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"

 

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.

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

A new venue

I am delighted to announce that having secured the lease to premises immediately adjacent to my practice this month, I am planning to develop a larger seminar suite for my hands-on RA courses,

I expect to be able to accommodate a maximum of 16 people. More news will appear when the premises have been fitted out by the end of January 2012

Inhalation Sedation. Another little success

Vicki is my son's partner.
She came to me as a patient about 2 years ago. She was very fearful though not phobic. Here is her story,

Since then she has had several visits mainly using RA but more recently she has not always needed it.
Today she came for a minor filling which needed local anaesthetic (Using the Wand).

I said "Are you OK without the happy air for this" , she said "yes".
Then, as I prepared for the Wand, she suddenly said , "Actually I know I said I'd be brave but I'm getting panicky- can I gave the happy air after all"

"No problem" said I. Within 2 minutes she was sedated and I continued without so much as a hiccup.
10 minutes later the filling was finished ( it was a quick one)  and 3 minutes later she was leaving the dental chair ready to go back to taking care of my grandson!

There is no other simple sedation technique to overcome such anxiety so quickly in a non-invasive way, with no prior preparation and with such rapid return to normal, allowing patients to return to work, school or childcare. Just another reason that I love RA so much !

If you would like this easy approach to dentistry call us at Newbury Smilemakers on 01635 47757 and arrange a free initial discussion of your fears and your needs.

A new appointment for the Private VT Project

In addition to my other activities and upcoming articles to do with Inhalation Sedation, I can announce that I have been accepted onto a panel of lecturers, joining some illustrious names in UK dentistry, for the newly created Private Vocational Training project, spearheaded by Dr. Andy Lane, whose Apollonia House dental  practice is hosting my next course in Saddleworth.

My time commitment is not fully settled yet but I believe Andy has in mind that the sedation modules will be delivered to the year 2 Private VTs. 

I would envisage EVERY dentist taking up this route into private practice, would undertake RA training and mentorship through to competency certification. 

An excerpt from "The Competent Graduate" published in 2000,relating to Conscious Sedation in Dentistry states:

" 3) Defining Competence

At graduation, dentists should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of using conscious sedation techniques and should be capable of providing effective sedation for selected patients undergoing straightforward dental procedures in the primary care setting.
This means that the graduate should:

i) be able to assess a patient's need and suitability for conscious sedation and

ii) possess both the ability and confidence to apply knowledge and skills relating to inhalation sedation (using nitrous oxide and oxygen) and intravenous sedation (using midazolam)."

So this is an exciting new chapter for me.

Richard Charon

Can I get one of your votes for one of the top 20 Private Dentists Competition?

Why would you even consider it?

Well my case is a little unusual but since almost 50% of the adult population have some degree of dental anxiety, then any way practices can overcome this is a practice builder and a boon to the practitioner.

As "The RA Coach"©,  I have been responsible for helping anxious private dental patients, way beyond my own private practice. I have done this by enabling other practitioners to gain the knowledge and confidence to introduce RA as a service.

Private practitioners and sometimes their teams, from Inverness to Kent and from Galway to the Channel Islands have been attending the courses I developed since 2003. Usually based in my own private practice, though if numbers or demand dictate , either from my private dental lab's own eduction suite or from other private practices.

These include, Dr. Richard Fretwell's Guidepost practice in Morpeth, Northumberland, Dr. Anne O'Donnell's practice in Wexford, The Smile group's flagship practice in Dublin and in Nov. 2011, Andy Lane's Apollonia House in Saddleworth , near Oldham.

Now those practitioner's own anxious patients are able to accept treatment, including more advanced or ambitious plans that they might otherwise reject. So this technique is a practice builder.

The courses I have developed to teach dentists (including specialists) and all members of the dental team have brought IHS/RA potentially to tens of thousands of anxious patients.

The RA Coach© and the training I have provided will be my legacy to the profession and to all those anxious people now able to accept treatment including facial aesthetics and extensive plans they would otherwise have avoided.

Website

Facebook group page

PS I have been commissioned by Private Dentistry to write an update article on Inhalation Sedation to appear next Jan. too

Go on , vote for me. You know it makes sense!

Vote Here

July 2011: RA course futher comments

Here, three of the course delegates offer some further comments about their day's training with us in Newbury last week. The first is from a dental hygienist, the wife of a GDP practice partner, who attended with two of their dental nurses:

"Thank you Richard for your prompt reply . We all thoroughly enjoyed the course and have much food for thought. I am busy telling my husband all about it! "

The next two are from GDPs. One an experienced RA user, the other not yet practicing in the UK but I understand is working towards her GDC overseas registration exam.

Interestingly both practitioners, who do not work together and with very different backgrounds and previous experience, made almost exactly the the same comment. Can you spot it?!

" Dr.Charon, many thanks for such an interesting course and for sharing all your wide knowledge and experience about RA with us.  I had 10 years of private and hospital general experience in my own country, and the foundation knowledge of sedation from my training, but before I have done your course, I had never thought that RA was an achievable and excellent tool for the comfort of nervous patients, especially in private practices.

The course content, the facilities, and venue were excellent. You had make it simple and easy to understand. 

Thank you to the whole team, for making this day such an informative and enjoyable one.

Esperanza Salazar"

The second is copied here from a comment left on the previous blog post.

Thank you Richard for an excellent comprehensive overview of RA. As an experienced RA user, I have not had any further training since my undergraduate days, and it was most reassuring to see that you have a very similar take on the subject to myself. Interestingly, I have never considered RA as a tool for private dentistry, - you certainly have opened that door for me - many thanks - Rob Regan

July 2011: RA course report

Saturday 23rd July -  
27th Hands-on training day in Inhalation Sedation with Dr. Richard Charon in Newbury.

Another excellent course with a great group of people today in Newbury.  The day was very interactive, with lots of questions and discussion and excellent feedback (see below)

Dental professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds attended, making it a full house of 8 at my dental practice. We had one dentist working in NE London in The Community Dental Service, another soon to begin in a Manchester practice, another currently seeking her GDC entrance requirements to practice in the UK from a European country. A fourth dentist with RA experience and his dental nurse from a larger practice in Wiltshire and a Hygienist and two dental nurses from the same practice in Hampshire.

So of the eight feedback forms , three gave me an "excellent" score in all categories for

• Venue, 
• Relevance to the subject,
• Audio-visuals and 
• Speaker,

Which was generous since I had to own up to an Audio-visual glitch at the start.

Another three gave me scores of very good or excellent in all categories

One returned feedback of

• Excellent - Speaker
• Very good for A-v and Relevance
• with only a "Good" for venue. 

Which is fair enough, as my practice is not a conference hotel.
The last feedback form said

• Excellent to relevance, 
• Very good to Speaker and
• Good to Venue and Audiovisuals

Overall I am pleased with this feedback. Here are some of the comments:

" Thank you very much to the whole team for making it such an informative and comfortable day. I feel enabled to take the training I have had forward and implement it in practice."

" Having had very little experience in Inhalation Sedation, this course has certainly increased my confidence and enthusiasm in being able to start providing it. Money well spent ! For me and my patients "

"Thanks for a very informative and relaxed day. Lunch superb ! "

"Very enjoyable, informative day. Thank you"

The next date is set for September 17th and is potentially full once confirmations are received.

We are also booking for Saturday 12th November.

Tel: 01635 47757

e-mail: richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk

Inhalation Sedation curriculum for DCPs

GDC Scope of practice and Inhalation Sedation competency training for Dental Hygienists and Therapists.
It is just over 5 yrs since the GDC's Scope of Practice initiative was published, permitting Hygienists and Therapists to act as operator-sedationists in administering Inhalation sedation to overcome dental anxiety,
 
The DSTG (Dental Sedation Teachers Group) announced yesterday, at their annual symposium, held at the Maritime Museum in Liverpool, that they are to collaborate with SAAD in setting up a curriculum for the training of Hygienists and Therpists in Inhalation sedation.

This comes at the exact moment the GDC is calling for input into a root and branch review of the Scope of Practice, which will include what should be removed from the list of possible allowed tasks, as well as the possibility of adding new tasks to the list.
 
Perhaps those on the DSTG and SAAD committees already know that Inhalation Sedation for DCPs,once competency has been certified,is to be kept as part of the Scope of Practice. Perhaps they should and indeed will wait for the outcome of the review before committing resources to producing such a curriculum.

Richard Charon

Feedback comments from May 7th Teaching day

We hosted a mix of Dentists and Dental nurses, some in Private Practice others in the NHS 

including community services.

 They came from
Hull,
Reading, Berks (local to us), 
Sevenoaks, Kent and Croyden, Surrey

Here are some feedback comments

"One word; Excellent! Thank you very much"

"Learned a lot . Many thanks"

"I have been using RA for 25 years and still learnt 

a great deal from Richard. 

A very valuable day, many thanks"

"Excellent course. 

Well presented and explained, 

will definitely be providing RA in Practice"

I think these add nicely to the many other testimonials we have received. 

If you want see more here they are

25th Hands-on RA course- Great comments

Another very successful day's learning on March 26th. Our 25th Hands-on RA course. This time back at the practice in Newbury for a smaller group. We had a GDP and his RDN attending from Northern Ireland for the first time, two practitioners who work in the community service and our Dental Therapist.

The day was so interactive that we ended up being a little pushed for time at the very end, when the group completed a 10-question, multiple choice, knowledge test, to finish the day.

The simple feedback questionnaire which asks for grading on Venue, Relevance, Speaker and Audio-visuals, returned a result of 100% "Excellent" in all categories.

Here are the comments received,on the day and another received on reflection:

"Super Patient AND Practitioner centred course. Will affect + direct mu professional practice for years to come. Lecture notes are excellent. 

Thanks Richard and Chris

Paul Cochrane"

"Learned so much today. Very interesting. Thanks Chris and Richard and all the team"

"A very thorough course- answered all of my questions + worries with the help of visual aids and practical sessions. Thank you."

"Very informative

All Q's anwered

Lots of Practical/hands-on

Lots of breaks/ variety so not bored"

"Really enjoyed the day - Thank you"

and this one received two days later

"Dear Richard

Many thanks to you and Chris again - I have been inspired.Can't forget the video of the little girl having her premolars out and not moving a muscle."

If you are considering attending one of these one-day training courses, then perhaps these comments and those below will help you make up your mind.

Please contact me now to book for May 7th 2011 or call for any further details 01635 47757.

Remember your nurse should come too unless she has already received training.

Here are a few more details plus more wonderful testimonials in my brochure:

 Richard Charon

RADCT

What is RADCT? RA Dental Competency Training. I am excited to announce our new competency training course in RA /IS for Therapists and Hygienist. More information here. Please like and pass this forward to DCP friends and contacts and be sure to join my facebook page for updates

Competency in Inhalation Sedation

Announcing a brand new course for

Dental Therapists and Hygienists for 2012.

Ease your clinical burden when treating 
dentally anxious patients

Competency in Inhalation Sedation

to comply with GDC Scope of Practice.

Help your anxious patients and reduce your own stress.

Fulfill you PDP and CPD requirements with
this important anxiety management
and for those in private practice
a potentially revenue generating technique.

This closely tutored course can be compared in
educational structure to the DCP radiography course.

Commencing January 2012

Venue: Newbury, Berkshire

20% discount for on-line applicants

registering before August 1st 2011

This course will not be advertised in the dental press until June 2011

Places will be limited to 20 candidates.

Tutors, Course Assessors and Competency Certification

This competency certification course has been devised by and will be delivered by Dr.Richard Charon BDS and Christine Charon RDN Cert Dent. Sed. Nursing

Richard Charon is one of the UKs most experienced
“RA” practitioners and teachers.

Richard has been an “RA” sedation practitioner for 35 years
and is on the mentors list for DSTG and SAAD.

Richard and Chris have delivered 25 full-day workshops

with excellent learner feedback since 2003.

Dental teams from all over the UK and Ireland

have testified to the quality of his teaching in Inhalation Sedation ( R.A.)

from Private and NHS Practice

 as well as the Community Dental Service.

Chris Charon trained at the Manchester Dental Hospital and had many years experience in sedation dentistry, using standard techniques and assists in running

the one-day hands-on training workshops in Newbury

Between them they have managed and treated over
8000 Inhalation Sedation cases.

Please note that SAAD are not currently providing
competency certification training.

For more information and to register your interest: 
e-mail richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk

 More background information on our RA courses

Keep up to date with developments on my RA facebook group

RA course Animoto

I hope you enjoy this latest promotional animoto video for my RA courses.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Inhalation Sedation Course November 2010

We had a full house attending our Hands-on Inhalation Sedation / RA course at Precision Dental Studio's Education Suite in Thatcham, near Newbury, on Saturday 6th November. 

My warm thanks to the following, whose generosity and help made the day possible.

Janet Pickles of RA Medical Services for the free loan of a mobile stand and RA mixing head to enable me to run the course at this venue

Precision Dental Studio for their excellent facility and making available the wonderful Maurice to lay in the Cat5 cabling between the lecture/presentation room and the surgery at the other end of the building requiring much clambering about in the roof space and for looking after us on the day. Not bad for 70+ !

Mark Chapman of Velopex for their generous and free loan of the Aseptico mobile dental chair for demonstrations.

Dhru Shah of Dentinaltubules.com for providing delegates with the tiniest USB MP3 players I've ever seen.

Dan Oatway of Network Newbury for help and cabling/connection solutions for the audio-visuals.

Last but not least a big thanks to my wife Chris and the team for their assistance on the day, arranging the lunch and generally supporting me.

I will follow this up with some testimonials/comments very soon but in the meantime, they say a picture paints a thousand words , so here are several thousand to give you a flavour of the day .....

The lecture session starts the day

 The practical demonstration begins

Paying close attention to the details

Passing on 35 years of accumulated knowledge
   

At the end of the day ( there's always one!!)

Ruth Lovering, Dental Hygienist's article

Thanks to Ruth Lovering, Dental Hygienist, for her article on the RA course she attended with us in Newbury, in February 2010.

RA course Nebwury Feb 6th 2010

I am just recovering from yesterday's Hands-on RA course in Newbury. A diverse and wonderful bunch of people attended from all over the UK.  From Inverness, Dave and Barbera Naisby, something  of a celebrity couple in the world of dental practice marketing and just a 75 min flight to Bristol then a 1 hour drive away from  Newbury.

We also had Peter Winter-Moore and his team from the Midlands. He has been threatening to attend the course for about 3 years now and finally made it yesterday and Ruth Lovering, a Dental Therapist from Croydon attended too. We had a fantastic day of sharing knowledge and interactivity. I will blog some of the comments and feedback soon.

Here we all are at the lunch break in Prezzos, just a step away from my practice, built in the town's old library and retaining many of its old features. It just adds some extra colour to the day and a chance for more discussion over lunch.