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Keeping PACE NewsKeeping PACE is the AGD PACE Providers' most current source of information from Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) Headquarters. It is also a good reference tool for AGD leaders. Recipients are encouraged to check this resource on a regular basis for information that can help provide top-quality dental education and ensure compliance to published AGD PACE Guidelines. If you would like to propose a submission for an upcoming edition of Keeping PACE, please send it to the attention of PACE@agd.org.
Every year, dentists, hygienists, and assistants have thousands of continuing dental education (CE) courses to choose from. The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) created Program Approval for Continuing Education (
The first step in selecting your content is to meet with your planning/advisory committee and review comments from recent course evaluations, needs assessments, and instructors to identify any frequently mentioned topics. The committee can also review dental or medical journals and other secondary sources to identify emerging issues or “hot topics” (Quick Hint: Take a look at the AGD’s latest issues of General Dentistry or AGD Impact to see what general dentists are talking about). Lastly, find out which of your recent programs had the highest attendance and consider building on the information that was offered at that time by offering more advanced information.
After identifying the topics, decide the scope of your program. Will this be a one-time course? Will it be offered by a study club or at an annual meeting? Is it a course you intend to offer multiple times? Will it be a day-long course or run for two hours? Lecture or hands on? Once the big decisions are made, you can start identifying the subject experts or qualified instructors who will help put the final program together. If you’re talking about new procedures or using live patients in your program, you need to do a quick check with the local licensing board to make sure the program complies with all relevant state and federal laws.
You should always have a bibliography of scientific literature that supports the clinical recommendations presented by instructors or subject matter. Retain the bibliography in your files, along with a copy of the instructor’s Curriculum Vitae (CV). If a participant (or anyone else) has a question about the program, you’ll have a quick reference of information supporting the presentation and the presenter.
Finally, review the outline your instructor puts together. Only unbiased information should be presented for CE credit, even if a specific product is being used for demonstration. Make sure the content is focused on objective topics and not on specific features and benefits of a particular product or service. Providers can offer a separate, product-specific session, apart from the CE course, but no CE credit can be issued for sales presentations or for product training.
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