Three dentists recently connected with Becker's to answer, "What has been your best investment in terms of dentistry?"
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Robert Baskies, DMD. Dental Health Associates, P.A. (Phillipsburg, N.J.): I have been a dentist for 45 years. During this time, I built a large multispecialty group practice. Because I employed a periodontist, an endodontist, and a dental anesthesiologist who also placed and restored implants and did all of the oral surgery, I never bothered to [learn] the new dental procedures nor kept up with all new technology. They retired and I was left doing dentistry as if I had just graduated. It took a long time to retrain. In hindsight, if I spent my time taking courses to keep up with the state of the art of dentistry I would have been more productive, made more money and enjoyed being a dentist. So, invest in yourself. There is no better return on investment.
Troy Gombert, DDS. Parkside Dental Health (Chandler, Ariz.): Hands down my best investment in dentistry is postgraduate advanced training in the type of dentistry that you want to pursue in your career. For me, I knew early on that I wanted to master smile makeovers with porcelain veneers. I took as many of these types of courses that I could, spent a lot of additional money on training, and it has paid off.
John Moon, DDS. QC Family Dentistry (Davenport, Iowa): Learning straight wire orthodontics and not having to refer much out of the office.