The Professional Benefits of Investing in Implant Courses

 

Your practice’s long-term financial and reputational development will, for the most part, be influenced by your professionalism, continual medical development and the hands-on experience you received during your formative years. Are you trying to expand your services, further your dentistry knowledge, and gain the necessary competence in order to handle complex maxillofacial cases that will require the utilisation of advanced intraoral CBCT tools? In such a case, one of the best choices you can make for your professional development is to invest in level-7 implant courses and obtain a postgraduate diploma that in Great Britain will be equivalent to a Master’s Degree.

12-month implantology courses in the UK can be utilised to expand on your practice’s service list, gain networking opportunities with dental experts active in International markets, become familiarised with new, novel techniques applicable to your specialisation and also improve your reputation as a dentist and gain recognition for the professional treatments you present to patients. In the end, it’s all about gaining your mandatory hours of continuous professional development, enhancing your skills as a dental surgeon, and, of course, gaining the financial returns expected from someone active in this field.

What Treatments Can You Provide After the Course Completion?

First of all, after completing the 12-month implant courses and gaining your level-7 postgraduate diploma, accredited by EduQual, you will technically be permitted to offer a broad range of surgical treatments that, ultimately, will make the course’s fees pay for themselves. After the program’s graduation, you will gain the necessary practical knowledge in order to perform surgical placements of simple dental implants, perform crown restorations, manage complex occlusions and restore edentulous arches by utilising hybrid protheses, personalised with the help of state-of-the-art CAT/CAD technologies.

On top of complex dental implant placement procedures and handling bone grafting techniques, necessary for the preservation of dry sockets, implantology courses in the UK can also provide you with the practical skills necessary to deal with soft tissue complications around the dental placement. Moreover, such course can teach you how to handle overdentures, utilize digital planning tools in dental surgical settings, and of course, deal with crown or dental bridges manufactured from composite materials. As for finances, the total costs of these treatments will range from £200 for a simple bone grafting procedure involving only one tooth, to more than £2,000 for the installation of a single implant.

Realistically, a couple of maintenance visits per month, two implants and one crown repair for a patient that also required a bone graft will probably bring you a minimum additional gross income, per month, of no less than £5,000. Of course, you need to account for taxes, additional costs associated with materials and staff salaries, or marketing fees. That said, even in the most pessimistic scenario, the total costs associated with UK-accredited level-7 dental courses will be alleviated by the extra income brought by the expansion of your surgical treatments, in no more than two or three months.

What Diploma Will You Receive?

After the completion of the year-long implant courses, you will receive a diploma in Dental Implantology and Oral Surgery, which in Great Britain will be equivalent to a level-7 accredited program that acts as a replacement for a Master’s Degree. The postgraduate diploma will be regulated by EduQual, a London-based awarding body that’s approved by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, and while it is not a full MSc, it is a PG Dip that’s equivalent in the context of the British academic framework with a full degree.

Yes, employers might view PG diplomas differently from an MA, as the latter will require a dissertation paper, while 12-month courses do not. However, at least when it comes to the credit hours required in the UK’s academic structure, the PG Dip obtained after completing dental courses will have the same educational merit. Graduating from SQA-accredited implantology courses will give you the ability to practice oral surgery and provide implantology treatments at the level presented by the program.

So, since in Great Britain it is academically equivalent to an MA, you could therefore use the program’s diploma to build your CV, expand on the services provided by your practice, and significantly reduce your referrals to specialised dental surgery clinics. Not least, since 12-month implantology courses are available fully online, they are a more practical option for individuals who lack the necessary time to attend workshops in person.

What Will You Learn?

12-month implant courses are typically divided into six modules, which will be fully available through a virtual learning environment in the form of an app, downloadable both for Android and iOS devices. This way, the course materials will be available online, 24/7, and students can go over the curriculum of the program, at their own pace. What will be covered? For one thing, the first module will represent an introduction to oral surgery and during this unit the students will learn how to utilise CBCT for the planning of surgical interventions.

Moreover, they will learn essential skills related to suturing, extractions and post-op management and will become familiarised with the latest clinical research applicable to the implantology dental subset. The second module, on the other hand, will represent an introduction to osseointegration and will cover the basics of implant treatment planning while the third module will cover intermediary surgical techniques, showing students how to manage short implants and will also cover bone augmentations that involve block grafting and ridge preservations.

Unit four will cover soft tissue management and provide an introduction to digital implantology, while the fifth module will show students how to handle full-arch restorations and zygomatic or complex pterygoid implants. Not to be forgotten, the last module will cover the principles of complex extractions and will give students the opportunity to explore complex surgical cases that often require a multidisciplinary approach. Plus, if preferred, students can also deepen their skills with 3-day workshops that combine hands-on practice with in-person seminars.