453: Why the Best Dentists Never Stop Learning - Dr. Daren Becker - a podcast by ACT Dental

Why the Best Dentists Never Stop Learning

Episode #453 with Dr. Daren Becker

Masters never call themselves masters, and they are lifelong learners. To be the best, you need to keep learning. And to help you become a better learner, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Daren Becker, one of the best practicing dentists, to share his approach to learning and ways to further your education. If you think you know everything, you can't learn anything! To keep an open mind, listen to Episode 453 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

You can never know everything.

Take courses at multiple institutions.  

Remember to keep “sharpening the saw”.

Seek out different mentors and places to learn.

The best dentists know they don't have it all figured out.

Quotes:

“The day I say, ‘I made it,’ is the day that I hang it up.” (27:08—27:11)

“When I was practicing with Dr. Jim, maybe after three months I'm there, I'm right out of dental school. Sure, I'd heard all this stuff. But when I heard it originally, I hadn't gone to dental school yet, so I didn't know anything. And I realized very quickly, because Jim had me for that whole first year — I sat in on every single new-patient exam that he did. Not just sat in, I was the assistant while he was doing his comprehensive evaluation on every new patient that he saw. I sat in on that. Wow, what an experience. Wow, what a way to realize what you don't know. And just to be able to hang, to speak the language, I had to go further my education.” (27:24—28:13)

“Before he passed away, I loved sitting in any course where Dr. Dawson was in the audience. He would take more notes than anyone there. Dr. Parker Mahan, same thing. And it was a great role model to being a lifelong learner.” (46:07—46:26)

“The best dentists I know are continually trying to learn more and better, both technical and behavioral and philosophical and all of that. And the best dentists I know have sought out many different mentors and teachers and places to learn. So, when people ask me, ‘Should I take Pankey or a Dawson course?’ the answer is yes. The best dentists I know have studied at at least two, and usually three of the bigger centers: Pankey, Kois, Dawson, Spear.” (46:42—47:26)

“I was down at Pankey taking — I don't remember which course. Continuum 5 or 6, something down the road. Not my first time. I was in a lecture, and I want to say Dr. Rich Green was in the room, and he was helping us get through this concept of incisal edge shape and the pitch and the bevel. Anyway, it clicked for me, and I finally got it and understood it in a way that I could feel like I could apply it. And I was a little bit perturbed that no one had ever told me this before. And my dad said, ‘Go pull out your Continuum 1 manual.’ And back then, we got these big, thick manuals. ‘Pull out your level one manual and look at it.’ And sure enough, not only was there a section on this, in my own handwriting were notes about the same topic. So, I just wasn't in a place where I was ready to learn it.” (47:37—48:44)

“Why do I keep going and taking courses even though I'm on faculty and I'm teaching Essentials 4 now? Well, very simply, I might have missed something. There might be something new. I might hear it differently because of where I am now. I might hear it differently just because it’s somebody different telling it to me.” (48:56—49:14)

“I think if we are myopic in our learning, in our continued learning, and, ‘I am only going to take courses here. Pete Dawson is my guru, and I'm only going to take courses at the Dawson center,’ okay, great learning. But at some point, you're going to be missing out on something else.” (49:19—49:41)

“The Cornell Effect by Dr. John Cranham and A Better Way by Dr. Pete Dawson, these are books that I love to reread....

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