Failed education

Worried you could be wasting money on a dental implant course? Colin Campbell explains how to get a return on your investment.

General dental practice in the UK is littered with people who have paid and invested in a dental implant course but never been able to take the jump to placing implants in their own practice (at least to any degree).

I believe this is because people are misled into thinking that to invest significant sums of money in a one-off course will give them the skills not only to assess, place and restore dental implants, but also to discover patients within their practice, discuss implant treatments with them and secure the patient’s trust to provide the treatment going forward.

A sustainable implant practice

At The Campbell Academy we often find that people are disheartened and disillusioned having invested money in an implant education provider but being unable to transfer the skills into practise. This reveals a fundamental lack of understanding in what is required to master implant dentistry in general practice.

We believe this is a five-year process for the majority of practitioners investing emotional, intellectual, financial and time elements to improve skills in the areas that are lacking (surgery and/or restorative) and to gain an understanding and confidence in discussing with patients individual treatment options and presenting those appropriately. This takes skills in communication, marketing and team building so that patients feel they’re getting an exceptional level of care for what is an expensive and quality treatment.

Giving people an understanding of this from the earliest possible opportunity encourages them to invest in their own education and development to move to a situation where they can be placing 50 or more implants per year, a figure we feel essential to have a sustainable implant practice. Without this number of implants being placed within a practice it’s difficult to fund development of the team, investment in materials in equipment and even the indemnity costs associated with implant placement.

Reset your sights

Many people give up their journey in implant dentistry after a single course but we would suggest, if you’re really interested, that you reset your sights on a five-year professional development plan to be in a better place with implant dentistry at the end of that time.


For more information visit www.campbellacademy.co.uk, email [email protected] or call 0115 9823 919.

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