Blog

You might have heard about the Institute for Advanced Laser Dentistry (IALD) providing exceptional training, or the “best CE I’ve experienced in dentistry,” as many clinicians have commented upon completion. So, what exactly makes it so? How is the LANAP® Training Continuum different from other training courses available today?

It’s All About the Patient

Millennium Dental’s creed is, “It’s all about the patient.” Everything we do, from marketing, to manufacturing, to training, is looked at through the lens of the best interest of the patients we treat, and those patients who are treated by the clinicians we train. Nowhere is the patient more central than in our training continuum. We believe that the best way to learn the LANAP protocol isn’t on a pig jaw, or from a DVD, but on a live patient! In fact, throughout the five days of total training each clinician attends, a total of three patients are treated: one during the initial three-day Laser BootCamp®, one six months later at Evolution 4, and a third at 12 months at Evolution 5.

What’s more, these patients are sourced and provided entirely by the IALD – attending clinicians are not responsible for screening, charting, or providing their own patients. And since successful training depends on having a patient ready to treat, we always have a back-up patient on site and ready to go, should unforeseen circumstances prevent one of the other scheduled patients from arriving on time to be treated. But the patient’s treatment doesn’t end once the LANAP surgery is complete – behind the scenes, we provide a full year’s worth of post-op hygiene appointments and follow-up care to each and every patient.

A Five-Day Continuum

The IALD training program takes place in three sessions, and for good reason. At the initial three-day Laser BootCamp, the clinician begins with laser physics, then learns the full 26-step LANAP protocol both in the classroom and on a live patient, and concludes with practice integration instruction and other uses of the PerioLase® MVP-7™. After six months of clinical practice, the clinician returns to the one-day Evolution 4 training. At Evolution 4, the “training wheels come off” as new and more efficient LANAP settings are taught, and principles of energy intensity are solidified in the clinic on another live patient. Six months later, now with a year’s worth of patients under their belt, the attendee returns to the final day, Evolution 5, where energy density is the lesson of the day, and the most advanced LANAP case types and settings are discussed and put in practice by treating a third patient. A different instructor is assigned to the student at each training event, and upon completion of Evolution 5, the student is awarded “LANAP Proficiency” and Fellowship status in the IALD.

Certified, Calibrated Instructors

Over 35 clinicians from across the country have gone through and passed our rigorous Instructor Certification process, which includes interviews, videotape tests, supervised lectures, clinical calibration, and a two-day presentation skills class. Upon becoming certified, each instructor delivers standardized instruction – be it lecture or hands-on – regardless of training location or specialty. These instructors have their own dental practices, or for some, work for a University dental medicine program. When called upon, they leave their own practice to teach for us, and pass along the principles and skills necessary to perform the LANAP protocol to others.

These are the same instructors who perform the post-op checks, infection control (abscesses and root canal treatment as needed) and any patient management and perio maintenance required on every patient who comes through our program. When it’s time for LANAP surgery on a new patient, the instructor gets them numb and ready for treatment so that the attending doctor can come in from the classroom and get right to work.

Five-Star Treatment

Another aspect of the world-class training experience is our ever-present desire to remove all barriers to learning. Once a doctor books and sends in his or her flights, we take it from there. Our team of coordinators arrange for car service to and from the airport and the doctor’s hotel stay, too. A full hot breakfast is provided each training day, a filling lunch, and on four of the five evolutions, a fellowship dinner in the evening, where instructors, students, and company executives break bread and continue the day’s learning objectives over dinner. Extensive course materials, literature, private online forum access, practice integration assistance, and more are all provided on site. We like to think of ourselves as LANAP concierge agents, attending to all the details so that the attendee doesn’t have to. And best of all, it’s all included in the PerioLase® Periodontal Package; never a need to worry about additional charges around every corner.

At the conclusion of each training event, each attendee receives their CE credits – 40 ADA-CERP CE credits in all over the full five days – and a class roster, to always have somebody to contact for assistance once home in his or her own practice. A trained LANAP clinician is never on his or her own. Instructors, customer service representatives, and even company executives are easily reachable days, months, and years after training.

The IALD is proud of the world-class training program we provide, and it shows in the compliments we often get from its attendees. When we read on an evaluation that “this is the best CE course I’ve attended in my 30 years of dentistry”, it’s music to our ears, but ultimately the benefit goes to the patients that the attendee can now treat in a new, tissue-sparing, patient-friendly way. After all, it’s all about the patient.