Earlier this year, I promised you all that I'd be letting you all know about the CE courses that I have taken and what I thought of them. Here goes...

- Sirona Speakers Academy
I did this in January with Dr. Paul Homoly. It was a great course and I learned a lot about how to speak in front of a room and also how to communicate to my office and staff. I highly recommend it.

- Townie Meeting
I love this meeting and have not missed it in seven years. While I was in Las Vegas, I took the Six Month Smiles course. It was the one-day "crash" course with no hands-on. Lots of great info and very happy I took it. I do Invisalign and am looking forward to adding this to my options of treatment. I took many other courses at the Townie meeting, but the one that stood out was Dr. Scott Leune's intro course to the Breakaway Practice Seminars. Great info and something I may pursue in the future. I hope many of you come out to the Townie meeting in April 2012, as it is the 10-year anniversary of the meeting. It is at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel and should be tons of fun.

- Facially Generated Treatment Planning
The course I want to talk about is Facially Generated Treatment Planning with Dr. Frank Spear. This course was, by far, the most amazing course I have ever taken in dentistry. The instructors were incredible and their presentation of info in this course has me looking at patients, their needs and how to treat them in a completely different mindset.

I was telling a friend about this course and he told me he had also taken it. I told him that the amount of info was phenomenal; he said it was like drinking water through a fire hose. It is amazing that you only know what you know in life.

This course challenges you throughout the three days. It is not just someone feeding you information; it is hands-on and interactive with other students and mentors who have previously taken the course and are there for guidance. I left there wanting to take the course again right away.

I have recommended courses to colleagues of mine throughout the years, and I don't think there is a course out there that is more eye-opening as to how to successfully treat patients who present to your office with challenging cases than this one.

Dr. Spear, Dr. Gary DeWood and Dr. Gregg Kinzer were fantastic and present the info in such a concise manner. I will tell anyone reading this to do themselves and their patients a huge favor, and get out to Scottsdale to experience this course. You will thank me!