DPRWorld LIVE

“These are days of enormous changes in the profession,” said an ebullient Dr. Gordon Christensen in the kick-off keynote speech at DPRWorld08.

Addressing a crowd of dentists and dental team members, the Founder and Director of Utah-based Practical Clinical Courses cited in particular the seismic shift in dentistry from being a “needs-based” to a “wants-based” profession.

That change, he continued, has helped provide the impetus for an array of increasingly popular procedures—esthetic, implant and more— “which [are] going to dominate the future of dentistry.”

At the same time, this revolution presents dentists with new responsibilities, such as how best to evaluate the efficacy of new products and treatments for their practices. And the ultimate judge of that, Dr. Christensen said, is the practitioner. While evidence-based research can provide guidance, it must be evaluated in conjunction with the dentist’s “clinical observations,” he said.

Jason Devey may be an endodontist from Central Pennsylvania, but he came to DPRWorld to learn about products and trends in general dentistry, as well as to take in the top-quality education.

After listening to Dr. Gordon Christensen give his keynote speech Thursday morning, Dr. Devey shared his thoughts with DPR.

“I’m here because I want to get current with what’s going on in dental products,” he said. “I thought Gordon’s lecture was very good and he seems to be very product centered.”

Dr. Devey also is looking forward to some of the CE panels coming up later this week. “I’m very excited about this (event),” he said. “You look at most the names of the speakers at DPRWorld and the lecturers here are really good.”