Had an interesting email from Dr. Mike Schuster (founder of the Schuster Center: The Business School for Dentists) in response to the invitation I sent out to tonight's webinar being presented by Dr. Dennis Stiles, the subject of which was "Can Occlusion Be Taught Effectively? Lessons from the Classroom."
Dr. Schuster said:
"No, occlusion can’t be taught in the CLASSROOM. Like any discipline such as FLYING, it can be learned only by theory and application.
No application, no learning. One of the main reasons why students of dental schools, Pankey and Dawson really never learn it."
I didn't get it, as most schools like Pankey and Dawson have pretty extensive hands-on classes, with many successful students, so I asked Mike to clarify.
Mike responded:
"[These schools] do not have their students complete cases under supervision.
Yes, they teach parts and pieces. Yes they have some hands on, but none integrate THEORY and PRACTICE.
In the early years with Niles Guichet, I was fortunate to be in a study club of 9 dentists who did a full mouth case, step by step with Niles. Took more than a year of meetings. 12 in all. We had to show our wax ups, our diagnosis in WRITING, our treatment plan an sequence and then we all did the steps together, took pictures (then slides) and presented each phase or step to the class.
Only OBI has its students do cases under supervision. Hal Stewart does it to a degree, though his course is much shorter and sort of a ‘speeded up version’ of OBI."
So what do you think?
The majority of you reading this blog have not been trained by OBI, so do you understand occlusion? (!!)
How did you reach a practical, effective understanding?
Was it a leap to go from what you learned at Pankey/Dawson/Spear/Kois to applying the principles? If so, how did you make that leap?
Is Mike right, that more applied learning is needed for full understanding of occlusion?
I'm sure Dr. Stiles will be considering some of these issues in tonight's webinar, and I'll be asking him about the theory/hands-on/application question. If you're not already registered, register now! Or if you are reading this after 8/27, give us a call to gain access to the recording.