Clinician’s Choice – A History of Education

By Peter Jordan, CEO, Clinician’s Choice

2024 will mark the 30th anniversary of my father, Dr. Ronald Jordan’s passing and the inception of Clinician’s Choice® Dental Products. With these two milestones, I reflect on our history as a company and our “Why”– why Clinician’s Choice exists, and that is, simply put, to support, foster, and innovate dental education in North America. Clinician’s Choice is a company with a long history of teaching better dentistry, it is our passion. We believe that if we focus on education in everything we do, sales will take care of itself. This is not the norm for a dental product manufacturer, but it’s our norm, and it has been for 30 years.

As a child, each Saturday morning, my sister and I would jump in the back seat of Dad’s car and go to the dental school at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. As Dad wrote research papers and put his slides in carousels in preparation for his next lecture, my sister and I roamed the dental clinic, played with the air water syringe, and occasionally even played with dental mercury in our hands. This may be the reason for my bald head today; who knows? Little did I know then that I would one day have a career in the dental world, and today I am very thankful for the influence my Dad, Dr. Jordan, had on how I would conduct our business. In fact, his work influenced the name Clinician’s Choice, for when a product was clinically proven, only then would it be worthy of the name Clinician’s Choice, a product worth using.

Fast forward 20 years, and I was given the opportunity to travel with Dr. Jordan around the world, where he lectured to practicing dentists on the latest clinical research he was working on at the school. He conducted research on dental materials and developed techniques and protocols designed to maximize the performance of materials in each clinical trial. The late 70s and early 80s, would prove to be the formative years for what we today call esthetic dentistry. White filling materials were being introduced, which promised to provide patients with lifelike, esthetic restorations, dentists worldwide were excited to offer these new treatment modalities to their patients. However, as with every new technology, new challenges arise, and trying to adapt old techniques to new materials would surely fail; this happened to many dentists who were bold enough to try the new materials. The clinical trials and technique development with my Dad’s research taught me a valuable lesson: Dentists need help understanding the basics of the new chemistries, handling properties, and placement techniques to succeed. This would become the backbone of what Clinician’s Choice does, to help dentists succeed and avoid the new technologies’ many pitfalls. I witnessed firsthand the struggles dentists experience when trying to incorporate exciting new products into their dental practices. During numerous dental lectures, dentists would come to me during the break and ask me, ‘what did your Dad say about…’. I had seen the lectures so many times that I was able to answer their questions about placement techniques, how many coats of primer, how long to cure, or the polishing protocol they had just listened to in his lecture.

It became clear to me that Clinician’s Choice must bridge the gap between the science, the research, and how to help dentists minimize challenges when incorporating new materials and techniques into their dental practice. Today, I am proud of what we have done to contribute to dental education.

EDUCATING BEYOND LECTURES ALONE

At Clinician’s Choice, our goal is to develop, support, and promote the very best in dental education, something we have been doing since our company’s inception. For three decades, we have aligned ourselves with amazing educators, including Dr. Harald Heymann, Dr. Bob Margeas, Dr. Newton Fahl, Dr. Amanda Seay, Dr. Adamo Notarantonio, Dr. Marcos Vargas and Dr. David Chan, to name just a few. Our list of key educators is very long. What we look for in our preferred educators is a keen understanding of the science and research coupled with exceptional clinical expertise. For many years, Clinician’s Choice has organized or sponsored CE courses across North America. Full-day lectures continue to dominate most CE curriculums and can have a profound effect on spreading awareness of current science, materials, and techniques.

Clinician’s Choice was one of the first companies to take lectures to a new level by introducing live demonstrations throughout the lecture. We insist that the educators demonstrate key concepts by performing live techniques under a visualizer so the participants can experience the nuances necessary to achieve the best clinical results. This level of teaching, as mentioned in Benjamin Franklin’s quote, is an example of how Clinician’s Choice demonstrates the very best learning opportunity.

  

HANDS-ON LEARNING

“Involve me and I will learn” is where Clinician’s Choice shines as an education-based company. Decades ago, we recognized that to really learn, we must involve dentists in the process with hands-on training. Our formula for success has been to work with the best teachers who are clinical experts and in line with the latest clinical research and develop or support courses that take participants from the science to the technique to the hands-on experience; this is where true learning happens.

In recent years, and in light of the challenges that COVID-19 presented to the world, digital learning has become very popular, and Clinician’s Choice has been leading the way in terms of involving dentists in the learning process. Clinician’s Choice was one of the first companies to offer hands-on training digitally with Hands-OnLine LIVE™. Now, you can learn in the comfort of your dental practice and on your schedule with Hands-OnLine LIVE and Hands-OnDemand™. This is the next best thing from being in a hands-on course. These courses are taught by the leaders in dental education. Registrants are sent a complete kit with materials, instruments, and models that allow them to perform state-of-the-art techniques under the educator’s guidance. These courses are live or available on-demand, with access to the training videos that enable you to move at your pace.

MULTI-DAY IMMERSION COURSES, AT HOME AND ABROAD

Most CE courses are single-day events; however, learning goes to the highest level when one participates in a multi-day immersion course. At Clinician’s Choice, we’ve been asked to participate in numerous multiday events and we also host a 3-day destination course each year in Aruba. To name a few exceptional multi-day courses we recommend imP.R.E.S., taught by Doctors Amanda Seay and Adamo Notarantonio, held several times throughout the year in Charleston, SC and at the Kois Institute. The level of education, visual display, and personalized, hands-on courses are hard to beat. Clinician’s Choice is proud to assist with instrumentation and materials for imP.R.E.S. The Protocol in Jupiter, Florida, hosted by Doctors Robert Ritter and Chris Ramsey, is an exceptional learning experience in a small group environment, highly personalized setting and blends science-based clinical instruction with proven practice and team management for success. Dr. David Chan’s training center in Tacoma, Washington, is a state-of-the-art learning center focused on direct composite artistry. As a past President of the AACD, Dr. Chan is an outstanding speaker and instructor. Participants are treated like royalty and take-home invaluable hands-on experience so they can easily incorporate what they have learned into their practice. Finally, the Aruba Dental Conference brings hundreds of eager participants to a beautiful island setting to learn. Spending three days with morning CE classes allows participants to share and engage with like-minded clinicians, making learning easier and more comfortable.

Clinician’s Choice is dedicated to providing the very best in dental education with a strong belief that hands-on in-person or digital training is the key to truly advancing one’s skills and patient care.