How More Than 8,000 Dentists Have Grown in Confidence and Competence
By Benjamin Rojek on June 7, 2015 | commentsFor nearly a decade, Spear has provided accredited dental continuing education to clinicians around the world.
But as more than 8,000 dentists will attest, Spear Online is more than just a library of dental CE courses. By providing resources for staff training and patient education as well as topic-based learning pathways, Spear provides its members with the means to grow not only their practice, but their confidence and competence, too.
At the core of the Spear Online experience is the Course Library. Members have access to more 700-plus video-based dental continuing education lessons on a wide variety of topics, from understanding dental materials to the etiologies of tooth wear. These lessons, which are grouped together in courses, are developed and taught by some of the profession’s leading clinicians and specialists.
Because there are so many lessons from which dentists can choose, Spear also developed a user-friendly search tool. A regular search box is still available. However, users can also narrow down their search by using a simple check-box system broken down by topic, clinical role and category. They can even select the presenters from whom they’d like to learn.
Don’t yet have access to Spear Online? Click this link when you’re ready to join your peers in our dental CE library.
The lessons in Spear’s Course Library are not only for dentists. Practice owners can also provide their staff members with training to ensure the entire team is aligned to the same message.
A mentioned above, the Course Library’s search tool allows users to search for courses by role. Assistants, hygienists and front office staff members can all find courses individualized to their specific responsibilities. Better still, dentists can assign courses and track progress through CE-eligible quizzes.
The Course Library also features Team Meetings. These are not just video lessons; Spear also provides agendas, objectives, discussion topics, implementation plans and additional downloadable learning resources. From talking to patients about tooth wear to creating positive patient experiences, these meeting modules are meant to not only improve a team’s skills, but also to build a stronger practice.
Do you want to learn more about online team training but don’t have access to the platform? Click this link when you’re ready to help your dental practice team increase their skills.
After developing hundreds of dental CE lessons, Spear’s faculty wanted to ensure members were able to learn from them in a structured, efficient manner. Therefore, going beyond the search tool mentioned above, Spear faculty developed Pathways.
Pathways offers members a carefully curated, topic-based learning experience. Members can choose from such Pathways as “Treatment Planning for Wear,” “Material Selection,” and “Predictable Dentistry.” After clicking into a Pathway, users can see how many courses they’ve completed, how many CE credits they’ve earned and the total Pathway time (you can also assign a whole pathway to your team member!).
Not a Spear member yet? Click this link when you’re ready to begin your favorite dental CE Pathway.
Spear realizes that there are three components to have in a successful practice: a knowledgeable clinician, a well-trained team and patients who understand the value of dentistry. For years we have taught both online and on campus the best ways to communicate this value to your patients. Now we have taken our time-tested philosophies and used them to develop our Patient Education resource.
Vetted by both clinicians and patients, these resources are specifically designed to spark patient discourse and increase case acceptance rates. Using high-resolution animations, Spear Patient Education videos help dentists show patients how a procedure is done and the consequences of inaction. This allows the dentist to focus on the “why,” which may be different for each patient.
Optimized for mobile, tablet and desktop, these animations can either be shown chairside or sent to the patient via email. The videos can also be embedded on the dental practice’s website for patient viewing. These options allow dentists to ensure their patients can view the animations in a way that’s most convenient for them.
Don’t worry if you’re not a Spear member yet. Just click this link when you’re ready to improve your case acceptance rates with Patient Education.