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If you’re a dental professional in the USA, it’s important for you to keep up with your continuing dental education. Staying up to date on your knowledge and skills helps you provide the best possible patient care. It also shows dental office managers that you take your role as a dental care provider seriously. At Kwikly, we believe that the time spent on continuing dental education coursework is well worth it.
Continuing your education keeps you up-to-date on all the latest changes in your field. When you partner with Kwikly to find temporary dental work, you’ll also benefit from the latest in dental staffing technology. Kwikly connects you with dental office managers near you who need your help to fill staffing gaps. You can browse available shifts on Kwikly’s convenient cloud-based platform, right from your mobile device. You’ll get to enjoy scheduling flexibility and pick up shifts you want with just a few clicks.
Kwikly doesn’t just help facilitate staffing connections. We’re on hand to support the dental professionals who work with us throughout their temping journey. Kwikly is invested in the long-term success of every dental professional who works with us. We’re confident that investing in your continuing education will boost that success. Keep reading to learn more about your continuing education options and get answers to some commonly asked questions.
How Do Dental Continuing Education Courses Benefit Dental Professionals Working in the USA?
There are plenty of benefits to taking dental continuing education, online or in person. Here’s an overview of a few major perks.
Continuing Education Helps to Keep Your Career on Track
As a dental hygienist or dental assistant, you likely have a fast-paced schedule and lots of responsibilities. However, taking time for coursework to refresh your skills is critical. When you connect with dental offices in your search for temporary or full-time work, they’ll be ensuring your license is up to date. Keeping up with your education is required, and it shows that you’re invested in your career and committed to quality patient care.
Continuing Dental Education Ensures You Stay Current on Changes in Your Field
Dental technology has undergone rapid advancement in recent years. That growth isn’t expected to slow any time soon. Without regularly updating your knowledge and skills, it’s easy to fall behind on new developments. Whether you work as a temporary dental professional, or at a single office, your team relies on you to keep up with all the latest advancements in the world of dental care.
Taking Periodic Coursework Helps You Refresh the Skills and Knowledge You’ve Already Learned
When you first became a dental hygienist or dental assistant, you learned a wide variety of skills and topics. However, as you perform routine procedures from day to day, it’s easy to forget some of the skills you don’t use very often. Continuing dental education courses for dental hygiene helps ensure you can still leverage these skills, whenever the need arises.
Continuing Coursework Is Necessary for Licensing Requirements
Mandatory continuing education courses for dental professionals varies from state to state. Each state has its own set of required hours, deadlines, renewal requirements, and more. The best way to streamline portability from state to state, and avoid any issues with keeping your license current, is to take all required coursework on schedule. It’s best to take dental continuing education courses that are recognized by the Commission for Continuing Education Provider Recognition (CCEPR), which helps to ensure quality and validity. It should also be recognized by ADA CERP.
What Does Continuing Dental Education Look Like in the USA?
The words “Continuing Education” are often associated with sitting in a classroom. However, CE can take many different forms. These are some of the formats you might encounter:
- Live, interactive webinars you can take from home
- Workshops and seminars where you gain hands-on experience and benefit from face-to-face interaction
- Self-paced dental continuing education online courses can be completed on your own schedule, offering greater flexibility
- Seminars where you get to learn from experienced professionals
- Conferences which present valuable networking and professional growth opportunities
No matter the modality, CE coursework is designed to teach you new skills and refresh your existing knowledge base. The goal is always to help you grow as a professional and remain flexible and relevant in a dynamic field.
Who Needs To Take Continuing Dental Education in the United States?
In order to maintain current licensing, both dental hygienists and dental assistants need to continue dental education courses regularly. Here’s a brief look at the goals of CE for each role.
What Is Continuing Education for Dental Hygienists Like?
As a dental hygienist, your continued dental education may consist of general or specialized topics. In general continuing education for dental hygiene work may focus on skills such as:
- Preventative care recommendations
- Radiography best practices
- Interpersonal communication techniques
- Caring for patients’ gum health
- Reducing patient risks and the spread of infection
In addition, you have the option to continue dental hygiene education courses in specialized areas. These can equip you to take on a unique role in some organizations or to serve special populations, like children or the elderly.
What Is Continuing Education for Dental Assistants Like?
As a dental assistant, it’s important that you stay up-to-date on the skills needed to serve patients, perform needed background tasks, and assist dentists in their work. If you are continuing education for a dental assistant role, your coursework may address topics such as:
- Sanitation and infection control
- Proper care and management of dental instruments and machines
- Keeping patients comfortable and safe
- Efficient practices for assisting during dentists’ procedures
Like dental hygienists, dental assistants also have the opportunity to continue with specialized dental assistant education. They may wish to gain an enhanced skill set in radiography, for instance. Or, they might want to increase their comfort and skill with fluoride treatment administration.
Keep Your Dental Career on Track With Kwikly
Whether its online or in-person, continuing dental education is an important way to ensure your success as a dental professional. Using Kwikly to find temporary dental work can be another key to your long-term growth and career satisfaction. When you work with Kwikly, you can expect competitive pay, a hassle-free experience, ongoing support, and a flexible schedule. Sign up for Kwikly today to get started!
