So, the... Huh?

It's been a brilliant week or two here at the underground compound at Dental Careers Foundation. We hosted a practicing assistant who wanted a little help with expanded duties, and one of our current students observed (and even worked) at a local office. The two events have illustrated a point which we've known for a long time, but is no less important to remember.

As a practitioner of the dental assisting arts, I want to offer advice. As a teacher, I want to instruct without a lot of clutter. By personal conviction, I want the students to understand why we do things, even more than how they are done. But the three of these things shouldn't be done all at once, because to one who is being introduced to these matters it can be confusing at best, overwhelming at worst.

How do you know which one to offer, and when? It's mostly a matter of context. And here's where our story comes in.

See, our guest knew how to do lots of stuff. She could take awesome x-rays, but like most of us there are always some that are more challenging. I was lucky enough to know a trick to help her, but strangely enough, that's not what helped.

Most of us learn things on the job, but most of those are how to do it. We don't learn theory or philosophy, we learn how. If we bother asking why, the answer is usually, "Because." (In case you didn't know, that's short for, "Because I don't know.")

Believe it or not, there actually is a philosophy behind taking x-rays. And it was that philosophy, not the trick, that did the... er... trick. See, we know there is a risk to x-rays relating to overexposure. So taking the picture the right way the first time isn't just a good idea, it's a matter of patient safety. To put it another way, technique is not just a matter of getting a good picture.

Knowing that changes the way we think about the process. Now, instead of knowing how to take an x-ray, we can reason our way through not only how, but also why, and even whether we should.

As far as the current student goes, her clinical experience put her lessons into context. All the blabbing I do (in the name of teaching, of course) provided some information, but not usable information. But when you see something in real life, all of a sudden that information provides a contextual framework.

The kicker, of course, is that it takes the experience to put the information into the proper context. The one without the other is incomplete, but it is at least preparation.

So what are we to learn from this little essay? Two things. First, knowing how to do something is not enough. Second, context transforms information into knowledge. Both of these things have to be understood when one is teaching or learning something new.

Well, that's enough blathering for another post. Join us next time for further hilarity!

What's This?

Hi, I'm Burt and this is the blog for my small business, Dental Careers Foundation. Welcome!

I suppose I should start by explaining who I am, what we do, why and where. I'm a dental assistant with about 30 years or so of experience in the business. I've practiced in Anchorage and Seattle, and have taught dental assisting since 1999 with this program. The curriculum and everything in it was designed, written, produced and performed by yours truly. What that means is, I'm a huge dental geek with no social life to speak of.

Okay, I kid.

Our goal is to train people with no previous dental experience to become qualified dental assistants. Our programs run on Saturdays only, to provide people with busy family or business lives to learn a new career in a fun and intensive program. We operate out of a dental office to provide hands-on experience with the instruments and equipment common to this business.

It's been our goal to provide the Anchorage area with a pool of talented and motivated assistants. Ours is a profession where there is a lot of mobility. People are promoted, move into different areas of practice or use assisting as a stepping stone to hygiene or even dental school training.

The office we work with is in midtown Anchorage, Alaska to make commuting easier. (Maybe not if you live in Detroit, but certainly locals can get here pretty easily.) It also makes finding a lunch spot easier.

So that's us. Now what's this?

To be honest, I'm not interested in a blog that showcases the business, or even markets our services. That's why we have a website. Really, my point in having this blog is to provide a forum for my thoughts on any number of dental subjects and to share information with like-minded (or even opposite-minded) dental geeks. It's not meant to be a scientific or political forum, although these things are often related to some of the topics I will discuss.

Now, I know that this is more or less a one-way street, showcasing my points of view. That doesn't mean to imply that because it's mine it's the only point of view; far from it. I invite you to add your comments, only asking for you to remain civil and legible. I don't much care for poetical turns of phrases, but neither do I care for unedited flow of consciousness rambles.

So, before I veer off into my own unedited flow of consciousness... thing, I will summarize as tightly as I can: I'm excited to be starting this. You can expect to find mostly dental subjects discussed here (with the occasional foray into tangential subjects). A lot of philosophical "why" questions will be brought up, relative to dentistry. And, welcome.

Thanks for your time!