Giving Back to Our Referring Dentists
It was hard to find the bandwidth for personal or professional development in 2020. And during the crisis that engulfed our profession – the relentless intensity of the situation as many of us stared into the financial abyss – I needed to get away from dentistry in what spare time I had. So, I turned my hand to other skills. I am particularly proud of the treehouse my son and I built last summer; our monument to Covid!
But, as I looked at my Continuing Professional Development (CPD) submission to the GDC in December, I realised that I was in danger of falling behind on the core topics that the GDC want us to cover in our five-year cycle. With no possibility of conferences that I could attend physically to catch up, I started to look for online options and, from what I could see, I was not alone in this.
What I found were so many webinars, so many guidance documents, so many opinions and papers, but most were about one topic: the coronavirus. So, an idea began to take root: could Vermilion offer the entire Core CPD programme online in one calendar year?
Following the appointment of our in-house marketing manager, Francesca El Jorr, in January 2021, I am delighted to say that we have achieved exactly that.
We now have a full programme of CPD events, all delivered by guest speakers and Vermilion clinicians, which are not only critical for professional development, but also for developing the strong relationships we have with our referring colleagues. It’s now gathering momentum, and last night, we hosted the first of our core CPD webinars: ‘Oral Cancer’ with Lothian Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon Mr Tom Handley.
Giving back to the profession is key to our ethos. Vermilion – The Smile Experts is 10 years old this June and, in our special anniversary year, we are proud to offer free – to all referring dentists – webinars in all five Core CPD topics, culminating in our Symposium 2021 on Friday 1st October 2021. Virus-permitting, we are planning a stunning day packed with educational content, relevant to ambitious dentists who want to embrace the post-pandemic possibilities. I hope to see you there!
We are so grateful that our dental colleagues do refer their more complex cases to Vermilion. We will never take that for granted. The investment we have made in our free Core CPD for dental colleagues in the year ahead is our way of saying “Thank you.”
