Continuing Education for Dentistry

Continuing education for dentistry is important so dentists can keep up-to-date with the newest medications and procedures. It’s the dentist’s responsibility to use the most current techniques and offer the best treatment options for their patients. A dentist can also offer more services to his or her patients.                                                   

Continuing education for dentistry enables dentists to keep up with current procedures diagnostic treatments. Most state dental boards require dentists to take approximately 20 hours of continuing education for license renewal. Colorado, Wisconsin and Wyoming don’t require continuing education for dentists. Some states give partial continuing education credits to dentists that offer to care for patients that can’t afford regular care. Dentists can also continue education their education with informal training from books and journals.

There are many schools that offer continuing education courses for dentistry on campus and on-line.  Many states have certain guidelines on the type of continuing education courses that must be taken. Some states only allow a set amount of on-line course credits. For instance, Alaska only allows 14 hours of courses to be taken on-line or through correspondence study. Some specific courses that may be required are infectious diseases, CPR, government regulations, insurance and tort liability or risk management.

The American Dental Association offers dentists an easier way to choose continuing dental education college programs. They review and evaluate institutions and organizations that provide continuing education for dentistry. ADA doesn’t approve specific courses or credit hours that are offered by the programs. Only providers that meet ADA continuing education standards are approved and authorized to use their logo and recognition statement.