RA course reflections and feedback 12th May 2012

Time to reflect on my 30th Hands-on RA course since 2003 and the second one from our new education facility at 57 Cheap Street,  Newbury, adjacent to my practice.

We were 3 or 4 people down from the expected number, so a smaller tutorial group of 8 participated but possibly the most diverse in terms of experience and background.  Truly a mixed ability group to teach.

We had 5 GDPs
1 trainee dental nurse about to join our practice in 2 weeks
A second trainee DN of ours, about to take her dental nursing exam next week and
1 Dental Therapist

As usual we had a full and busy day of close to 500 PowerPoint slides, interactive questioning and discussion on all aspects of the theory including regulation, medico-legal,  plus demonstrations of equipment, gas cylinders and connections, clinical applications and many examples of patients in treatment under RA.  Discussion of pros and cons, indications and contra-indications, comparison with other options and much more including hints and tips and a detailed step by step guide to success with the technique.

In the afternoon we continued with practical examples, as well as a live patient demonstration viewed by the delegates over a video-link from the treatment room to the seminar room.

Our team provided 15-20 minutes worth of simple treatment for this patient under inhalation sedation, who has a marked gag reflex.  By way of a demonstration, we also took an upper alginate impression at the end of the treatment to prove its effectiveness.  She drew a round of applause when she had recovered and within a few minutes was discussing with the group her previous dental experiences and how much this technique had helped her and that she would not have been able to tolerate the treatment or impressions without eliciting a gag reflex.

Of the GDPs who attended:
One had had experience of RA some years ago (see her comments below)
Two had had no experience and one wishes to go on for mentorship to competency with me, as does the hygienist who attended.

Another GDP is a highly experienced Sedationist, Roy Bennett of Mellow Dental in Liverpool, who is a fellow member of both SAAD and the DSTG and who attended for the second time in 6 months and who has since added inhalation sedation to his repertoire of options to offer to his patients.
Roy kindly captured a few moments from the day too.

As usual we finished off with a short summative assessment by way of a 10 question MCQ and issuing the delegates with their vCPD certificates in return for their feedback and comments sheets.

Given the new trainee DN did not feel ready to provide a feedback to her new employer (fair enough), these were the results of the feedback questionnaire:

Venue: Excellent 7/7
Relevance: to the subject  Excellent 7/7
Audio-visuals: Excellent 5/7, v.good 2/7- so a little tweaking still to do,. I have some ideas!
Speaker Excellent:  7/7
All in all then, an excellent set of results !

 Here are a selection of comments:

"Useful informative course for this vital subject.  Thank you very much"

"Very helpful thanks. Want to work here!"

"Great presentation"

"Wow . Go Richard and Chris"

and finally from Roy Bennett

"Having undertaken IV sedation for many years, I have found this course essential to broaden my horizons and this has helped me to become a better sedationist and offer  my parents a comprehensive sedation service! "

Finally for now these two additional comments received by e-mail today:

From Dr. Sura Al-haidary

Dear Dr Charon 

Thank you for your email and for the helpful and useful course ,it was really lovely meeting you ,Chris and the lovely welcoming staff on Sat.

.....

Many Thanks

Best Wishes and Regards to you and Chris

Sura


From Dr Barbara Lawson

Richard and Chris,

Thank you so much for the fantastic course presented on Saturday.
The subject matter was presented in a lively informative manner, essential for a Saturday course!
I will now be confident to return to the use of RA, after many years.

Kind regards,
Barbara Lawson BDS 


If you think this may be of interest to you or your practice in providing a new and differentiating service for your patients and in reducing your own stress levels in dealing with anxious patients more effectively, please contact me .... richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk

RA course in Newbury for Autumn 2012.

For those unable to attend my next course on May 12th 2012
( 4 places left as of 21st April)
I have just set the Autumn 2012 date

 to try to avoid any obvious calender clashes for 

Saturday 20th October 2012

in Newbury, Berkshire

To be held at 

The Education Suite

Fifty Seven Cheap St

Newbury 

Berkshire

RG14 5DH

Please call on 01635 47757 or e-mail me at 

richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk 

for further information and an application form.

4 RA cases today- All different

In general, on average I treat one patient each day using Relative Analgesia (RA) or "Happy Air".  
Also known as Inhalation Sedation (I.S.

Today I found a use for it for four of my patients, all for different reasons.

Patient 1: A man in his fifties with very poor dental health. He is about to lose an upper central incisor in an otherwise intact upper arch of teeth. He fears the noise of the drill. Amongst other preventive and hygiene treatment, he needs 4 teeth removing and two, six-unit anterior bridges made UL3-UR3 and LL3 -LR3. All the lower incisors are already missing.

 

Today's visit was to carry out his new patient clinical examination (having already had a meet and greet non-clinical visit to discuss his issues.) AND to give him a test drive of the "Happy Air" for us both to assess his reaction.

He took to it rather well but he is clear in his own mind that he needs the amnesia that IV Midazolam can offer and the reduced awareness of what is happening and of time passing quickly as he needs several long visits.

His treatment may take the best part of 12 months and will no doubt entail at least 2 x IV sessions and probably several sessions with happy air for the simpler stages of rehabilitating his dental condition.

Still, using a toothbrush, a little more systematically, will be a good start!!

Patient 2: This late 20s young man appeared at short notice for the first time today with severe toothache in LR6.

 He hadn't seen a  dentist for at least 10 years through fear. Fear of being told off and fear of unpleasant smells. We discussed the idea of I.S. He liked it,. He gave informed consent and we were able to sedate him and give local anaesthesia in about 5 minutes.

We proceeded to undertake a vital pulpotomy (removed the top part of the nerve) and placed a temporary filling.

He recovered within 3 minutes and said that was the best dental visit he had ever had. He'll be coming back for a full examination as a new patient. He will need at least 2 root fillings, a 3-unit bridge and at least one crown.  I am confident that he'll be back.

Patient 3: This was a 14-year old referred to me by another practitioner as she would not allow him to give her a local anaesthetic injection for a specific tooth needing a filling. She came to see me a week ago for a discussion and assessment and to have a test run of the happy air without needing to open her mouth. She got on very well with this approach and returned with her mother today. 

Again she sedated very nicely and I used the single tooth anaesthesia method using

The Wand Plus®. The tooth was badly decayed but this is not the place to discuss that detail.

Post op x-ray

Both she and her mother were delighted with the outcome, which is just as well as she is likely to need a root-filling at some time in the not so distant future. She will be quite happy to return. She';ll need to for the cavity in LR7 too!!

Patient 4:

Finally we saw a 20 year old for her 3rd visit. Two fillings in upper molars, both deeper than would have been obvious. Under the influence of "RA".  Totally relaxed, it was a pleasure to carry out her treatment.
Before

During 

After

These 4 examples are the tip of the iceberg of the usefulness of this technique.
 Interested to know more?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Richard Charon








 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are these training day's worthwhile?

Dr. Roy Bennett  of Mellow Dental, Liverpool, gives his opinion:

This is what he had to say about the courses I have been running since 2003, having attended the course in November 2011 and a little more about him.

Dr. Roy Bennett BDS MFGDP (UK) Dip.Sed.

”I graduated from Liverpool Dental School in 1987, obtained the MFGDP from the Royal College of Surgeons in 2006 and then my Diploma in Dental Sciences from the University in 2008. 

My dental career began on the Wirral where I worked as an associate for a number of years. In 1995, I joined a private practice and became a partner in 1998.  I have divided my time between the practice and teaching at the Liverpool University Dental School over the last 13 years.  I am committed to the highest standards of clinical care and to the on-going process of postgraduate education.”

“ I highly recommend this course to dentists, hygienists, therapists and nurses. It is a fantastic practice builder.  It WILL set you apart from the competition in Private practice. Even if you don't want to do it yourself I would encourage (nay even fund !) one of your team to attend to learn about this excellent but sadly under used technique in practice. Richard is a great guy and its one of the best courses I ve attended in the last 20 years! “

I hope this may help you to make up your mind about attended one of the RA courses that I offer.

More testimonials 


Contact me richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk

A great testimonial if you are afraid of the dentist

 

RA Course Report 24th March 2012

Relaxing on a beautiful spring day at home in Newbury following our 29th RA course, it is time to reflect and check the feedback.

This time the one-day course was held in our new education suite and so everything was different for us and in truth, only just ready in time with plumbing still going on the day before.  

We decided to use both rooms with one set up for the interactive, didactic teaching 

and the other with a massage bed , doubling as a dental chair, for the practical demonstrations, using a mobile stand for the equipment.

I must say that on reflection, although this arrangement did work and allowed us to demonstrate the technique very nicely, talking it over with Chris, we feel that using my treatment room with a bona fide dental chair and our neat, fixed installation, is probably more akin to what delegates would be used to.  In that respect, as well as others, it differentiates our offering from that which SAAD are able to provide.

So for future courses, we will revert to using my treatment room for the practical demonstrations, including the one with a patient, which will still be patched through to the new seminar room via a-v links.

For me, one of the highlights of these demonstrations is when I offer the patient the opportunity to speak unscripted to the delegates . They only have a few seconds to say yes or no and invariably ( so far) accept the invitation.

This allows the patient to say how they felt about the experience immediately afterwards and also for the delegates to fully appreciate both the effectiveness of technique and just how rapidly the patient recovers and how lucid they are within, a few minutes of " switching off" the nitrous
oxide.

Feedback Results

We had 9 delegates. 6 dentists and 3 dental nurses.
3 dentists from different practices in Ireland and 2 from Leeds with 2 of their dental nurses.
None of these have used sedation or have seen patients treated under conscious sedation.
Finally, 1 GDP and his nurse from Hereford, who is experienced in IV sedation and had tried but gave up on RA some years ago.

Of the 9, 5 chose to give additional comments: Here they are, warts and all, in no particular order.
 

1) "The course was very informative, interesting and fun. Looking forward to practicing it"
 

2) "Thank you very much for an extremely informative day"
 

3) Please do not use yellow or light colour on the slides which are to be printed as it doesn't show up"
( My sincere apologies to any delegate whose handout was unclear, we did have some printing issues beforehand and I will of course be sending better copies to any delegate who requires it)
 

4) "Really enjoyable course. Enjoyed both the theoretical part and the hands-on element. Dr. Charon makes RA seem very straightforward. Chris and the other nurses were very kind also.
 

5) I was very impressed with what I felt was a unique course, small group size and 'special interest' experience from Richard, Chris and the team. I would and shall gladly recommend to colleagues interested in R.A.

Feedback scores:

Venue Excellent, 2: v .good 7 (Need to improve central heating. Too cool at the start and a tad warm by the end of the day)
Relevance: Excellent 8, v. Good 1
Audio-Visual: Excellent 5, v. Good 4 ( a fair reflection. We had a couple of minor glitches)
Speaker: Excellent:8 v. Good 1

So room for improvement on the audiovisuals. A few of the 490 slides to be edited. I'll be seeking further clarity on this from the delegates.

Summative assessment results

 All delegates completed a short MCQ by way of a summative assessment of the day's teaching.

7 delegates scored 83%
1 delegate scored 91%
1 delegate scored 100%

So all in all a pretty successful day's learning and vCPD and very helpful feedback too.

The next course is on May 12th, in Newbury. There has been much interest already. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, so if you are interested, please e-mail me (richard@the-ra-coach.co.) to request more information for course No. 30 in the series.

and finally via e-mail:

" Hi Richard

I just want to thank you, Chris and the rest of your team for a great course last Saturday. It was hugely informative and has greatly increased my confidence and enthusiasm for using RA.

Kind regards 

Lotte"

 

Education Facility is Almost Ready

Our new self-contained education facility, adjacent to Richard Charon at Newbury Smilemakers Dental practice, in Newbury, is close to completion. There are 2 rooms. The seminar room can hold 14-16 people with a projector & screen. The other is an ante-room, which could double for a smaller breakout or parallel group of 6-8 people.

Pictures will follow soon

The Dentistry Show 2012

"You and your Anxious Patients (Inhalation Sedation,         
   Scope of Practice and you)"

Last Friday (2nd March 2012) I presented to the Dental Hygienists and Dental Therapists Symposium as part of The Dentistry Show, at the NEC.
Only others can say how my presentation went  but I didn't dry up, stumble over the stage or otherwise make an idiot of myself,  so that was a good start.

My thanks to Mhari Coxon, Dental Hygienist extraordinaire, for the invitation to speak. I very much enjoyed the experience and was very pleased that I had an audience of close to 100. It was also flattering that a dentist traveled from 1200 miles from Macedonia to hear my 45 min talk and that another dentist , who has already been on one of my courses  now wishes to have additional mentoring.

So here I have gathered some tweets written during, shortly after and a few days after my presentation.

@RichardCharon saw your lecture at the dent show. Very interesting and great lecture. Fear & phobia is an area I want to learn more about.

Marie Fitt = @bengal128

@RichardCharon You're welcome, very much enjoyed your lecture @ The Dentistry Show :-)

@RachaelEngland

@OnlineDentalCPD & Sedation experienced RDN with CDNS can mentor and certify GDP competence, If I understood correctly. Will check this.

Retweeted by Emma Male

@richardcharon Any time - if anyone needs a good RA coach, we know who to recommend :)

Missed @richardcharon - You & your Anxious Patients? Come to stand N50 & find how how you can catch up using the #icpdplayer! #dentistryshow

@RichardCharon 'fear is logical and natural. Anxiety may be illogical. Phobia is irrational' - watch this talk again with #icpdplayer

@richardcharon thank you so much for an inspiring talk on helping nervous patients....

&

#DENTISTRYSHOW newsflash. Never mind zingy white teeth come and hear the amazing @richardcharon share how you can help your nervous patients

@karenthedentist

yfrog.com/esgvkwvj the amazing @richardcharon speaking at Dentistry Show

from @Markoborn

Watch this space for future developments!

Richard Charon

RA Course for Sat 21st. Jan update

Audio-visual wiring being re-routed at Precision Dental Studio,
PowerPoint checked, camcorder checked, A-V connections checked.
RA equipment checked, food ordered, register and CPD certificates printed etc.
Ready to roll, setting up next Friday afternoon for Saturday's course. Delegates from Plymouth, Ireland, Manchester, Leamington Spa, Latvia, Estonia and Gerrard's Cross. Experience ranges from zero to very! Should be excellent.

Facial Aesthetics - A New Avenue?

©

Facial Aesthetics - A New Avenue?

I received the following Message from Dr. Peter Mounce at The Smile Team about 2 years ago, which shows great promise for using RA in Facial Aesthetic work undertaken by dentists. See how he uses this in his Website markeitng introduction

"We are all well and getting into RA.

Several cases completed now with good to excellent results.

2 mobile machines in operation working well with one portable scavenger unit - not clashed on usage yet.

Most remarkable cases to date :
 
20 external facial injections of Restylane without dental anaesthesia (no infra orbital and mental blocks) just 60:40 RA and accepted well by patients who reported 1-2 on pain scale of 1-10
and who where fully functioning at the conclusion - no 4 hr local to wear off!

Vast improvement....

Our best wishes to you and your team from the Smile Team and me. "

If this aspect of using RA is of interest to you , please contact me


richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk

Venue for 21st Jan 2012. Update News

6 working days into our education suite refurbishments and it is now clear that the new venue will not be completed in time for Jan 21st. This being the case the venue will be Precision Dental Studio, Rivermead, off Piper's Lane, Thatcham, Berks. RG19 4EP, where will have use of both their Gold and Platinum rooms and their surgery too.

This is a dedicated education suite too, which we have used three times before very successfully.





For those attending, please ensure you arrive by 8.45am for coffee and registration.

 Please get in touch if you have any queries.
richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk

RA course March 2012

Decision made. The next available RA course will be in Newbury on 24th March 2012, 3 weeks after my appearance at The Dentistry Show. I know that some of you who have shown an interest will have been awaiting this announcement. Please let me know if this date is suitable for you.
Please e-mail richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk or call 01635 47757

Messages from Dental Masters

Messages from Dental Masters (Mastering the Secrets of Successful Dental Practice) is the title of a new book.  It is a compilation of thoughts, advice and insights aimed at dentists and written mainly by UK dentists but also others deeply involved in and with great expertise in the world of dentistry in the UK and Ireland.  These include Business coaches and advisers specialising in advising dentists in the business of running dental practices. Many of these insights would apply to any entrepreneur or SME owner or director.

The book is the brain-child of and was compiled by Dr. Stephen Hudson, a highly organised dentist, a thought leader and not just on matters of dentistry but on wider matters of global politics and finance.

Another of his books is Choose your own Reality

Stephen writes a blog for dentists- not about teeth but about the wider issues surrounding being a dentist in today's world.

Back to Messages from Dental Masters.  Stephen has approached a group of people from the UK dental world, whose opinions he values, for a wide variety of reasons and asked each to contribute a short chapter on the subject of mastering the secrets of successful dental practice.

Stephen has known a little about me for about 10 years and in particular about the coursers I run.

I teach other dentists and dental professionals about the "Happy Air" technique for helping people, anxious about dental treatment, to overcome their anxiety, so that they can attend for the dental care or treatment they need and want.

So it is with a feeling of both humility and yes, pride, that I found myself included in Stephen's choice of "Dental Masters" and so have written a chapter , now published in this new book. 

Here is the  list of the other contributors .

My chapter,  "How Inhalation Sedation might improve your working life" espouses the idea that by having a simple and non-invasive tool, to help a large proportion of those with dental anxiety. It is based on my own experience over 33 years.  People suffering from fear, anxiety and indeed phobia are part of the everyday challenge of every dentist.  The difficulties and indeed for some dentists, the stress that this challenge causes them, may be greatly reduced if they are able to offer this technique.  A win-win for all concerned.

Mine is one of the few chapters dealing with day to day clinical dentistry. The rest are more to do with work-life balance, keeping professional life in perspective and ways and means of balancing and getting right the multiplicity of roles and tasks that a dentist has to deal with. Not always a straightforward task.

My thanks to Stephen for giving me the opportunity to reach out to more dentists and thereby, potentially at least, to help many more people anxious about dentistry than I could ever possibly do myself.

Part of the proceeds from this book will go to charitable purposes. In fact 40% of all profits will be split equally between the BDA Benevolent fund and the Dentists Health Support Trust. Both are worthy causes, and vital in today’s economic environment.

You can order your copy of the paperback or e-book here.

Richard Charon