Are you giving the good doctors a bad name?

Education is a lifelong pursuit. To be the best in your chosen profession you will need to embrace this and never stop learning. Every time an opportunity to learn something new in Orthodontics comes along, I jump at the chance. Conferences are not just places to go to catch up with old friends, the same old friends you saw at this conference last year!!  I take the opportunity to attend about 20 ortho courses a year, some of which I have heard before, but I still learn more and more. I present about 50 courses a year and my observation about course attendees is this: The very people who need to attend the most, are the people who are noticeable by their absence.
There are countless courses and information nights happening for FREE, but still people find an excuse not to attend. I don't know why. I have given up even asking myself why. If somebody has the information you need, and they are prepared to give it for free, why wouldn't you turn up?
If you want to be really good at something, you need to learn. Once you have finished dental school, it's only the beginning, not the end. I am constantly amazed at the number of people practicing Jurassic Orthodontics, people asking for appliances that have been superseded many times over. It would be laughable if there weren't a patient on the end of it. And these doctors have never heard of the latest appliance that they really need to know about.
This is my rant, my moan, my complaint. Would you practice brain surgery if you didn't know how to do it? But you would practice ortho if you didn't know how to do it?  Well you are giving the good doctors a bad name. As I said, education is a life long pursuit, you will never know all there is to know about Orthodontics. It's been said by several people who know, "Dentistry is the fastest changing medical science, and orthodontics is the fastest changing dental science." Hang on, it's going to be a very fast ride.