Hinman Dental Meeting offers track for dental lab technicians

DentistryIQ.com associate editor Lauren Burns recently spoke with executive director of Hinman Dental Society, Sylvia Ratchford, on what can be expected at the upcoming meeting, specifically, what the dental meeting plans to do for laboratory technicians. The 102nd Thomas P. Hinman Dental meeting will be held March 27-29 in Atlanta.

After several preliminary questions, Ms. Burns rounded out the interview with the following:

Lauren Burns: And finally, tell me about the Lab Tech Day.

Sylvia Ratchford: Thank you for bringing that up. That is a new thing we’re doing this year. The most recent president of SCLD is one of our affiliates and he came to last year’s meeting and asked if there was a way that we could work together. We found out that our meetings were scheduled on the same dates, so we came up with a plan. Their event starts on Friday and the first day of our meeting is Thursday. So we created programming with a number of courses that have topics for laboratory technicians for the Thursday schedule. Our arrangement is that they can register just for Thursday. That will allow them to go to the exhibit hall and attend any of the general attendance courses. They’re free as long as you’ve paid your registration, so half of our 230 courses are free. It gives them more exposure than what the SCLD could offer.

LB: Is it too early to tell what the numbers are for that?

SR: Yes, we’re still waiting to see what the total engagement is since it’s a new program.

Laboratory technicians registered for the 2014 Southeastern Conference of Dental Laboratories are invited to visit the exhibit hall at Hinman and register for CE courses and other special events. There will be transportation to and from the SCDL headquarters at the Georgian Terrace. Courses offered for lab techs during the meeting on Thursday include: Application of Fundamental Restorative Principles to Fixed and Removable Prosthodontics; Complex Implant Treatments: The Agony and Ecstasy; Global Diagnosis – A New Vision of Dental Diagnosis and Treatment Planning; Bending Proven Principles with Contemporary Materials and Technologies – Today’s Challenge for the Dentist/Technician Team; Immediate Load Implant Retained Overdentures: An Evidence-Based Protocol; Keys to Prosthetic Success for the Dentist, Lab Technician and the Patient; and I Made it Pretty, Why Did it Break? When Esthetics Isn’t Enough.

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To find out more about the meeting, visit hinman.org.