown that falling into an unvarying routine actually seems to accelerate that feeling, as one day blends into the next in our minds. One reliable way to slow down our perception of time passing, they say, is to seek out new experiences and take on new challenges.

Then there is the emerging field of neurobics, which is about exercising your brain as you would exercise your body to improve and maintain fitness. You've probably seen the apps and websites devoted to helping you keep your brain sharp and agile as you age. The whole concept is based on revisiting the conditions you felt as a child, when you were discovering a new world every day. Continual learning keeps the brain young.

This is what devoting yourself to ongoing clinical education challenges will do for you. It will not only make you a better dentist, it will make you a better person—one who grows with time and makes the most of each passing hour.

I hope to see you on the campus here in Scottsdale, or as a participant in our online curriculum or study club. Let's explore great dentistry. Let's make the most of our time. And let's stay young together.