An interview with Joyce Bassett, DDS.
the founder of the Women Teaching Women learning center.
Women who wish to expand their clinical and practice management techniques typically attend seminars and workshops in male-dominated programs. With male colleagues, they get their continuing education in a piecemeal fashion - a clinical course here, a management workshop there, a leadership seminar somewhere else. If they’re interested in personal development, they leave that for a more leisurely day that often never arrives.
When accredited cosmetic dentist Dr. Joyce Bassett unveils Women Teaching Women™ later this year, women in dentistry will have another choice. WTW will bring experts in clinical technique, business and management systems, leadership skills, and personal self-discovery to Dr. Bassett’s learning center in Arizona to offer comprehensive continuing education designed by and for women.
In a 6,000-square-foot learning center on a site adjacent to a hotel and close to the fine dining and shopping of North Scottsdale, Women Teaching Women will provide meeting facilities, a ceramics laboratory, and 10 operatories equipped with state-of-the art technology for over-the-shoulder and live patient training. The center is scheduled for completion in mid-summer; Women Teaching Women courses will begin in late fall.
WDJ asked Dr. Bassett to describe the new program and how she came to create it.
WDJ: Tell us about your passion for Women Teaching Women. Where did the idea come from and why is it so important to you?
Dr. Bassett: Women Teaching Women began a couple of years ago when I was sitting in the speaker’s ready room with Dr. Thomas Trinkner at an American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) meeting, waiting to give a lecture. Tom and I were brainstorming about program ideas for the Academy and we came up with the idea of a women’s panel. AACD really welcomes women so we thought it was a natural for women who have already been accredited to talk to women who haven’t been accredited about how we did it and still balanced our lives.
So the next year, I was on a women’s panel and, to tell you the truth, I didn’t think it was a big deal so I joked about it. But then we got started and the room was full to capacity. We went over our allotted time and nobody left; the interaction was stimulating. All these women were coming up to the microphones asking questions and I realized there was this enormous need and desire for women to be mentored by other women. For the next two days, women approached me and told me how much they needed to hear what we had to say. I was moved emotionally, and I’m not easily moved.
Now the AACD always includes a women’s panel but that’s not enough. When I bought a building in Scottsdale to move my practice, I ended up with far more space than I needed. That’s when the seed of Women Teaching Women finally took root. I realized I could do something. Women want to learn from other women, and I had a place where I could make that possible.
WDJ: What can women expect to learn from your program?
Dr. Bassett: Everything! Absolutely everything they ever wanted to know. Women Teaching Women will offer three- and four-day courses in four subject areas: clinical technique, business and management systems, leadership, and self-discovery. My focus will be on clinical cosmetic dentistry - the clinical techniques of smile analysis and design, tooth preparation for porcelain veneers, treatment planning, patient education, case closure, interdisciplinary practice, and increasing value in cosmetic dentistry. My goal is to teach so the clinical results of these cases are at the accreditation level of AACD. My operatories all are equipped with the latest and best equipment and blessed with drop-dead floor-to-ceiling views of the Pinnacle Peak mountains. Twenty women can be facilitated at each clinical workshop.
Everyone wants to learn from the best people and that includes me. Other experts will teach financial management, infection control, human resources policy, regulatory requirements, team building, communication, writing and presentation skills, self-balance, even journaling and in-office systems.
WDJ: What kind of learning environment will you provide?
Dr. Bassett: I believe that there are certain women who feel more self-conscious than men about what they don’t know. Women Teaching Women will give them a place where they can leave that self-consciousness at the door and feel safe from intimidation if they have questions they would otherwise not feel comfortable asking in other continuing-education courses. There’s a different energy when women are studying with other women. It’s easier for them to learn. We already know that girls who go to all-girl schools have higher rates of success in college and their careers than girls who grow up attending coed schools. I’m trying to provide those benefits for the post-graduate woman in dentistry. Women also want to do the best dentistry possible and balance it with their personal lives. They need to learn among people who value that balance.
Obviously, women dentists already can get bits and pieces of what Women Teaching Women offers in places scattered all over the country. This is going to be the only center where it’s all taught in one warm, nurturing place that approaches the material through a woman’s eyes.
I realize that traditionally women dentists have felt some intimidation in the predominantly male-oriented dental world. Our focus will be to empower more women in their learning abilities and even welcome men like my terrific ceramist, Brad Patrick, to share their expertise and be on the faculty. But Women Teaching Women will above all be a safe environment where women will feel comfortable opening up and be certain of finding support and encouragement when they do.
WDJ: What qualifications will you bring to the students of Women Teaching Women?
Dr. Bassett: I graduated from the dental school at Ohio State University in 1983 and did post-graduate work at Case Western Reserve and Baylor College. Later, I was in the first classes to study under the founders of Pac-Life, LVI (Las Vegas Institute for Cosmetic Dentistry), and the Rosenthal Institute, and I’ve been in practice for 22 years. I’m the author of clinical articles, a teacher, and a presenter at professional conferences, and a member of the editorial board of Practical Periodontics & Aesthetic Dentistry.
It also took eight presentations before I was accredited by the AACD. Eight! But that experience made me a really good dentist because I had to learn so much and work so hard to pass. I know what dentists are up against and I can help.
WDJ: Is there anything more you’d like to add?
Dr. Bassett: You know, for most of my life, I wanted to be one of the guys. I like to compete, and I wanted to compete and win in a man’s world because that was the dominant world. Being part of the man’s world has enabled me to get to know both sides of the fence. I’ve seen that there’s a huge gap in the education of women in our field and Women Teaching Women can fill that gap. ■
Dr. Joyce Bassett, DDS
Graduated from Ohio State School of Dentistry (1983), Case Western Reserve (1994), Baylor College (1995), The Advanced Cosmetic Institute of Las Vegas (1996)
Fellow and past president in the Academy of General Dentistry
Accredited Member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
Fellow in the International Academy of Dental Facial Aesthetics
Editorial Board of Practical Procedures & Aesthetic Dentistry
