NECADE Guiding Principles

1) Everyone has a “Next Level”. All participants and mentors in the NECADE sphere agree that no clinician will ever reach clinical nirvana. It’s called “Practicing” for a reason, as we always have something we can do to improve. As a collection of like-minded professionals, we will all benefit from each other and each other's experiences, thereby bringing us all to the “next level”.

2) Everyone needs a mentor. Some motivated docs need several mentors. Through our rich network of “experts in each discipline of dentistry” and our regular mastermind groups, no NECADE dentist will be advancing their skill set alone.

3) Efficiency is King. What is efficiency? Efficiency is defined as the process of doing things well, without wasting materials, time, and energy. It is often misconstrued that efficiency in dentistry comes with a trade-off in quality. This does not need to be the case. In fact, we strive for clinical processes that not only increase efficiency, but increase quality at the same time.

4) No egos. For us to succeed at being better at our craft, the ravages created from the wakes of egos must be removed. We will protect this concept like a father lion protects his pride.

5) Learning must involve doing.

“Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.” -Pete Seger

Dentists (including us) are well known for attending a weekend course, to show up on Monday with grand visions of implementing what they just learned. Fast-forward one week and everything is back to normal. The responsibilities of being a dentist, leader, and business owner often prevent us from adding new clinical guns to our artillery. Our methods will help you avoid that common inevitability. Specifically, we use a tool called “Protocol” course guidelines through the PACE Accreditation in the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD). Long story short, you get CE credits for doing work in your own office.

In the military, each mission has 3 phases, the plan, the execution, and the debrief. We will take a similar approach to how we learn. There will be “prep work”, the course itself, and then a debrief (discussion of homework). The good news, is that you’ll get extra credit through PACE/AGD for this time after the course. In other words, you get credits for doing the work, in addition to sitting in class. A great way to bring your CE game to the next level.

6). Altruism must accompany learning. There is a common barrier to learning. It’s the fear that our patients will miss quality outcomes while we learn. As a result, clinicians avoid “putting themselves out there” in the arena of adding clinical skills. This is admirable but there is a way to solve this quandary. Why not help those that have no means to care, receive care under the umbrella of NECADE and all of it’s years of clinical experience and wisdom? All while staying well above the standard of care. A win-win for all involved. Many of our sessions will involve a “homework assignment”. The goal of this assignment is to become “actionable” on what is learned. We find that this simple carrot is the difference between a valuable CE event, and an event that is simply another 3-ring binder that ends up on your self collecting dust for eternity. To dovetail altruism in dentistry, the homework assignments must be done in a “Pro-bono” manner. Although we encourage treating veterans through our Smiles for ME Veterans Program, any method of altruism is sufficient.